#we left Ireena at the church in Vallaki

[profmj]

We're (hopefully) going to be wrapping up the masquerade at Castle Ravenloft tomorrow night. Let's see if we all make it out alive.

[mxvanrichten]

Van Richten's Reflection on Silas.

(Written by my partner/our DM) (I have cried like 10 times)

I do not recall anything of merit or praise about Silas upon first meeting.  I was busy with my plans whilst disguised as the “performer” Rictavio. I think I was eating dinner for the evening at The Blue Water Inn before retiring to my room upstairs that I had held for a few weeks at that point.  I was not up for conversation but feigned interest as the flamboyant corpse I was pretending to be. They spilled their activities as do-goods, carting the red-haired woman from Barovia Village to the Church.  I didn’t care to remember anything about them, as they were as good as dead, obviously brought here by the Mists of the land for the master of the realm to toy with. I had a weapon to assemble covertly. I knew there were agents of Strahd about the town of Vallaki.

After a couple of weeks of them causing ripples around town, they settled into the Inn as regular guests, like myself, so they were far too annoying and present to continue to ignore. Silas, who I suspected of being a sentient corpse due to his complexion, made clumsy passes at Rictavio.  I apparently had not played up the irritating aspects of the thief whose soul I wore enough. 

Rumors of somebody that could draw Strahd out in Krezk made it so I was held to being transport via my wagon for these now bolder do-goods.  An annoying detour to a winery they had ingratiated themselves with later and we would our collective group in Krezk.  The bold martial woman, Brandy, had been bitten by a lycanthrope on the journey.  I had possible cures at my tower hideout, but I did not want that location divulged at that time.  The decidedly-skin-crawling Abbot was to help her out.  Luckily, that was the man I was there to see, as he had been flesh-sculpting a “woman” that he would have had be a substitute for his reincarnated entitlement.  Laughable, the gaul of the glass-eyed creature.  I hid and attempted to test my new weapon prototype on the devil himself along with his chamberlain as this current crop of adventurers battled it out with raised corpses of what their future held.  Shockingly, they did not die.  Upon leaving Krezk, I was happy this group shared my disinterest in helping the simpleton populace of the village.  Surely they could scare off or kill some werewolves?  I suppose the “right” thing to do would have been to help the citizens, but I was relieved I didn’t have to abandon my walking, killing insurance for the long trip back to Vallaki. 

As the Festival of the Blazing Sun drew closer, I had info from Ez that Strahd would move on the Church to cease Ireena, his current prized pig, I had discovered.  I had taxed myself to finish the oversized crossbow for blessed water & sodium arrows; the mask I wore slipped as Silas got on my last nerve the night before the event.  His kindness had been pleasant on occasion before, but not at that moment. I failed to wound Ireena to draw the vampire to a trap at the Church, distracted by Silas’ Sendings.  The group’s fighting in the burning building, which matched much of Vallaki at that point, delayed Strahd, but not enough.  I gave up the disguise & revealed myself to the gang of injured adventurers, and left town with them for the tower.  

The days in the tower were removed from the bustle of Vallaki, and I think back on that time more fondly than it was to me at the time.  Small acts of kindness on Silas' part lended to me seeing him more like-minded to myself than I originally conceived.  A blanket over my shoulders in the morning I thought to be from my pupil Ez was Silas, I later found out.

Silas returned from the swamp ruins changed; tainted.  My arcane detentions registered half-alarms about him.  It made me sad, truly, to have to shrink away for protection.  I would later find out it was a Dark Vestige that had raised Silas from death for a pact to be drawn. Still, Silas was not slowing down in his and his ilk’s objectives, which I found to be a good quality.

It was some weeks later, after much tracking of a mystery beast in the woods north of Lake Zarovich, when I saw Silas again.  He was amid efforts to “rebuild the wall and make Vallaki great again” as the workers they were protecting kept saying.  The “beast” was a crazed mage Strahd broke before, but once again this troupe succeeded in taming the animal, who gave us a pocket dimension of sorts to rest in.  That morning, I read a confessional from Silas, on feelings he harbored for me.

For.  Me.

The emotion that won out in the whirlwind was my old stand-by: anger.  I chided Silas for useless feelings amid dangerous times.  Ez, cool headed, coerced an apology to him out of me.  I was glad to give it, but I would have rather died than express the gratitude I had for affection for me.  It was alien and terrifying.  I sat with it for some time.  To put the lame specter of emotion out of its misery, limping along as it was?

Where words failed, gifts of helping items, divulged information and magical protections were how I nursed my ability to care for someone in a positive way.

Our trip to, and stay in, the Amber Temple was cursed, truly, with Silas’ spiritual leech, named Sykane, reared his head and wishes.  I attempted horribly to offer comfort to him, though it came out as partial insults to the idiot mage Kasimir, who was traveling with us for some ignorant reason.  I kept my research on how to possibly sever Silas from his leech to myself, as futile as it was and as telling as my motivations would have been.

A last hurrah of sorts in the Mad Mage’s home broke the dam for me.  I returned affection and was given more.  Unprecedented for this rotted soul.  Though I stated Silas’ use and my praise of that, I failed in mentioning the portion of use he was to my mangled heart.  It felt relieving for it to be in the open.  A weight lifted, in the last moments before Ravenloft and death.  My arcane explosive was growing less and less a final and glorious “out” for me.  I had come to Barovia to die.  To keep busy and go in a blaze loud enough to distract me from the echo inside me, hollow as I was. A mutual magical shield against death between us was…welcome.

Welcome and unwelcome.  What use do the damned have for affection? 

As it turns out, I would not know, for I was…am not damned.  The castle was ruined, Strahd struck down, and the dark power behind him uprooted and crushed.  Unbelievable. To this day, unbelievable.  I have happiness most days now, whether it’s in a repurposed haunt in Vallaki (now in the realm of Fearun) or stocked personal library in Waterdeep, a coastal bastion of proper civilization.  I owe that happiness to Silas. His apt mind and boundless ability to give selflessly.  His respectable command of magic and his willingness to imagine me underneath the shit and dirt around my soul.  To laugh in a public place and be okay with that vulnerability is something I never thought I would do again.

I now know indeed that I love the cleric of Kelemvor, liberator of Barovia, and archaeologist of my long-buried self, Silas Xavier.  Our official joining is on the horizon.  So much LIFE is present for me now.  I am haunted still, but every day spent in this existence of content puts distance between me and those dark decades.

[lycantripuwu]

Session updates!!

We killed the night hag coven, Ezmerelda found Van Richten, we had a party at the vistani camp, romance and we prevented an undead attack on Vallaki.

-So after being harrassed in the woods by the night hags, we brought Ez to Van Richten and safe to say he is NOT happy with Mirre. -Van Richten was able to save Myrtle's from Anastrasya's experiment and her declining health with a greater restoration. He, Mirre and Ez had a little monster hunter group investigation of this poor little girl.

-They found marks carved into Myrtles back, three connecting symbols, one in abyssal, one in infernal and one symbol Mirre recognized from his hunters bane ritual. The three determined Anastrasya is trying to make the perfect child spawn to be a mother to.

-The only way Anastrsya could have gotten this information about the Hunter's bane is through Mirre's mentor, who we now know for sure was killed by her. Mirre has his target.

-Ez stays back with Richten, after Mirre invites her to the Vistani party and gives her a little jewelry piece to put in her hair. Which she gives him a kiss on the cheek and puts it in her hair almost immediately.

-We get back to the church to find Strahd standing outside it unable to get in because of the barrier. Mirre asks her to return Reek(Who was taken by Anastrasya and is at Ravenloft.)

-Strahd asks him if he is accusing her wife of breaking the law(Theft of the orphans), Which Mirre says yes. Amused, Strahd says she will set up a court case after the dinner and ball. She then leaves after eyeing Rhil.

-we informed Ireena what all happened while we were gone and we rest.

-Victor contacts Mirre with sending saying he had a plan to get Stella out of the Etheral plane. But we need to get a heartstone from the night hags in order to complete the ritual.

-The party plans their attack, Fiona Wachter agrees to help us knowing its a chance to save Stella. She has a method in trapping the hags on the material plane so we can swoop in and finish the hags.

-Mirre invites Ez along. Mirre, Rhil, Jace, Ez, Victor and Fiona move out to enact their attack.

-We make it to the windmill and set up the trapping circle after Mirre, Ez and Majesto sneak into the windmill to steal the contract with the hags true names on it. They are successful!

-a huge fight happens! Victor is invisible for most the fight. lots of back and forth with Rhil chasing Morgantha around in her umbral state(A gift from Pandoryum)

-The hags transform into their "Nightmare forms" and one shot Mirre, Jace and Ez. Ez nearly dies in the jaws of one of them and Mirre is able to get back up with a nat 20 and get to her in time. Rhil is able to stay up and keep Jace alive.

-The hags realize they cant escape into the ethereal plane and Victor counter spells their lair action dispel magic, they attempt to bargin with the party with "ancient knowledge"

-Mirre notices they are all linked, and have the same health pool and declines them, telling the party to hit them hard with everything they have left.

-We win with Ez getting the final shot on Morgantha.

-Rhil and Jace quickly gather the heart stones and whatever else they can from the windmill.

-Ez ran over to Mirre and hugged him, Mirre leaned down and kissed her in response. She kissed him back!!

-we burnt down the windmill with Mirre's hellhounds and got the hell out of there.

-Victor informed us he would need time to set up the ritual with Fiona's help in order to jump into the ethereal plane save Stella.

-We head off to the vistani party to celebrate our victory!

[huntedsmark]

I'm really curious about what Roma has going on with Osybus, how much he knows, how much you know... I am very eye emoji about it in general. Especially the significance of the increasingly? invisible limbs? A rad looking effect to be sure, but also hmmmmmm. (Also I saw it was your birthday recently! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!)

WAH HELLO!!!!!!!! THANK U YES IT WAS (SPINNING HEARTS EMOJI) ROMA’S THING WITH OSYBUS IS A REALLY DEEP VEIN (I personally like it a lot because it naturally interacts really closely with many of Roma’s deepest fears, desires, coping mechanisms, and personal beliefs, and as a narrative device and mechanical plaything I couldn’t have asked for anything better) 

As a general ask “what’s roma’s thing with osybus?” is one of the most pandora’s box-y things you could’ve asked, so I hope you don’t mind if this is a bit wordy and like, ALL over the place.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

Fast answer first: We (OOC party and IC pcs) believe that Osybus originally was part of I think Sessinek, or at least a larger being, and that he’s connected to the amber temple in some way. We also think that we released Osybus when Roma shattered one of the artifacts at the death house, but that’s a theory. Roma also has no idea how Deep he is in with Osybus and enters any transactional interaction with the idea that it may be his last, but I know he’s a little over halfway to being so far gone my DM takes him as an NPC. 

GENERAL BACKSTORY, Osybus is the headfriend (I don’t know the term for it but we just call them headfriends) Roma contracted with during the Feast in Vallaki. We were literally fighting for our lives in front of the church of St. Andral and things were looking pretty grim; a lot of the party was either fully missing or really badly injured, and Strahd was about to land a coup de grace by luring Ireena outside of the safety of the church via killing the party member she was in love with, our druid healer. In a last ditch effort, Roma used his turn to beg Strahd to make a deal with them to spare them, but Strahd very coldly refused because “there is nothing you could give me I would want,” and Roma was devastated. 

It was after that second Osybus contacted Roma in his mind, that he was Osybus the Immortal and that he could save them. Roma initially asked if he could save the whole party but Osybus said that was beyond his power, and that Roma could only choose one person for this gift. Roma was torn, so he decided to ask Osybus what Strahd wanted the most. 

“The girl.” Osybus answered. 

“Then he can’t have her.” Roma replied. “I pick Ireena.” And then Osybus killed Ireena!!! (Ireena was fine tho, and then not, and then worse, etc etc you know how Barovia is) 

Roma’s relationship with Osybus has morphed over time, starting from gratefully deferential due to Osybus “helping” Roma out so often and also due to Roma not having anyone he could turn to for assistance or companionship for a stint of time, to eventually pettily and one-sidedly antagonistic on Roma’s end due to VR’s warnings and some subsequent bad deals. 

That being said, despite it all Osybus is usually the one Roma turns to whenever he feels trapped and cornered, because Osybus’ power to grant wishes is often Roma’s only ripcord in situations where the options left to him are usually death or worse. Osybus has also been nothing but obliging and polite to Roma (though he has shades of sounding like, possessive), which makes interactions all the more sticky since Osybus has such a strong hold over him. 

The ghost limbs are one of the penalties from wishes from Osybus! Roma usually takes some sort of penalty whenever he makes a wish, and since I had some troubles with the original way Osybus’ penalties manifested (rot and decay) my DM kindly changed it to make his limbs translucent, with increasing transparency the more wishes Roma makes. He also has trouble leveraging their strength now that they're translucent and doesn’t have a shadow anymore! 

One of the last things to know about Roma is for a long time, he didn’t consider himself to have many strengths, but one he Did have was a VERY solid sense of self. He understood what he himself wanted, innately and always, and was really decisive about wholeheartedly pursuing whatever he believed was right (even if he was Really Not.) 

More recently, Roma also has begun to realize he has a lot more to gain in the world now that VR is back in the picture, and wants to spend whatever time VR has left to just, hang out with VR. When the adventure in Barovia ends, the first (and honestly, only) thing Roma wants to do is visit Van Richten’s greenhouse. He wants it more than anything in the whole wide world!! 

However, both of these things are now in jeopardy, since Roma is now So deep in Osybus’ penalty shootout with already so little to forfeit, that Osybus has started to change parts of Roma’s desires and personality as payment. And Roma is KEENLY aware of the changes and dissonance and the payments happening, but because they feel “natural” to his personality he struggles to disobey. 

Roma’s current dilemma is now--in extremely high stress, high danger situations-- having to choose between dying having never experience The Thing He Wants More Than Anything, or dealing with Osybus to survive to the end but risk being altered so much that the original reasons he made the deals for no longer matter. Real die a hero or live to be the villain type nonsense. 

[xmoriartea]

Sometimes killing an aboleth you didn’t know existed in a polluted lake was the highlight of your day. Other times you drag your butt out of said lake and immediately get news of fratricide and have to kill some family friends, so that sort of takes priority in the highlight reel. At least when you’re Arabelle.

Welcome to Barovia, everything’s just fine here.

Nothing like a little trauma to liven up the game. While trying to help the gal cope with that back in town, Tanner discovered something fascinating about the village’s church and we had to go hunt down some bones and deal with our first vampires! RIP that coffin maker though, the vampires didn’t agree with my whole “leave him for later” bit.

But we managed to chase down the vampires after they fled into the village and, with some... unique problem solving, got the holy bones back to their bed, thus eliminating the last standing vampires in the church!

(NGL, campaign is over and done with and this is still one of my favorite bullshit moments from that game)

But rather than stick around too long (people were starting to pay us Too Much attention after all that) we decided to bounce out the village and head back to Barovia Village to pick up some weird siblings we’d been chatting with prior. On the way, we dropped Arabelle and Mina off at Tser Pool to chat with Madam Eva so Arabelle could do some seer training? Vague, but so are seers. We’d pick them up on the loop back with the siblings.

Tanner and Alkali then returned to the village, spent the night at the inn, and... made choices.

But it’s fine. He made himself body molding armor that seeped into his skin with the bits he kept for himself. Totally normal team bonding guys. But at least Alkali's venomous now.

They picked up Ismark and Ireena, buried their father, made a promise to a priest about saving his vampiric son potentially, and then started a... campaign+ long obsession. See, Alkali asked for divine guidance on how to cure a vampire and... she got determined. Kill a vampire and resurrect it and the curse would be undone. Easy game for a death cleric. She’d just need to go... level grind some monsters in the valley and get back to Doru later.

But it’s fine, it’s fine. We got the siblings to Vallaki, left them safely at the church, and after Arabelle started getting dream-hunted by her uncle, we decided we’d have to go have some family counseling. And by that I do mean aid her in avenging her father’s death by taking out a servant of Strahd’s. 

Which. Totally wouldn’t piss of Strahd right? Right?

Who could have foreseen the consequences of these actions?

BUT we got out, got away, and picked up an earless elf who seemed to know somethings about these amber doors we were looking for. So. One week in Barovia, at like LEVEL FUCKING SEVEN we decided to go to the Amber Temple.

(Knowing what I know now, I want to throw bricks at us.)

Too many fire creatures, fox bastards, and amber golems later, we managed to stumble on a room of vampire spawn ex-adventurers which went well...

...until it didn’t...

But it’s fine, it’s fine. Who needs all that blood? We put them down, Alkali nabbed a journal off the body of the vampiric triton, and we continued on our way. All the while encountering weird knowledge creatures, tombs of amber with vicious deals, and our earless elf bastard Kasimir who Alkali quickly wanted to make suffer. See they didn’t get along to begin with.... but when she found out HE was responsible for the death of the sister he was trying to rez... she got a little feisty. 

To the point she spitefully divined with her goddess to figure out his dead sister was fucking with him, but he refused to listen to the little sea hag and stormed away from the Amber Temple to save his sister himself.

I’m sure that will be fine with no repercussions now that he made some DEVIL PACT and looks like a corpse himself.

And certainly no more repercussions than TANNER ALSO MAKING A DEVIL PACT IN THIS HELL and acquiring two hellhounds.

But at least we found the Sun Sword and armed our good good rogue/wizard Arabelle with it? 

Certainly helpful after we leave the Temple and then casually break bread and wine with these HuNtErS on the road who are totally not werewolves. Yes, we were stupid. Yes, we did kill them.

And then headed on down to a winery with a hell of a lot of ravens and a druid infestation. We managed to chill with them for the night before going off to deal with their druid problem which totally led to another absolutely normal and safe encounter with the lord of the land.

Totally normal.

Said teammate might have been the sea elf Mina whom Alkali was... sort of... becoming... friends... with?? Weird. No. Never.

Unless?  ┬┴┬┴┤ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)├┬┴┬  

But the vampire hunting train never stops because we had a fortress to go find which led us to the very not at all haunted doors of Argynvaustholt where we found an EXTREMELY lost elf who’d been looking for Arabelle for -checks watch- over a week and met some chill ghosts.

We also found out there was a skull SOMEWHERE we needed to return to the castle to get the dead dragon’s blessing. Cause that’s not vague at all. From our new ghost friends we found out the dragon was killed by Strahd so likely he or one of his supporters in the valley had the skull and isn’t that just WONDERFUL.

Unfortunately, the high of that little success with the ghosts was short lived because we returned to Arabelle’s old camp, hoping to commune with some of the dusk elves there still, only to find out every remaining elf had been murdered and the remains of their homes and the camp set ablaze... 

So we took Savid with us after burying his father, headed back to Vallaki, and managed to stumble our way into a wounded fire genasi lad named Rowan who told us some Shit Had Gone Down in the village while we were gone.

Turns out a noble woman we briefly met, Lady Wachter, had moved to overthrow the government, but support had sOMEHOW been in Ismark’s favor as another Burgomaster heir in the all out fucking scuffle of Vallakian politics. So now Ismark was the new shiny Burgomaster with a council of Vallakians (Lady Wachter, the innkeeper who was totally not a wereraven, and a questionably divine artificer noblewoman named Kalina Frostwhisper) supporting him.

So things were going well?? We made moves to figure out where the fuck that left us in all of this (still considered heroes for killing those vampires, so that’s good) and went about town to PREPARE I GUESS for a ball that was happening in the next day or so? To celebrate the new burgomaster aND the heroes of the town??

But in the process we met the world’s best apothecary

It was a potion sales pitch but Faraga please, that’s terrifying. 

But hey, we had a ball hosted by a Strahd supporter to go to. So. Every little bit would help, right?

[sylseal]

TONIGHT ON WTF IN COS

-Oh hey Majesto is a thing. He’s just sorta with Coco now. -Inmis and Coco back and forth about the Abbott, and why he was here. -The Abbott tried and failed to kill Strahd -Aisling is a menace as Majesto -Flare, love of my life, got Detect Thoughts, and immediately does it to Esmerelda -Hey Esmerelda is maybe going to try and axe Ophelia. -Flare checks out Majesto’s mind, turns out Majesto is just a little guy(tm) -Flare goes into Ophelia’s CYOA mind next. -Ophelia’s shit is so heavy, church atop a hill ahead and a forest behind her that holds screaming within because ya know. -Flare goes into the forest and sees The Abbott telling Ophelia that the land can’t change, Esmerelda threatening Ophelia, Strahd promising safety, and Ophelia saying she can’t change. -There is no longer a church (maybe, we end up going back there anyways in a minute). There is only castle ravenloft. Fuck. -Ophelia is crawling towards it, trying to stand, eyes black, glowing pupils, vampire teefs out, -Flare is compelled by herself to go to the church anyways -Ophelia on her knees in grey shift in front of the altar, hoarse voice, speaking celestial. -Stained Glass windows with emblems of Lathander -Behind the altar there are stained glass murals. The left is Ireena. The middle is Luce. The right is fucking Strahd I hate this agony. -Ophelia self-doubt and thoughts and hatred and also her desires and wants and she’s just a little guy (tm) -Ophelia whispers, in common, “Please, just let me be enough.” -Flare goes through a door into a room, large, empty, no furniture, ophelia in a secondhand dress and she plays the cello with bleeding fingies. -Strahd walks in. Introduces herself. -This is when Ophelia first meets Strahd in Bride Era. Fuckity fuck fuck. Kisses Ophelia’s hand.

-We get ambushed by gaslight strahd & the wives, and Esmerelda immediately turns against Ophelia, as does Inmis (we learn later they got mind controlled by the wives but for the moment good god). fuck. -Coco casts darkness where Ophelia is standing, to keep people from going after Ophelia any further. While she’s in there, Coco asks her a question that is very important and will become a surprise tool that will help us later. - Rahadick shows up and fucking stabs Coco, getting her instantly to 1 HP with an attack. Kregga tries to defend her by going on the offensive, while Flare tries to hypnotic pattern. Manages to get Esmerelda. Doesn’t get Rahadin. -Strahd gets Ophelia away from the party with the assistance of Ophelia’s two undead former party members, and teleports Ireena to herself with some bullshit spell. -Hey so then Zelma shows up. -STRAHD TURNED ZELMA SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY G O D. -Turns out this church we’re at is where Ophelia and Strahd got fucking married. -”I knew you were chosen for something, just not in what way,” -Zelma. FUCK. -IREENA ACTION SURGE TO ATTACK STRAHD A WHOLE BUNCH!!! -IREENA BITES STRAHD IN THE FUCKING NECK

-The whole time, Coco can do nothing, standing there, trying not to bleed to death as she watches her friend get dragged away from her and everything start falling to pieces. -Ophelia gets talked into coming with Strahd because the quartz bf and the other bf showed up, alongside Strahd promising she could see Luce...and Luce messaging her in the middle of this, saying shes excited to see Ophelia again. -Ophelia cannot look Ireena in the eyes or even say anything to her as she clings to Bucey the Horse, and literally everyone but Esmerelda, Inmis, Ireena, Coco, Flare, and Kregga are teleported out. -Coco, still fucking bleeding to death, starts beating the shit out of Esmerelda, before realizing that both Inmis and Esmerelda were mind controlled by the wives, and then she just collapses into a pile atop Esmerelda. -Coco’s checked out, she’s sobbing.

-we read an ophelia letter where she nearly left after vallaki then didn’t. Just her saying goodbye and ow my heart fucking hurtssssss.

-Anyways how was your guys’ monday evenings huh

[oh-atlas]

cos session recap – vallaki aftermath, part ii 

the gang resolves things in vallaki. and by resolves, i mean they're run out of town. training and revelations are had over the course of their week long journey to yester hill.

song of the session: the darkness has a voice by amber run

We start at the Wachter house, where the remaining house staff are frantically packing their things to leave upon word of Wachter's death. Coco gets Mephesto to bring them right to where the painting of 'Ophelia' is. It's in the room of Stella Wachter, Lady Wachter's daughter in her mid-teens (Ophelia's great great grandniece). She's sitting on the floor next to a narrow bed in the small room under an oil painting, with a cat in her lap, playing with a ball of red light. She stays quiet but lets the party look at the painting.

The painting is faded and washed out. It is a portrait of a figure seated in a chair wearing a pretty gown that isn't quite the right size for her and is posed playing the cello, who was likely posed like that for hours. Long white-gray hair, a broader, softer face than Ophelia and no musculature compared to Ophelia. She isn't making eye contact with the painter. 

Ophelia rolls a 17 on an insight check looking at the painting. Her fingers are subconsciously tapping against her leg running through the fingering of a song she used to play in church. She's confused by the uncanny resemblance and when she puts her hand out in the same position one of the hands is posed in the painting, she sees a gold band on her ring finger. When she blinks, it's gone. 

She asks Stella if she knows who the woman in the painting is. She only knows that it's one of her ancestors. "My mom put this here to remind me that I need to do more than just be my name. I need to make the family name proud." (PAIN AND SUFFERING)

Ophelia tells her that she looks quite good at spellcasting, Stella tells her and the party that her Mom usually works in the basement. Ophelia gets the sense that Stella isn't doing great, had a lot of pressure on her, and hasn't left her room in a long time. She decides to stay with Stella to break the news to her about her Mom, Flare gives her inspiration for the conversation. She sits on the floor with Stella under the painting of Ophelia Wachter and does a bad job of gently explaining that her Mom is dead. Stella starts shaking and closes her hand around the light. She's on the verge of tears, trembling, and asks Ophelia if someone is going to kill her. (DM post session confirmed that Stella knows Ophelia was one of the people there [She's covered in blood, duh] and that she was worried Ophelia was going to hurt her. SCREAMS. It makes sense that Ophelia didn't pick up on that either 😭) Ophelia says no one's going to hurt her. She isn't her mother, she hasn't done anything wrong. She's not to blame. She tells Stella that the Vallakoviches are going to stay in Barovia-town and she thinks Stella could go with them. Maybe Viktor could help her with her magic. Stella starts crying and Ophelia stays while she cries. 

A few minutes later, Stella's calmed down a bit, but still isn't talking. Ophelia's been quiet with her. She hears the door open behind her and feels a hand on her shoulder, when she looks it's long and pale, she hears the sound of Strahd's voice saying "are you alright, my dear?" Ophelia blinks and the hand becomes Ireena's. She repeats to Ophelia, "Are you alright?" 

Ophelia's thrown off and confused and says that she's alright. Ireena talks to Stella, invites her to come to Barovia-town, and convinces Stella to go. They help Stella pack and make sure she gets where she needs to be to leave. Ophelia thanks Ireena for helping her talk to Stella and Ireena beams at Ophelia. 

Coco didn't go to the basement either. She went outside to have a telepathic convo with her mentor Thalancer. She confronts her about their relationship, how Thalancer found her, what she wants with her, and why she brought her back to Barovia. Thalancer doesn't think of Coco as an operative. She also claims she doesn't know who Coco's parents are, but she had a connection to the order and took Coco so she couldn't get cursed like the others. She wants Coco's success and she thinks she can succeed here.

I don't remember what prompted this but the unhinged Coco line of "I don't care what people tell us is impossible because we've been achieving the impossible since we walked in." Go girlboss go. 

Meanwhile, the rest of the party is checking out Wachter's basement. To be honest, I did not take many notes on this because I was Emotionally Compromised. Apparently Wachter was having a 'book club' where she was convincing other noblewomen to worship Strahd. Yikes. 

The party reconvenes outside of the Wachter house and are approached by Rictavio and Erwin Martikov. They warn us that there is an angry mob on their way and it doesn't look like the party, or Rictavio, will be welcome in town (We did save all of them but also Ophelia Crimes 😔✌️)

Rictavio and Lana (sabertooth tiger) are tagging along with the party and we leave for Yester Hill and then Krezk. 

We enter a 5 day timeskip as we travel and the following things happened each day:

Day One – 

Ophelia apologizes to the party and tells them she wasn't just under a magical effect. She snapped on her own before that happened and it's because she hasn't been feeding herself much and is out of blood now. The party forgives her and tells her that "we're always around corpses or we can give blood donations". Ophelia is perplexed. Kregga mentions that she's dealt with this kind of thing before because she has some rage issues and one of her siblings had a similar problem to Ophelia. 

They all convince Ophelia to taste-test their blood because they all have weird blood 😭, Kregga's making outrageous innuendos to an already incredibly overwhelmed Ophelia. Ireena's watching also overwhelmed and mumbles "this can't be the most rational solution." Ophelia has a blood tasting bar and they're all Blood and she also gets bullied into admitting who tastes best. Ophelia quickly admits that it's Flare, blood spicy, and runs away from the conversation. 

Ireena pitches us all on some sparring and practice during the timeskip to make sure we're staying in shape + she wants to learn more. We all get to pick a feat and a new skill proficiency at the end of the timeskip! Ophelia took Martial Adept and Acrobatics.

Day Two –

Ophelia's out foraging with Rictavio and Lana. She catches Rictavio looking at her hip where her chain whip hangs. He says, "That's an exotic weapon, where did you get that?" Ophelia rolls a nat1 deception check ☠️and lies that she found it in the woods, "Well everyone's entitled to their secrets but you might as well know how to use it." (I'm fairly certain this is referencing an idea I pitched forever ago that Ophelia got her chain whip and monster slayer's pack from killing a vampire hunter in self defense 🥴) 

Day Three –

Flare takes some time to reconstruct a fragment of one of the pages ripped out of the Tome of Strahd. It's an account of her victory over Argynvost. Including a paragraph of dramatic irony that makes me laugh so much.

It didn't happen in session but post-session decided Ireelia sparring day 🥰

Day Four – 

Ophelia is alone in the woods when she gets a sending: 

Luce: Hey, how are you? Sorry I haven't said anything in awhile, I was wondering if you would be able to v

Ophelia: Hi Luce, I don't think that's possible right now. What do you mean about her? Are you okay? Has she hurt you? 

Strahd from behind Ophelia, replying to the response she sent to Luce: I think she means we'd both like you there.

Ophelia whirls around to face her, caught off guard and confused: What are you doing? Why? 

Strahd: I just want us to be happy again, all of us.

Ophelia angrily: What do you mean? You killed her. You killed me.

Strahd, who cannot girlboss her way out of that one: But you're still standing here, aren't you?

Ophelia: I don't understand.

Strahd: Let me help you understand.

Ophelia: Understand what?

Strahd: You felt it too. When we met on the road, I had my little game dressed as Ireena.

Ophelia: Why?

Strahd: Minds work in funny ways. Memories come up in strange ways. Try and hit me. I can see you want to, try and hit me.

Ophelia unfurls her chain whip and rolls a nat20 to hit Strahd and deals 11 points of damage. Strahd reels from the blow, laughs, and takes Ophelia's shoulder and pulls her into a dance. Her mind flashes between different memories across lifetimes: Blood splatters on Ophelia's face, the feathery brush of a corsage brushes her face,  her heels hit a marble floor and her dress swirls around her, Opheila plunges a stake into her chest, Strahd dips her, then Strahd bites her, moving back and forth between memories of the past and of each time they've fought in this life, it's always been this dance. Ophelia pulls away from Strahd.

Strahd says: There can be more of this, if you want, if you come back to us. I think it would make myself, and Luce, very happy. I'll let you think on it. 

She smiles and vanishes into shadow. 

Ophelia takes some time to try to collect herself, and doesn't really know what to do with memories of being married to Strahd, it's messing with her head and her heart and she doesn't know how she feels other than ashamed. 

When she goes back to camp, the party asks her if she's alright. Ophelia lies and says she's okay, rolls shit on deception, and the following exchange occurs:

Coco: You are really bad at lying

Ophelia: I Know, I'm Sorry.

Kregga: It's not something to be sorry for.

Flare: Just something to be aware of.

I love them so much. Ophelia excuses herself to go sit by herself for a bit and does that for a while before going to go talk to Ireena, the only other person she knows that is having Reincarnation Problems (And Strahd Problems). I got possessed so I barely have any notes on this but they talked about what it's like remembering things from past lives and not knowing how to feel. Ophelia doesn't tell Ireena about any of her memories but she talks about being upset about them. She talks to Ireena about how she doesn't know if it's right for her to tell Luce about their history. Ireena tells her that Luce deserves the knowledge to make a decision with. 

Somewhere somehow this quote popped up: "She [Strahd] keeps looking at me like she wants something from me, like she knows something that I don't, like I'm stupid for not knowing. And I don't know. I don't know what to do or what she wants from me." Which isn't QUITE a lie because Ophelia doesn't REALLY know what's going on except she's Now Starting to get a better idea. 

Ophelia asks Ireena if she can hug her and quickly hugs her as soon as she says yes, staying there for a bit before telling Ireena that she doesn't need to give all of herself to other people. She should take care of herself too. Irena looks kind of shocked but thanks her. 

Night Four – 

That night there are some reincarnation dreams! Again, out of session, but Ophelia's gotten back some cherry-picked memories of Bride Era that are making the picture come into ACUTE focus. (Gay Sex With Your Evil Wife)

But what we're really here to talk about is: IS KREGGA KAVAN?

Kregga has an incredibly vivid dream where she's running through the woods, people ahead of her, dogs running with them. She reaches out to push a branch out of the way and sees her hand and arm is not bugbear hairy, it's human with blue ringed tattoos. She's protecting people, telling them to run, running until her lungs are ragged. She turns, puts her back to the people fleeing and sees Countess Strahd standing with a sword. Strahd smiles, and says "Who would've thought I see you run." Kregga hears her voice say "Only for them. This isn't about them. It's just you and me right? You and me." Strahd's smile grows wider. Kregga cracks her knuckles and gets ready to fight, "All cards on the table. You leave them alone, you and me, right here, right now." Strahd rolls her wrist and lets her sword whisk through the air, "You sure know how to treat a girl with a good time."

Kregga wakes up. She checks her wineskin and finishes it off. Despite being confused "It's nice to have someone unexpected in her head." WTF DOES THAT MEAN. KREGGA KAVAN? KREGGA KAVAN?

Day Five –

Kregga and Flare a conversation about magic. Kregga thought magic was only for 'stuffy academics' and thinks Flare's magic is really cool. 🥺

Kregga also approaches Ophelia about the dream she had. She asks Ophelia what she knows about reincarnation and Ophelia, trying not to freak, is just like Yeah Who Knows, Haha Crazy. Because she. Does Not Know and is having her own reincarnation crisis. Kregga tells Ophelia she is looking for Kavan's grave / people and that she is indebted to someone who wants her to get objects of importance to Kavan. Ophelia doesn't REALLY know what to say but doesn't like the fact that Kregga is doing something she might not want to do. 

We end the session by arriving at Yester Hill in the evening.

[dexadin]

I waited for it to be Sunday for Strahd confessional because I'm a recovering Catholic. My friends and I forgot Ireena in Vallaki. We left without her. We were distracted by talk of werewolf activity from the wolf hunter guys at the bar and we packed up and left without telling the GM we went to get her from the church. We didn't realize it until the week after. We forgot Ireena.

Oh-- You know, um. Maybe Yevgeni and Szoldar can go back and pick her up? Let's hope you guys are loaded. Oh man. RIP Ireena

[lexicals]

So, a not-so-short summary of the last few strabo sessions (If you're playing curse of strahd and not blocking my strabo tag some of this does contain campaign spoilers!):

The party reach vallaki with ireena in tow. They spend One Whole Night there, decide that it's not nearly good enough for their special girl, and endeavour to leave bright and early the next morning

Ireena, despite being the reason they want to get going so fast, digs her heels in. This town is obviously suffering, and she wants to do at least one good thing here before they move on (partially because I don't want my level 4 party wandering into a lv6 area just yet lmao)

The party say "oh my god FINE" and agree to go see the baron to try to get him to release the poor people he's got locked in the stocks for no reason

On the way out, they bump into rictavio. The evening before, they were sniffing around his wagon and realised there was something alive in there, so they decide to grill him about it

Rictavio is evasive and tells them not to worry about it. It becomes the party's new purpose in life to go see what's in the mystery wagon

They basically bully rictavio into letting them look inside the wagon. They are satisfied with this result, and then realise that they were being watched the whole time

They chase down the spy, and then proceed to have a long discussion about what to do with him while the dwarven monk sits directly on his chest to keep him on the ground. They decide that the best option is to put him in the town stocks, and when ireena asks if the guards won't notice an extra person, decide to swap him out with one of the people already in there

Somehow, they manage this without the guards noticing. The same cannot be said for literally every other townsfolk in the square

Having stashed their man, they now have a new man to decide what to do with. After initially just turning him loose, they feel bad for him and decide to escort him to the church

Father lucien agrees to keep him there as long as he can, and also says "heyyyy while you're here, don't suppose you can get these super important magic bones back for me?"

The party say "ugh fineeeee"

They bully the teenage groundskeeper into telling them what he did with the bones, and he points them at the local coffin maker, henrik, who our monk already happens to have beef with because he wouldn't let him buy woodcarving tools from him

They go to henrik's house. They kick down the door. Henrik says "oh man yeah you got me, bones are upstairs. There's vampires up there btw"

The party says "AHEM IREENA WHY DON'T YOU STAY DOWN HERE OKAY. BACK IN A MINUTE."

They search the first floor. There are several human-sized boxes up there. Helpfully, a spectral glowing drawing of a sun appears above one of them, and a drawing of a skull appears above another four

The party says "cool, now we know where the vampires are!"

And smashes

One of the boxes

With a skull on it

Predictably, all hell breaks loose. The bard loses half his health in a single attack. They soon realise that none of the damage they're doing to these things is sticking. Everything is going great

Having realised that things are not in fact going great, we start the next session with a new goal: get the fuck out of here

The rogue zooms across the room to the correct box and grabs the bones. Everyone else starts to leg it, except the poor monk, who can't get out of his grapple. Fortunately, one of the vampires seems to have a sudden change of heart and starts attacking the others. Unfortunately, it fails to release the monk from the grapple. I start preparing funeral rites for him.

Some well-used paladin spells result in three turned vampires and one freed monk. The party promptly get the fuck out of there, but stop to thank their new friend, vampire #2, who says they'll hold the rest of them off as long as they can

They get back downstairs. The monk decides the only sensible option is to set fire to the house. Some other party members feel that henrik doesn't quite deserve to burn alive, and try to convince him to leave, but he doesn't really care enough. Ever the pragmatist, ireena just picks him up and slings him over her shoulder

Weirdly, this is the second time my party has fled a burning house heavily injured and carrying a bunch of old bones. I ponder what this could mean

There's some brief discussion. Two of the party decide to run the bones back to the church with ireena and henrik, while the other three insist on staying behind to ensure the vampires burn with the house. This is a great plan.

The ireena group manages to make their way through back alleys towards the church without being seen kidnapping an old man, but in the end decide to follow their possibly-friendly raven acquaintance and end up at the inn

The group at the house see three of the vampires break through the roof, realise that they're unbothered by the minimal daylight, and promptly think "oh shit" and make a run for it. The house is fully on fire, and going by the screaming, friendly vampire #2 didn't make it

They see some guards. They try to turn and fight alongside the guards. The monk is reduced to 1hp (thanks to some clutch healing and a VERY lucky damage roll), and their new friends are slaughtered in seconds. More guards, including that one big scary guy, are on their way, and they decide to just make a run for it

They're also shepherded to the inn, and that's where we left it. I now have to resolve the fight between a dozen town guards and three vampire spawn. This takes me one whole hour

(If you are one of my players stop reading here 💕)

The guards do not fare well. They do their best, but in the end izek and the single surviving guard, guard #8, decide to fall back. Izek does manage to crit fireball (not Fireball, but close enough) one of the spawn to death, but the others give chase

Guard #8 runs out of steam and is overrun. I mourn her passing 😔

Izek manages to get to the baron's mansion and barricade himself inside. We'll see how that goes for him

Final count: 9 guards dead, 2 mortally wounded and keeping their heads down having fled the fight, 2 barbecued vampire spawn, and 1 flaming coffin shop that my random roll for wind direction determined has not spread to the nearby houses just yet

Somehow, it is not yet midday

[dndeviants]

St. Andral’s Bones

The party quickly departed from the church, anxious to look for the bones before nighttime fell. Only two hours remained before the sundown, and three before the dark of night would take them. 

Alexi revealed to Ruki that the coffinmaker had approached the children and paid them to steal the bones... they were going to see if there was any truth to that claim as they approached the coffinmaker’s shop. 

The exterior was unkempt and dreary, the weight of death hung in the house and in the air... there wasn’t any liveliness in the fixtures, and it seemed as if there was no attempt to lighten up its grim purpose. This was not a place to celebrate the events of one’s life... this was just the reality of death and decay.

Aric looked up to the second floor. The windows are boarded up... Odd... isn’t this shop in operation? He could assume that there were corpses in there. A place that houses bodies should have decent ventilation... especially for summer... Aric felt a pit of nausea.

Linda pursed her lips and nodded, “Yeah, that’s pretty grim.”

“The place looks deserted...“ Aric sarcastically smiled, “Who wants to go in first?“

Ismark shuddered, “Geez, not even Kristoff’s place is this dull.”

Ruki walked over to the door and knocked. A harsh voice called out on the other side:

“We’re closed! Go away!“

Rictavio folded his arms, “Someone dies everyday... makes no sense why he’d be closed.”

Linda walked up to Ruki and replied to the voice, "We aren't here on that kind of business."

There was a moment of hesitation. A slot opened in the door, revealing beady old eyes on the other side. They peered suspiciously, "What business do you have?"

Ruki spoke bluntly, “We are simply here to retrieve the bones that belong to the church.”

"Bones?" The old man muttered, "I'm not sure about any bones...” he unlatched the door, “...but you are more than welcome to look..."

The door creaked open, revealing a frail old man hunched over, clutching a cane with spindly fingers.

Linda squinted at the man. He wore all black for his grim profession, and had a name plate: “Henrik van der Hoorst”... his cane was of fine quality, very sturdy. She cautiously entered into the shop and saw manuals and designs for various coffins and caskets. She wrinkled her nose... the smell in here was atrocious and off-putting... Most places would try to cover that smell... even stranger was that the smell was coming from the second floor.

Ireena and Ismark opted to stay outside. Everyone else cautiously entered. Rictavio looked at a workstation as Victor perused the manuals.

"If you don't mind me asking,” Linda looked to the shopkeep, “Do you keep the corpses upstairs? How unusual... Sorry, as you can probably guess, I'm not from around here."

"I keep some crates of artifacts upstairs...” he replied, “Some bones too, yes. They aren't as in immediate need as fresh corpses though. So they can smell at times."

Aric covered his nose, "I thought rotting flesh of any kind would be of immediate concern."

Linda raised a brow, "I never said anything about the smell."

Henrik made a wafting motion, "If my old nose can detect it, so can you. Besides, you aren't the first to remark. As for the concern of flesh..." The old man turned to Aric, "They can't be buried until I am paid, and a lot of times people die quicker than previous corpses can be buried. So more often than not, they are left here. It is a brutal business."

Jeeves crossed his arms and raised a brow, "What happens if they don't pay at all?"

Henrik spoke callously, "Then they rot."

Linda changed the subject, "So what kind of artifacts do you have?"

"Odd family heirlooms,” he replied, “Not my own family of course, but heirlooms from families who couldn't pay the right fees. Basically, just a bunch of junk. But artifact sounds nicer, don't you think?"

"It does,” Linda unhappily agreed. She paused, “May I just have a look around?"

Henrik gestured with his cane, "Be my guest. But if you break anything, you buy it!"

They nodded in acknowledgement, not really wanting to touch anything in the house at all, but knowing that they had to in order to find the bones. Linda peered into the main area of the shop and found thirteen coffins, all propped up, and all with outrageous price tags. 

She shook her head, What a scumbag... She saw that all the coffins were open as well, so no bones would be hidden here. 

Aric peered in a room... It was a little sitting area. Dust covered the tables, the chairs, even the tea set... It was clear no one had been in this room for a long time. Gross, Aric thought. 

Ruki walked past Linda to check a door. It creaked open, revealing the stairs to the second floor. She looked over to Vasili.

Vasili nodded, and silently gestured to the ceiling. 

She gave a gesture of affirmation, and moved upstairs. 

Aric moved over to join them all, Jeeves was on edge and close by his master. Linda pointed out the stairs to Aric. They all silently agreed to follow Ruki.

It was difficult keeping quiet as they walked up the stairs... every moment that passed was an effort in keeping down bile... the stench of death was pungent and overwhelming. 

Ruki paused and examined a door to her right. She alone entered that room.

Aric took interest in the door to his left. Linda, Vasili, and Jeeves followed him in.

Ruki looked around the room she had entered. It was humble, with a few chairs and a table... A small bookshelf rested in the corner, holding rather strange looking tomes. 

The tiefling furrowed her brow and examined the tomes... one in particular caught her interest: Manual on Necromancie and the Created. 

That doesn’t bode well in a coffin shop, she thought. She opened the book and read where the pages had been dog-eared. 

Deeply troubling, thought Ruki. The passages were all related to the creation of Flesh Golems... and with easy access to corpses... But it still doesn’t make sense why he would need the bones...

She turned over a page of the tome, and a little note fell out onto the floor. She paused in her reading and pulled the  paper off the floor, examining the small notes haphazardly scribbled:

* Creating a finer tuned and more human shaped intelligent golem. Perfect for infiltrating and spying on a target. * Fusing other monstrosities together? After all, research has shown all monsters share a common origin in the dark weaves of the Shadowfell... * So far, two successful fusions. More in the future. * Blood of vampires seems to be a more stable ingredient in the creation of golems, however also seem to impart some unwanted side effects... such as blood thirstiness and sun sensitivity. Will have to remedy in future. For now, subjects will be contained for study. * Perfect spy has been created. Not even the creature knows its own nature. Appears mostly human, with great intelligence. Subject was fitted with the soul that matches the face. Subject is stationed in Barovia Village and is unwittingly providing the Master with much needed information and materials. * Master Lion desires more of the failed spawn. To make up the backbone of the army. * Ba'al Verzi are training at HQ. More and more join the ranks ever since the exposure of the Enemy's true nature. * Going to draw the enemy to Vallaki Base of operation, the first field test of the Constructed Spawn

Ruki quickly put the note and book in her pack. She stood up...

This is a trap!

-------------------------

Aric, Jeeves, Vasili and Linda filed into the other room. The area was very spacious, and had a few crates labeled, “JUNK.“ 

Aric wrinkled his nose, water filling his eyes,  “Ugh, smells like we found the bodies...”

Linda coughed, and covered her nose, "I would agree."

Aric moved over to a crate. The sooner we find the bones and leave, the better. He knelt down near the crate... and heard a small scuffle. Odd... he reached out...

A high pitched shriek cut the air as the crate Aric was near burst open, revealing-

Aric wasn’t sure what... It was human- shaped... but its gray and mottled skin was sewn together in rough patches, tubes of red fluid popped in and out of the back of the creature... long, serpent-like fangs extended from its open mouth, and long claws-

Whatever the thing was leaped at Aric with its claws. Aric was too shocked to register... It grabbed him... It’s mouth unhinged, pulling against the stitches keeping the lower jaw in place, and sank its fangs deep into Aric’s shoulder. 

Pain woke him out of his stupor. Aric screamed.

Linda pulled out her gun, "Fuck! Aric!"

Several of the creatures burst from the crates, awakened by the scent of blood in the air. 

Jeeves immediately rushed to Aric’s defense, pulling out his shortsword. He slashed at the creature’s back and cried out, “Let him go!”

The monster hissed in pain, Aric’s blood gurgling in its throat as it did so. Aric broke out of the hold and pulled out his rapier. He thrust it deep into the creature’s chest and broke away, stinging in his shoulder... 

It seemed to be bad luck. That was where the werewolf had bitten him before... He winced. His sword arm was in trouble... He broke away from the creature and tried to hide behind a crate.

------

Ruki heard the shriek that pierced the air and Aric’s scream. She turned and tried to run out the door of the room and into the hallway-

Henrik. 

He locked the door to the other room, cutting off the rest of her group’s escape... and trapping Ruki alone with him.

He stood tall, wielding his cane in one hand... and pulling out a blade of black, red, and gold...

Ba’al Verzi.

He twirled the blade in his hand, smirking, “Frail old man is a timeless act. People think you are defenseless... I guarantee you will not live to be as old as I am.”

Ruki held up her staff, “We’ll see.”

Henrik smiled and made a small gesture with the blade, conjuring a spectral skull... the skull floated over to Ruki and passed through her chest... making her feel cold.

He had placed a mark of death upon her. Henrik took his cursed blade and struck at Ruki, the blade cutting deep into Ruki’s side... 

Cold of steel, warm of blood... the sensations made her dizzy. She cried out in pain and gripped her staff. 

------

Linda heard the door click and lock behind them, cutting off their escape... The creatures were on the other side of the room. They needed an exit plan- 

On the other side of the door, they heard Ruki’s cry of pain.  Vasili tensed, “Ruki!”

Linda looked to him, “Break the door?”

Vasili nodded, pulling out his longsword, “Break the door.”

They kicked at the door in unison, their combined efforts succeeded in breaking the door off it’s hinges, and sent the door, and small pieces of the door frame, flying into Henrik’s back. 

Henrik swore in rage, recovering from the unexpected intrusion, and facing them with his cursed assassin’s blade.

Linda aimed her revolver at the man, and shot at him. Her bullets embedded in his clothing. 

Vasili thrust his blade at the assassin, grazing his side. The man was quick for his age.

It was the distraction Ruki needed to recover. She drew her own Ba’al Verzi dagger that she had kept as a trophy. She mimicked the gesture Henrik made, and summoned her own mark of death upon him from the cursed magic of the blade. 

Henrik sensed the cursed magic, and turned to face Ruki again, “You-”

His words were cut off as she assailed him. One strike... two...

Ruki focused her mystic power into the blade, drawing into the large reserve of power her mind siphoned from the universe. Her eyes glowed nearly white...

Three...

She released the energy stored in the blade. Henrik dropped his own, and cried out. 

She hissed in Patterna,  “To hell with your order! I can wield your own power tenfold!"

She pushed him into the wall. Henrik looked to her... one final moment of realization and horror as the psychic energy pulsated through his body... intense vibrations seemed to distort the world around him as he screamed. Flesh... then muscle, and sinew... melted onto the floor, leaving only bones to collapse into a thick ooze on the floor.

What was once a human man. 

Ruki stood over the former assassin, still aglow, “As long as I stand, no harm shall come to the Lord of this land!”

The light faded from her eyes and she clutched her staff for support. The effort leaving her slightly weak, “Pathetic Ba’al Verzi filth...” she spat.

Ruki took a moment to recover before reaching to take Henrik’s dagger.

Linda blinked in shock. So this was what Ruki was capable of...  "Welp, guess you didn't need our help..." she muttered.

“However you do...” Ruki stood and peered into the open room, looking at one of the creatures engaged in combat with Jeeves, “Are there more?”

"Five," Vasili answered.

Ruki added the dagger to her belt, “Neither the spawn nor their master are a challenge.”

-----------

The patchwork monster lashed out at Jeeves. Aric was nowhere in sight. Good for him, thought Jeeves, holding up his shortsword to guard from a devastating bite... and dodging a long arm trying to pound him into the ground.

The creature narrowly missed Jeeves, smashing its arm into a junk crate. It hissed and tried to pull its arm out to attack again- but found that it was stuck.

Now’s the opportunity. Jeeves took his shortsword and quickly jabbed at the monster. 

Aric rose from behind the crates and backstabbed it, wincing from the effort. He disengaged and slunk back into the shadows.

-------

Troubled. That was the best word to describe Linda. While she could admit that it was very impressive that Vasili was able to calculate how many creatures there were-

But she, a trained monster hunter with over twenty years of experience, could not do the same. Not in such a brief moment of time. It started to raise Linda’s suspicion, and gnaw at her stomach.

Vasili went back in the room to face the approaching creatures. Linda followed closely behind.

Vasili examined the creatures, narrowing his eyes. He conjured a mote of flame in his hand and threw it forward, striking one of the six creatures in the room. 

The creature burst into flame like turpentine, and howled in a primal fear as its skin began to shrink and burn. It tried to pat out the flame, but only spread it to other portions of its body. It dropped to the ground and panicked, rolling on the floor, desperate to end the suffering.

Everyone paused, terror and disgust gripping them at the scene. Vasili stood, flame in hand. He spoke calmly, a hint of satisfaction in his voice, “I would suggest using fire.”

He hurled another flame at one of the remaining spawn. It shrieked similarly to the first, trying to put out its flames while rushing toward the still living.

Linda overcame her shock and pulled out her gun. She fired one shot at the one rushing them, and knocked it prone... she quickly opened her chamber, and pulled a speedloader of silver bullets from her belt. She popped it in her chamber, closing it and spinning it for good measure. She took aim at another and fired... knocking that one prone as well.

Jeeves did his best to pick off the one stuck in the crate... but even if one arm was trapped, the other was free, and extremely dangerous. The claws extended unexpectedly, slashing Jeeves’ arm. 

Even though the flame and silver were devastating on the creatures, they recovered quickly, rising from the ground...

They lunged at Vasili and Linda, who they recognized as the source of their pain. 

Vasili nimbly dodged the monster that targeted him, allowing the creature to shatter its nails against the wood where he had stood previously. 

One of the creatures swiped its claws at Linda, slashing through her coat. Linda winced and prepared herself as the creature raised its other hand to claw at her. She ducked her head down just in time.

 Ruki walked forth and planted her staff in the ground, focusing. Her eyes glowed white as she familiarized herself with the presences in the room. A strange wind rose from the bottom of her staff and swirled around all the monsters. 

The creatures grabbed their heads immediately, moaning, shrieking, hissing, howling... all as Ruki asserted herself as the most dominating mind in the room, psychic energy crackling in the air.

Jeeves took advantage of the pause and lit a torch, waving it at the spawn in front of him, setting it on fire.  Aric rose from the shadows and planted his rapier through the back of the creature... 

It fell limp. 

Aric still was not willing to take any chances. He nodded to Jeeves, and slid back into the shadows. 

Linda took aim and lined up her shots... One. Two. Three. Three shots, three monsters. Couldn’t get any better than this when you were out in the field. 

Vasili continued his tried and true magical flame... One fell limp... 

The others approached him erratically, delirious from the flames... One clawed at the man and missed... He held up his sword in defense, impaling one of the other creatures that was trying to hit him, and killing it.

He barely had time to withdraw his blade when another one rushed into him, and slammed him into the ground. It savored its triumph as Vasili struggled to get up, and followed through with another slam! Battering the envoy and throwing him across the room. 

Ruki gripped onto her staff, focusing on pulling back the strange wind and downing the remaining monsters as soon as possible... she assaulted the minds of the creatures again... One fell... then another... 

Only one creature still stood to defy her.

A blade emerged from the darkness, piercing the last of the horrible creatures. It paused in shock, and shuddered, falling to the ground. The eyes lost the faint blue glow... before becoming hollow. The charred flesh burnt out...

Aric averted his gaze and took his sword out from the creature in disgust. He held onto his knees and caught his breath... a glint of gold flashed in the corner of his eye. He paused and looked over. 

Jeeves sighed in relief and rustled through his pack, trying to find something to dress his and Aric’s wounds.

Ruki was of the same mind, and focused inward, willing her wounds to heal themselves.

Vasili sighed and brought himself first to his knees, pausing for a moment before standing, and wrapping himself in his cloak. 

Linda raised a brow. Even the strongest fighters took longer than that to recover from such a heavy blow. Two, at that. 

But there he was. Showing little, if any concern for his own injuries. He walked over to one of the dead creatures. He lifted one of the arms off the ground, then pulled back the lips of the deceased thing. 

“That is interesting...“ he murmured and mused.

Quick thuds of footsteps rushed upstairs. Victor and Rictavio looked in the room, fear and concern on their faces. 

“What the hell happened?“ Rictavio demanded, then made a face of disgust. He kicked slop off of his boot, “What is this... bone... soup... by the door?!“

Everyone ignored him. Ruki walked over to Vasili and presented the tome and the letter to him. 

“I found this book in the other room,“ she explained, “Perhaps it may answer some questions?“

Vasili thumbed through the book, and then examined the letter,"Very interesting...” he muttered, “It seems the Ba'al Verzi are still active after all these years. And have advanced to different means of assassination..."

Vasili closed the book.

Ruki nodded and folded her arms, “Not very well, if I may add...”

Vasili looked down at the creatures, "Trying to artificially create a vampire? With the base of a flesh golem? It would be simpler to bribe a vampire spawn, why go through the trouble? Some kind of control...?"

Vasili brushed past Rictavio and Victor as if they weren’t even there. Rictavio threw up his arms in exasperation. Victor moved curiously into the room. Rictavio groaned at everyone’s rudeness and did the same.

Vasili paused at the puddle of the man that was formerly known as Henrik. He knelt down and began to mutter a string of phrases in a different tongue, while passing his hand over the soup. He paused when he held his hand over Henrik’s cane.

He picked up the cane, and casually slung the goop against the wall. He nodded to himself, “I think I will keep this... for study.”

Linda squinted at the man, dumbfounded.

Victor kicked at one of the corpses, "Are these... undead?"

Ruki felt antic humor seize her. In a serious voice she said, “No. Watch out. They are living.”

Victor startled and jumped back from the corpse, much to her amusement.

Vasili re-entered the room, passing by Victor, "To answer your question... Yes... and no."

Victor looked perplexed at Vasili. Rictavio shook his head, unfazed. He walked around, looking at the crates, "Now, where's Andral's bones?"

Ruki looked to Vasili, “Should we break open all the crates?”

Vasili suddenly looked very ill, "I'm not quite certain...” he spoke quietly, “They should be in one of these crates... “ he pat Ruki on the shoulder, “Why don't you look? I have to do some testing on this..." he indicated the cane to Ruki and walked out of the room.

Rictavio folded his arms, but let him pass by, “Alright,” he turned to everyone else, “Let’s look.”

They began to search crate after crate... Aric walked over the the crate where he saw the glitter of gold... and smelt incense... It was a relief to the stench here. Linda and Ruki walked over to where Aric stood, and helped him move the crate lid...

The lid popped off, revealing... not individual bones, but something more akin to a mummy, sitting in a position of prayer, wearing golden robes... a red gemstone peeked out from a fold in the robe...

Linda reached for it and pulled out a platinum pendant in the shape of the sun with a ruby center. 

The Holy Symbol of Ravenkind.

The name sprung to Aric and Linda’s mind unbidden. They were certain of what it was... but how, they did not know.

“Is that...?“ Ruki recognized the symbol, and reached for the pendant.

"The Holy Symbol of Ravenkind..." Linda finished. She gently handed over the pendant to Ruki.

"Yes,” Ruki nodded, “It is one of the holy artifacts of this land.”

Jeeves tilted his head, "The holy symbol of great hope, that Eva spoke of?"

Ruki nodded, “Yes, we must keep this safe,” she placed the symbol gingerly in her bag.

Jeeves nodded and looked to Aric, "So... who is going to carry the bones back?” he shuddered, “Because I am opting out now."

Ruki made a loose gesture, “Perhaps Rictavio?”

Rictavio shrugged, "Sure, why not. They are a holy item, after all. I honestly feel safer with them than without."

Rictavio carefully packed the mummy into the crate and re-secured it, using rope to make straps to put on his back, “So let’s get these back to the church, like our...” he paused, “...friend, Vasili said...”

Rictavio walked down with the bones.

Victor pet his skeletal cat, "Not sure I like the way he said, 'friend Vasili'."

Mr. Whiskers seemed to chime in agreement. 

Linda shrugged in frustration, "Honestly, Vasili is beginning to get on my nerves. He's just so... vexing."

Victor raised a brow at Linda and shrugged, taking Mr. Whiskers downstairs. Linda huffed and followed after him. They all arrived in the main part of the shop, and saw that one of the thirteen coffins was occupied...

By Vasili.

Vasili casually looked over to them with an amused expression on his face.

Ruki called out questioningly, “My lord...?”

Linda blinked, dumbfounded, What the hell?

"Glad to know they already have one in my size.” Vasili mused, “You think he was aiming to kill us?" He spoke in a lighthearted, joking voice, "I can respect him being prepared and thoughtful enough to have one set aside just for me."

You must out of your mind... thought Ruki.

Vasili jumped gracefully out of the coffin and laughed, picking up his top hat, "Forgive my antic humor."

Ruki smirked and folded her arms, “Your antique humor?”

Vasili paused, and chuckled, "That was actually very clever. I like that."

Linda sighed and shook her head. She walked over to the door out, and leaned against it.

Vasili looked to Rictavio and squinted, becoming serious again, "Ah, yes, we should return those to the church shouldn't we?" He took out his pipe and headed to the door out-

Running into Linda.

She stopped him, "Nervous, Vasili?"

Vasili paused, "Normally, I wouldn't indulge this indoors, but anything should be able to fumigate the stench here..." he looked to her and lowered his voice, speaking gently to her, "I've been attacked twice in one day. My nerves are really on edge."

Linda nodded, "I see..." she turned and walked out the door, allowing him to follow her out of the building.

They rejoined Ireena and Ismark, who asked what happened in there. Ruki took initiative and regaled them with a grand tale of heroism to make Rictavio jealous. Ireena and Ismark were skeptical of some of it, but enjoyed hearing it anyway.

They arrived at the Cathedral. Rictavio entered first to deliver the bones to Lucien... the sun was setting. Ireena and the native Barovians anxiously followed after, eager to remove her curse, and seek shelter. Linda went with Ireena, fulfilling her promise to be there with her. 

Vasili lingered behind a little bit with Ruki in the very back pews, and let his troubled expression show.

“My lord?” Ruki looked over to Vasili, questioning.

“Hm?” Vasili seemed distracted.

Ruki glanced over to Aric and Jeeves who were nearby, and spoke in Infernal, certain that they would not understand, “What troubles you?”

Strahd kept up his Vasili persona, but spoke as himself, "The return of the Ba'al Verzi, at this time. It is... too coincidental to be coincidence. I thought their order destroyed here long ago... and removing Tatayana's curse... is it the right thing to do to protect her? Or perhaps I am overthinking it. I sense that you found my brother's pendant. You keep it on you... it must not fall into the wrong hands..."

Ruki nodded, “Of course, may whoever lay their hands on it suffer a Vistani curse. As for the Ba'al Verzi, worry not,” she brandished all three daggers in her possession.

Strahd raised a brow, "I gave you Leo's, Henrik had one... where did you find that last one, Ruki?"

Ruki felt her stomach drop, forgetting her last trophy from the other time she came from. She thought of a lie, “From your study. It was the one that did not work, but it works for me now.”

Strahd frowned. He knew he had memory trouble, but to this extent...? 

He let it pass.

"Alright...” he replied, “I suppose we should abandon this devilish tongue and go to church now..."

Strahd laughed at his pun, and returned to speaking the common language, and his Vasili mannerisms, "Wouldn't you agree?"

Ruki frowned disapprovingly, “I cannot abandon it, it is in my bloodline...”

Vasili nodded apologetically, "Ah of course, of course. I didn't mean to offend."

Aric and Jeeves looked to each other. Infernal was one of the languages Aric had picked up from his criminal contacts. Jeeves knew enough to recognize it as Infernal.  Jeeves tilted his head and spoke in Alzhedo, “What were they saying?”

Aric folded his hands together, also speaking in Alzhedo, “Well, you see...”

And he told Jeeves everything.

--------

Linda walked with Ireena and Rictavio while Ismark and Victor lingered not too far behind. It felt almost as if the stones themselves were sighing in relief to have the bones once more inside their walls. 

Lucien walked down anxiously striding forward, “You found them?”

"Talking about these?" Rictavio un-shouldered the crate and showed off the bones to the father.

Lucien nodded in relief, "Yes, right this way, just beyond the altar. Now I can sanctify the cathedral again..."

Lucien took the golden robed mummy and placed it behind the symbol of the Morninglord up above the altar. He closed the bones in, and began to speak in prayer. 

Ireena anxiously waited for the priest to be done. When Lucien was satisfied with his work, he approached the young woman. "I will keep my promise, Lady Ireena. If you would come to the altar..."

Ireena rose and followed the priest to the altar. Linda stood and watched, folding her arms. She wasn’t really religious herself, but there were few things that could stave the curse of being bitten... time, and gods. 

And Ireena had no time to spare, since she was targeted by Strahd himself, and was bitten twice...

Lucien called upon the gods, and incited the name of the Morninglord, Lathander, to cleanse the sickness of undeath from her veins... he took holy water from a silver chalice and washed the wounds on her throat, compelling the curse to expel from her body.

Ireena shuddered, and took knee as a dizziness overcame her. She took a few moments and let the feeling wash over her before she stood again. Her neck was blemish free... her skin was flush, and her expression bright.

It didn’t look as if she had been bitten at all.

Linda raised a brow, impressed.

"I feel... better. Safer...” Ireena’s eyes welled with emotion, “Thank you, Father."

Lucien nodded, and smiled. He pulled out a small golden symbol of the Morninglord, "Be safe, and carry about this with you, display it proudly and with faith, and the undead will hardly trouble you."

Ireena fiddled with the symbol, accepting it, in spite of Linda’s previous gift of a holy symbol, “Thank you.”

Linda enjoyed a brief moment, looking at Ireena and Ismark share an embrace. It was only a brief moment.

Rictavio put his hand on Linda’s shoulder. Linda turned to him, "What?"

"About that intel..." Rictavio slipped her a journal fragment. It was a piece of Strahd’s journal. But this one was almost as pristine as Vasili’s piece.

Linda slipped it into her pack, heart pounding.

Rictavio stared at her for a moment, somber, "Draw your own conclusion. I'll be in Blue Water. See you there."

Rictavio turned to leave, but came face to face with Ruki. 

“Master Rictavio,“ she purred, “Regarding the Vistani favor I mentioned before, I have a Vistani coin I would like to give you...“ she took his hand and pressed a strange looking gold piece into it, “This will be a physical token of the favor you have earned.“

Ruki charged the coin with mystic power... she would use it to keep an eye on this trouble maker.

Rictavio confusedly took the coin, “Uh, thanks... I didn’t think I did that much-”

"Enough to earn our favor.” Ruki’s tone allowed for no arguments.

Rictavio tightened his lips and nodded, “Okay, alright. If you say so...” he pocketed his coin and hastily left the church.

Vasili narrowed his eyes at the entire exchange. Under the mask, Strahd was recalculating. He knew that with how many fragments Linda had received, sooner or later, she would discover the truth about Vasili... The half-elf knew as well, otherwise he wouldn’t have tried to out him with the Zone of Truth... it was only through careful misdirection that he was able to keep his disguise... To reveal the truth now would be... devastating. 

Damage control. One way or another, they were going to discover the truth. Madame Eva had constructed this purposefully. He fumed silently as he stood. The best thing to do would be to cut them off from Rictavio. Prevent them from going to Blue Water.

He reached out to Ruki, I have a feeling... that this disguise will soon be compromised...

Vasili walked over to Linda, putting his hands in his pockets, "What was that about?" If there was only a way to get back that journal... without raising suspicion...

"Not sure..." Linda replied.

Vasili nodded and grunted a bit, thinking. He clasped his hands together,  "I would like to extend an invitation to my house. I feel you'd feel more at ease in a residence than in an inn, due to... recent events.” He turned to the rest of the party, “I'll extend the same invitation to everyone. "

Linda blushed a bit and nodded, "I don't have a problem with it. Though, some others still may. It's up to them..."

Vasili nodded at her and smiled, "Very well. Let me give you the address.... It is 62 North Seaport. Northern end of Vallaki, just near Lake Zarovich. I will go there presently, to compile notes and clean up a bit."

Vasili bowed his head to her, before turning to extend the invitation.

Linda had a thought cross her mind, and she approached the priest, "Might I ask you a favor?"

"Yes, of course. How may I help you?"

 "Could you bless a few things for me?" She took out her kits and bullets, "I need more holy water and I would like to have my ammunition blessed."

Lucien smiled and began to work on blessing her tools, free of charge.

Linda smiled, "Thank you."

-----

Aric poised himself at the ready... he didn’t trust Ruki and Vasili any more than he trusted the other Barovians. He needed some insurance against them...

That Holy Symbol of Ravenkind... whatever it really was... would be his and Jeeves’ best bet for safety. 

Ruki blithely walked past him... Aric matched her pace... stuck his hand in her pack... slowly... 

Got it!

He tucked and rolled with it out of sight, popping up next to Jeeves in the pew. He slipped it in his pack-

“I would like to extend an invitation to my residence in Vallaki for dinner,“ Vasili’s voice called to them.

Aric stood up, and tried to maintain a neutral face.

Vasili made a loose gesture, "It is on the northern end of Vallaki, just short of Lake Zarovich. 62 North Seaport."

Linda rejoined everyone, eager to hear their opinion. 

Ireena seemed delighted, "I think that sounds nice! How very thoughtful of you to invite people you just met into your home."

Ismark simply shrugged, "It's an alright gesture, I guess."

Aric nodded and pressed the symbol further in his pack, “Thank you Vasili, that would be much easier than going to an inn..."

Vasili seemed to be pleased at how well his invitation was received by his guests. He smiled, "Thank you, I look forward to it. Allow me to excuse myself so Mina and myself can prepare the house properly for guests."

Vasili bowed his head slightly, and departed from the church...

----

Outside, away from everyone and outside of the restricting confines of the church, Strahd looked up to the sky... 

Nightfall.

At last...  

He darted behind the gate, making sure that no one could see him... when he was comfortable, and certain that he was alone, he shed his mortal form for something more... appropriate for quick travel. 

Where Strahd once crouched, a monstrous bat the size of a man rested, just for a moment, before launching itself to the night sky... and flying north.

He had guests to entertain.

[svampirebait]

My Curse of Strahd Campaign - latest session. The Feast of St Andral.

Warning, heavy spoilers for Curse of Strahd.

So this is how our Curse of Strahd game went last night:

The party are in Vallaki staying with Fiona Wachter, the Tiefling Warlock’s long lost cousin. She thinks they will help her overthrow the Burgomaster. They agree things in Vallaki need to change but don’t want either the Burgomaster or Lady Wachter in charge.

Since arriving in town, Ireena was snatched by Izek, the Burgomaster’s henchmen. The party want to make sure she’s ok and as they’re heading there anyway Lady Wachter asks them to bring her proof of whatever the Burgomaster’s son did to drive her daughter mad.

The party ended the last session having taken Victor’s journal from his secret lab. They ran into the Burgomaster, made nice and were told that Ireena is now betrothed to Victor. She is very clearly against this.

I was about to start the session when the Druid turns to me and says:

“Question, Octopuses...”

Me: “...ahuh...”

Druid: “they can breathe air for an hour out of water. So say I summoned some. Would they have full air?”

Me *knowing I’m about to unleash hell on this town and imagining everyone being attacked by Octopuses.*: “I’m gona say, yes.”

So we start the game in the Burgomaster’s mansion. Victor, invisible, follows the rogue who snatched his journal but can’t do anything to get it back because of all the people. He settles for glaring at him from the doorway of the dining room making it very clear that he is gona get it back.

The party and Ireena discover that Lady Lydia’s old wedding dress is being altered for Ireena to wear the next day during the festival of the blazing sun. She tries to protest but the Burgomaster acts like she hasn’t said a word. The Rogue starts to loudly tell the Burgomaster that “All is not well” and there is a runour that something is happening at the Coffin Makers that will ruin the festival. They have no proof and the Burgomaster is not pleased to hear such blatant nay saying about his beloved festival. He orders Izek, who is towering over Ireena, to arrest the rogue. The Rogue dodges him and yells that the coffin maker is doing something that will hurt Ireena.

Izek runs out of the Manor to take care of the Coffin Maker ignoring the Burgomaster who is yelling after him.

The Rogue is then grabbed by two remaining guards who are told to give him 10 lashes in the town square. He’s dragged outside.

The Druid immediately says to the Burgomaster that he is perfectly right, nay sayers are terrible for putting everyone in danger and the Rogue’s punishment is clearly justified. He offers the party’s assistance in investigating the coffin maker and retrieving Izek. He’ll even give Iteena away at her wedding tomorrow.

The Burgomaster is delighted and sends the party on their way.

They follow the guards and see them stripping the rogue of his shirt and belongings in the middle of the square, before chaining his hands to a pole.

They ready the whip. The bard casts Minor illusion and from a side street a voice yells “This festival is a sham!! The Burgomaster is insane! All is not well!”

What few townsfolk are around hurridly disappear. The party even see one poor man trying to hide behind a barrel his arse sticking out as he assumes the crash position.

The guards drop everything to chase down whoever said that, leaving the party and one guard who is standing watch over the people in the town stocks.

The Tiefling warlock sneaks away and uses mask of many faces to make himself look like another guard. He walks over to the one on watch and casts suggestion:

“Have you heard the rumour that Izek is planning to marry Ireena instead of Victor? You should tell everyone.”

The guard fails his save and immediately turns to the nearest person who happens to be in the stocks and says “Have you heard-“

While he’s destracted the bard takes the rogue’s lock picks out and tries to undo the manacles with no luck. The rogue at this point is thanking the party for the great destraction but wondering what the fuck they actually plan to do about getting him out of there!

Behind them the guard is moving down the line of prisoners, “Have you heard-“

At this point the Warlock turns to me confused that the guard didn’t walk off and i answer “you told him to tell “EVERYONE””

Finally as the guards are returning the druid has the bard cast minor illusion again to make fresh whip marks appear on the rogues back. The warlock takes that moment to walk back behind a house to change back from being a guard.

The spelled guard walks up to the party “Have you heard-“

The other guards return. See the whip marks and a guard walking away and assume the sentence has been carried out. They let the rogue go with a warning to be more careful what he says in future and hand him over to his friends.

The spelled guard is in the background peering over the barrel at the man trying to hide “Have you heard-“

As the party walk away towards the coffin maker the bard asks the warlock how long the suggestion will last. “8 hours or until the task is complete” poor guy.

Meanwhile, knowing what’s at the coffin maker’s I was rolling dice behind the screen to see what happened when Izek got there. Turns out, he wasn’t doing great...I rolled the last dice and choked on my drink. The players were confused as i recovered laughed and started crossing things out on my notes for future sessions.

So they get to the Coffin Makers and see that the front door has been kicked in. As they’re debating whether to go in or not they see Van Rickton/Rictavio lurking in the shadows.

They ask why he’s there. He gives an unconvincing story about hearing strange noises. Realising the PCs don’t believe a word he very grandly reveals the shocking truth, he is none other than THE Rudolph Van Rickten, vampire hunter.

The Druid says “I know, your monkey told me.”

They team up and enter the coffin makers.

Inside they find evidence of a scuffle. Several of the empty coffins in the showroom have been broken.

They hear voices coming from beyond a door and approach. From inside a silky voice calls out that they are welcome and asks “Henrik” to let the party inside.

A terrified older man wearing carpenters clothes opens the door and tries to motion for the party to run but the voice calls him out for being rude and he quickly opens the door stepping aside for the party to enter.

Seated at a table, stroking a curled up ginger cat and sipping from a goblet is a young man, handsome with long blonde hair, wearing a pink ruffled shirt. Escher, greets the party making side comments to Henrik who is curled in on himself in the corner of the room.

Escher recognises Van Rickten but only makes a brief comment anout him looking familiar. As his eyes fall on the Vistani rogue he immediately leaves his seat and goes over declaring him to be a “beauty” and being heavily flirty.

The rogue looks up at the ceiling and after the last few days decides this is all too much. He leaves the shop to wait outside much to Escher’s disappointment.

The party ask where Izek is. Escher is evasive, meering saying about how rude Izek was. He declares what a wonderful day to make new friends seeing as how it’s the feast of St Andral. There were others staying with him and Henrik but they’ve already left to begin the “festivities”

The party asked where they went and he answers “where else my dear boy? The church of course!” He says it’s getting late and he must be going. The bard is blocking his way so he charms her. She lets him pass with a smile as he bows and takes a subtle taste of blood from her hand.

Outside the rogue was leaning up against the wall of the shop. He turns to find Escher beside him. The vampire gets close and comments on his looks again then tells him that his Master bids him to join them. Rooms are already prepared at Ravenloft for him and Escher dearly hopes that he will agree to go back with him. He tells him they’ll take their time on the journey and get to know each other a little more.

The rogue sighed and said he’d think on it. Delighted Escher left and the rogue went back inside the shop yelling that, that dude was totally a vampire!

While he was outside the party had discovered that the ginger cat had been dead for s long time, the goblet was full of blood and instead of a chair behind the table, Escher had been sitting on the fresh corpse of Isrk Strenzni.

The rogue loots him and finds an old family picture where a much younger Izek is standing with his long lost sister. Noticing the resemblance between the sister and Ireena the rogue quickly hides the picture.

The rest of the party question the coffin maker who admits to agreeing to house the vampires. His arms and neck are covered in puncture wounds where they have fed off him. The wwrlock casts froends on him and asks where the bones of saint andral are. He said he didn’t know so they all start searching for the bones. The rogue eventually finds them in a secret compartment in the upstairs bedroom.

They leave the shop and race to the church. The druid turns into a horse with the rogue on his back carrying the bones. They leave the rest of the party on foot. As they run through the streets they see Ireena running towards them and sweep her up on to the horses back.

The night is drawing in. In the distance there are screams and the glow of flames. Above their heads thunder sounds and when they glance up they see the silhouette of strahd against the clouds astride his nightmare.

When they arrive at the church they see chaos. Terrified by Strahd’s appearance the townsfolk ran to the church only to find the vampire spawn already there. The party see two vampires on the steps cheerfully feasting on the confused townsfolk.

They rolled initiative, from somewhere in the painicking crowd they hear a familiar voice yelling in terror. “HAVE YOU HEARD-“

and that’s when the game ended.

I can’t wait to run the battle in two weeks.

[thelostbarovianroyals]

Session 4: Bad Cop. Worse Cop.

or How Dorinn Crelmer Bullied A Kid. 

The party stays in Vallaki, in the Vallakovich Manor

Morning, Day 5 in Barovia.

Finnegan is gone come morning - leaving a note for Trevor & taking the tax to Strahd. 

Trevor & Lady V chat about Finnegan leaving. They also talk about rank. 

Jane has a disturbing dream about VV/VF & them being the same person. 

Scout pours over the tome, looking for something that might hint towards a weakness in Strahd. Seems to take fierce offense to being called Old Man and Tatyana’s death. 

Dorinn trances about walking along a caravan with a host of elves who look like him. Actually like him. Mt Baratok looms ahead. A woman who could be Scout teases him for his daydreaming. Wanderlust feelings seem constant in Not-Him.

It takes him a while for him to shake off the trance. Ireena tells him how she has the same problem with her dreams sometimes. Only Ismark told her not to talk about it. Dorinn thinks that is stupid. Talking can make it better sometimes. 

Ulstra also has a bizarre trance. VV adds himself to the party through Suggestion. 

Scout is concerned with how far Strahd might go to ensure his success.

She ends up trancing where she has a vision of a lake side. A bunch of punk ass brats beat up a smaller kid. They are all Elves like herself. Something was imposing about her presence that made the bullies run away. She helps the kid get cleaned up & they walk back to the village together. He says something really creepy to Not- Scout: You should leave and never come back. 

The party gathers in the kitchen to eat & drink - Scout bursts in with the Tome of Strahd. She tells them what the book is, where she found it and the knowledge that seems to be held in its pages. 

Dorinn notices that Ireena is having a hard time listening to what his sister is saying. They both suspect that Tatyana is one of those Not-Ireenas.

The Party goes to St. Andral’s. They need to talk with Father Lucian about Vargas’ death. Ulstra & Trevor talk to him with Lady V in the office. Scout notices a weird parishioner staring down her brother & Ireena. She gets close on an incredible stealth roll with her dagger ready to strike - just in case.

Trevor gets a note from Finnegan at some point: DO/NOT/TRUST/ME/THE/COUNT/IS/WATCHING/I/AM/SORRY. 

It is revealed that the Church is no longer safe as the bones of St. Andral are gone. VV is tasked with getting the party together so they can be informed but he freezes when he sees the strange woman that Scout is stalking. 

Turns out to be a vampire who goes after Ireena. Or tries. Scout shanks her as soon as she moves. Three vampire spawn bust in to assist the bitch. Scout takes some hard hits, going to half health. 

The party seems to be getting the upper hand as Scout and Ireena hack at the main Vampire woman when suddenly Strahd appears. STRAHD APPEARS. 

OH. OF COURSE.

HE IS ACCOMPANIED BY HIS EFFIN CONSORTS. INCLUDING FINNEGAN. 

((We are fucked. Cue me laughing uncontrollably till I legitimately fall out of my chair, cry-laughing.)) 

Strahd… disciplines his harem in front of the Order. The woman who attacked Ireena is one of his Brides. This is awkward as fuck. 

The bastard collects his hoes - Save Finny who is left behind to get his village under control. He just stares at the chaos left behind. 

Scout & Jane talk to Lucien about the missing bones. They conclude that it had to be Milojav who could have taken them. 

They pay a visit to the Grave Digger’s home. Dorinn bullies a teenager into telling them where the bones are hiding. At the Coffin Maker’s place who had paid him a ridiculous amount of gold for doing so. 

After this, Dorinn gives the kid 5 gold and apologizes for being so rough. His Ireena, Sister and Friends were put into serious danger. He sort of just saw red. 

The Coffin Maker’s is on the East side of the village - so they race across Vallaki. They gain entry inside under the guise of coming to collect Vargas’ casket. 

Scout sneaks upstairs. Finds what seems like a vampire nest. Leaves that well alone. She goes into the living quarters and rummages around… Ends up finding the bones. 

They make excuses and bolt from the Coffin Maker’s so they can bust back to St. Andral’s. 

The church is being cleaned up by Victor Vallakovich, Milojav, & Yeska. Jane, Dorinn, Trevor help them out. 

Scout brings the bones to Lucien & Lady V so the church can be consecrated.

LEVEL 6. 

[lycantripuwu]

Big session omg, we had to fight Izek and barely won! Mirre accepted another gift and can now summon two spicy puppys, hell hounds. He named them Grimm and Garm.

-After fighting the Nabassu, we headed to the church to drop of the body of Felix. After explaining what happened at the orphanage to Father Lucian, he sent us on the task to find St.Andrals bones which are needed to keep the church consecrated. we agreed and started on the hunt with things left at the scene. torn bits of a sweatshirt, a fishing hook, parts of a bag, a strand of hair, shovel marks inside the crypt. We needed to find these before the feast of st.andral on sunday because we assumed something bad was going to happen then.

-We went to long rest and Rhil and Jace got a bit frisky. While we slept, Jace was visited by Morgantha, the night hag and got to experience a night hag haunting. it sucked.

-the next morning after Rhil worked with Urwin in the kitchen to learn how to cook better and made breakfast. Mirre got a letter from someone named Ernast from Lady Fiona Wachter. I guess she was impressed that Mirre was able to talk down Vargas and wanted to have dinner with him and the group after sundown.

-After some shopping in town square and all of us being disgusted with the stocks. We went to the lake to ask Bluto, the fisherman about the hook and found him being attacked by drowned undead. we booked it onto the lake by boat and started the fight. Rhil, who has a bad fear of deep, open water, was the one to get pulled in and drug underwater.

-after we saved Rhil and finished the fight, a ghost navy ship pulled up and helped us. They asked for assistance with a monster thats been terrorizing the lake, saying that they couldnt rest until it was killed and we accepted. We fought a monster called the Gitrog plus its baby in its cave and came out victorious! We saved Bluto and brought him back to his shack on the lake. He thanked us as Rhil healed up his leg and we offered to come fishing with the man on a less busy day. cant wait for the fishing session with Bluto!

Mirre also found a flintlock pistol and a musket on the ship with a gunsmith kit and bullets. He actually did the finishing shot on the Gitrog momma with his pistol.

-After running to town center to sell our loot, we ran into Izek who immediately tried to pick a fight with Mirre and tied to interrogate him on why they went to the lake. Mirre explained the Gitrog fight and what happened, only to get thrown into the dirt and was searched by the guards.

This was terrifying to have happen since Mirre had his pistol on him and we arent supposed to have weapons inside vallaki, Rhil caused a small distraction and got grabbed by her throat and lifted off her feet by Izek, Jace nearly threw hands with him right then and there. Mirre nat 20'd his sleight of hand and hid his pistol. Izek spotting that Ireena was upset and terrified for us, dropped Rhil and quickly left.

Izek claimed to have stopped by Blutos and beat him near death to try and get information out of him before he left.

-We come back after some recovery and get changed into our fancier clothes and head to wachters where we have a very nice dinner and talk about the state of Vallaki. We offered to help dethrone Vargas and kill Izek who has been terrorizing and killing people in town.

We also caught Izek stalking Ireena, discovered his doll thing with Blinsky after some detect thoughts and he was harrassing the alchemist to make him a Philter of love. All bad signs for Ireena.

-We come back to the blue water inn after dinner to find the inn trashed after Izek ransacked the place while looking for Ireena and stole our armor. (Jace and Rhil's platemail and Mirre's breastplate) After helping clean up the inn we started working on our plans to kill Izek with a little bit of help from the Markitovs.

The plan was to lure him out to Bluto's shack to avoid damage and injuries in town. slip some poisoned wine into Izek's lunch and spread rumors that we were hiding away at bluto's and planned on leaving with Ireena that night.

-Mirre unsure if he would survive this fight with Izek, Left a lock box full of his monster hunter notes with Rictavio, Mirre had suspicions that Rictavio was Rudolph Van Richten after he made some subtle comments on his cane that Mirre was in possesion of and Rictavio recognized Dirrak's name. Rictavio was also rightfully pissed because Izek ransacked his room too.

-Hiding Ireena away at the Blue water in and after sneaking around and getting some fire resistant potions and spare armor and weapons from town center. Mirre went to sneak in the poisoned wines, accidentally scaring the shit out of Varga's chef and causing him to quit, Mirre met back up with Rhil and Jace at Blutos shack.

Urwin got the wolf hunters to escort Bluto to safety.

-When we arrived we found all of our confiscated armor and weapons with Blue and a bunch of other ravens sitting on the roof, Ready to help us out in the fight.

We also found a greater restoration scroll with the blood hunter symbol torn from one of the notes in Mirre's lock box that he gave to Rictavio. The restoration fixed Jace's reduced max health from the night hags nightmare hauntings.

-Izek and 6 guards showed up soon after we got our fire resistances and we started a fight with Mirre getting crit surprise longbow shot on him. Rhil, Jace, Blue and the ravens picked off the guards while Izek charged Mirre. Mirre got distance between them after luckily avoiding hits with his Curse of the eyeless and conjured a water elemental between them with a gem we found in the gitrog cave.

-we surprisingly downed Izek pretty quick, only for him to get back up super charged with a gift from Seriach, the hellhound whisperer and summoned two hell hounds to attack us. He flat out evaporated Mirre's water elemental infront of us.

-Blue and the ravens scattered in a panic and fled.

-Izek downed Jace with a crit pretty quick and was struggling to hit Rhil(Thank the platinum song for 23 ac) While Mirre flew up to the cliff to get some shots with his long bow.

A sabertooth tiger lept off the cliff where Mirre was and tore through one of the hell hounds while there were crossbow shots coming from the woods(I was fangirling so hard knowing it was Van Richen)

-Rhil eventually got taken out and it was just Mirre and Izek throwing shots at each other while the tiger was fighting the hell hounds. After two nat20's on death saves and repeatedly getting back up, Mirre tapped further into his gift and went into his form of dread, slowly whittling down Izek's health.

-Rhil tapped into her gift as well being brought back up and using her claws of darkness to finish Izek for good and ripped out his heart.

-after we rested a bit and the tiger took off into the woods. We found a amber shard similar to the once Rhil has and Mirre snatched it. Nat 1ing his wisdom save he got sucked into a commune with Seriach and accepted his gift of the hellhounds, Now having two gifts from two separate vestiges.

-we dropped off Izek's head at Wachterhaus and went back to blue water to check on Ireena and get some well deserved rest.

Mirres blood glows a bright radioactive green from his first unnamed vestige and his entire left arm is a dark blood red like Izek's from Seriach.

It was such an intense crazy fight and i'm surprised none of us died, I am getting a bit worried for Rhil and Mirre with how often they've been tapping into these gifts and getting slight mutations from them.

Now we can focus on getting the bones back to the church and put Fiona Wachter in charge.

[jorius-and-co]

Session 4: Vallaki

This session began with our heroes changing their watch in the Blue Water Inn in Vallaki -- Eda is on watch at midnight when a storm blows in, waking Bavirim. Everyone else just rolls over in their sleep. Bavirim is trying to get back to sleep when he looks out the window; in a flash of lightning, the figure of Strahd is illuminated in the pouring rain outside. With a harsh laugh, Strahd blows the windows of the Inn open, and a swarm of bats rushes in. Strahd can’t enter without invitation, but is keen to annoy our heroes and prove they aren’t safe anywhere from his harassment. 

Our heroes eliminate the bats with some difficulty -- Jorius is half asleep and fails to cast Ray of Frost, and Mir tries to fling a bat out the window but it flies right back inside. 

Eventually, they are left in a room covered in dead bats and with broken windows, and they decamp to the other room. This sets off the alarm that they had set earlier, which brings Urwin to the top of the stairs to figure out what’s going on. He gets serious: if our heroes are enemies of Strahd, he is willing to help, but he can’t have his Inn being targeted. They still don’t tell him everything but he is at least convinced that they are enemies of Strahd and he reluctantly lets the stay the night. 

The rest of their night passes uneventfully (they maintain a watch), and they achieve a short rest. Up at 11am (Mir: “This Tavern does a great fantasy brunch”), they discuss what to do about their situation. They feel it’s untenable to stay at the Inn until they’ve completed Urwin’s wine quest, but Ireena pipes up to ask them if they intend to fulfill their promise to her and Ismark. They speak to Urwin again (Bavirim: “We’re sorry for the mess; we threw all the bats out the window”), and he allows them to stay in the Inn after they promise that they will undertake the winery quest on his behalf (Urwin seems less concerned by the fact that his son is missing -- this is because he has other folk searching already).

They decide to finish the mystery of the bones, and try to figure out who the mysterious nobleman is. They visit the shop of Henrik van der Voort, the coffin maker, which is shuttered up. Their plan is to have Mir pretend to be someone who wants to buy a coffin. Henrik isn’t interested, even when Mir shouts up that he’s “in need of some coffins” and that his wife and child are dead. He finally persuades Henrik to open the door, but doesn’t get very far. Henrik asks what he wants, and when Mir says, “I’ll have two coffins, please,” Henrik tells him to come back tomorrow when they’re complete and shuts the door in his face. 

Bavirim wants to break in and rough the guy up, but Eda and Jorius resist. Jorius has a flash of inspiration and insists that they are going about this all wrong: they know that the mysterious nobleman had something to do with the theft of the bones -- why not pretend to be an agent of this nobleman, come to collect? Jorius refuses to let Mir try again, so Bavirim hides his weapons and pulls his hat down low and knocks on the door again. He successfully persuades Henrik to come down and let him in. WIth more persuasion (Bavirim was a high roller), Henrik tells him where the bones are and eventually how to collect them. He also tells them that there is a nest of vampire spawn in the next room, but that they won’t be disturbed as long as you don’t go into the room. He also asks Bavirim to relay to Vasili that he’s done his job, and to remember his promise for good business and to get the vampires out of his house. 

Bavirim rushes out with the bones and they all collect Ireena and Ismark at the Inn and rush over to the church, where the bones are put in their proper place and the church is now hallowed ground again. Everyone rejoices, Ireena agrees to stay at the church as long as they promise to take her to the Abbey later. Ismark stays with Ireena for the time being. 

It’s after midday now, and they all debate what to do next. They decide the winery is too far away (they can’t get there before dusk), so they wander around the town to explore further. They pass the Burgomaster’s mansion, where they stop a servant coming out of the house and learn about the Festival of the Blazing Sun: it’s taking place the following day, and there will be a procession and a ceremonial burning of a giant wicker sun. 

Then they visit Blinsky’s shop, and learn about the creepy Ireena dolls and Izek Strazni with his crippled arm: he makes a new doll every month to the same pattern and Izek comes to collect them. If Blinksy doesn’t make the dolls, then Izek has threatened to destroy his shop.  Everyone is convinced that a) the toys here are 100% cursed, and b) that Izek is important in some way. Mir, surprisingly, is the only one who expresses pity for the toymaker. 

They pass the Wachterhaus and stop a passerby to learn that it’s the home of Lady Fiona Wachter. They remember the mention of the Wachter brothers from the day prior, but they decide not to go in until they have a reason to talk to them or to Lady Fiona. 

They stay in the church that night, on hallowed ground, and get a long rest. 

Their third day in Vallaki, they decide to stay in town to see the Festival of the Blazing Sun, and in the crowded town square they witness the humiliation of the Burgomaster and the guard locked into the stocks. At this point a stranger covered in blood comes running into the crowd screaming for help, that something has attacked the church. 

Our heroes scramble out of the crowds and rush over to the church, where they witness the devastation taking place. Ireena and Ismark are standing a distance away, and watching in horror as several vampire spawn crawl the walls of the church, killing everyone in their path. They explain that someone must have stolen the bones again: none of them were on watch, assuming they were safe, and by the time they realized, it was too late. They lost Father Lucien in the Church and he is nowhere to be found. They all watch in shock for a bit, but all agree that it would be foolish to get into this fight, so they run back to the Inn, the only place where they might find shelter. 

The Inn is barricaded shut, but ravens line the roof. Eda tries to speak with one, and it flies down and turns into a human: Urwin’s wife. They persuade her that they’re all on the same side and she brings them inside, where they talk to Urwin. He’s still not sure if he can trust them, but he knows that enemies of Strahd are friends of his, and he promises them protection and a place to stay if they can deal with the Wizard of Wines situation. But for now, they need to get out of town. His ravens will watch from afar and provide protection as needed. 

They immediately leave for the winery, leaving Ismark and Ireena at the Inn for safekeeping, worried that they’ll just get in the way. Mir, astute as always, calls this “the road to Marovia.” 

On said road, they run into a wraith-like soldier, strangely inhuman who claims he is from the Order of the Silver Dragon. He is forgetful and easy to rile, but only interested in killing Strahd’s minions. He explains that he is under oath, and encourages the party to visit Argynvostholt. Eda/Jorius recall the lore necessary to identify this man as a Revenant, an undead creature who dies violently and whose spirit returns to its body seeking revenge. 

They see a giant spooky house on the road to the winery. 

At the winery, Davian Martikov and his family appear out of the woods (Jorius: “Hey, buddy!”), and they wave the party over and explain what’s going on: three evil druids have taken over the winery. He also explains some history of the winery. Basically, way back before anyone remembers, a wizard came here with three magic gems which he planted in the ground, making it fertile and lush. They’ve been growing grapes with this magic ever since. But 10 years ago, the first gem was stolen (Davian blames Urwin for the loss). Just three weeks ago, another gem was taken (NB: I didn’t explain this but should have: Davian believes the 2nd gem was stolen by Baba Lysaga. Five days ago, the druids came back for the final gem, carrying it away to Yester Hill, and they returned with their blights to take over the winery).  

Davian urges the party to return the gems to the winery if they can. But for now they need to deal with the immediate druid problem. 

Bavirim immediately makes two malatov cocktails with empty bottles and rags he finds in a storeroom, and they begin to methodically explore the winery. They almost immediately run into the first druid in the fermentation room, with her twig blights. Jorius’ magic missile almost immediately wipes out the twig blights, and Bavirim teleports to behind the druid on the balcony and stabs her in the neck. The druid casts thunderwave, and Bav takes tons of damage as he’s thrown from the balcony. Eventually the druid casts entangle, and Jorius and Mir are trapped (they’re both shouting at Eda, “SHOOT HER!”). Eda does shoot her, right between the eyes, killing her immediately. 

Alone in the room, they try to heal Bavirim a bit. Jorius tries to use the rock of healing but it fails and basically just throws a rock at Bavirim’s face. Mir casts healing word. 

Mir breaks the lock to the veranda with his dwarven credit card easily, but there’s nothing there. 

Jorius searches the druid’s body and discovers the poison. Bavirim immediately fills an empty bottle with poison wine to carry around... just in case. Eda uses her purify food and drink scroll on the wine. 

Exploring further, they encounter the second druid in the printing room. Jorius surprises the druid and the vine blights with Ice Knife. Bavirim stabs the second druid to death fairly quickly, but the vine blights prove more of a challenge: both Eda and Mir are constricted by the injured blights and take damage. 

In the guest rooms, Mir rifles through some lockers and takes the flaming horse toy he finds. Jorius thinks this is mean. 

They now go down to the cellar, where they are sure they’ll find the third druid. Mir and Bavirim successfully stealth their way to the foot of the staircase, but don’t perceive much in the room. Bavirim fails a stealth check as he goes further into the cellar, and their cover is blown. The final druid casts thunderwave, which doesn’t reach them but bursts 20 wine bottles with a deafening crash and five needle blights come swarming out. Bavirim chucks his unlit molotov cocktail bottles at the blights and succeeds in covering them with oil. He then casts prestidigitation to light the blights on fire (we use bonfire as a guide to damage). All take some damage. One of the needles stabs Jorius and does some serious damage. Mir casts bardic inspiration on Jorius, and after the druid casts thunderwave again, Bavirim and Jorius are both hurting. Bavirim, also direly injured, finally kills the druid and falls over in a faint. After the needle blights are eliminated, Jorius goes over to the druid and recovers the Gulthias Staff. 

When we end, the party is debating how/if to use the Gulthias staff and plans to return with the wine to the Blue Water Inn. They have leveled up to 5. 

[livs-dnd-recap]

Session 4: Something is rotten in the city of Vallaki

Our Cast of characters: x

Vallaki

We arrive in Vallaki, and with some convincing the guards allow us to enter the city, mostly because of the siblings.

Inside, it looks like the city is preparing for some kind of festival. 

Ismark pays us for completing our end of the bargain, and he and Ireena part ways with our group, Ireena heading to the church and Ismark the local tavern. 

We decide to head towards the Inn/Tavern ourselves. It’s fairly normal inside, or at least as normal as ‘taxidermied wolf heads on pikes as table decorations’ can be. The lower floor is the tavern, and an open second floor rings the room with balconies and the rooms of the inn. 

Gren speaks with the barkeep, and we learn that two patrons sitting at a table are the hunters responsible for all of the wolf trophies that decorate the town and Inn. These two are the only ones who venture out at night.

Ayla asks about the festival preparations, and the barkeep explains that the city is preparing for a Sun Festival held every year where the citizens burn a slain wolf carcass as a sacrifice to the Sun God to protect the city. 

We find out that a strange man came through the town around a week prior, and spoke to the city’s coffin-maker shortly before the bones of a saint were stolen from beneath the church. 

Rizzo and Norix go to speak to the hunters, Rizzo accidentally speaking to and freaking out a pair of strangers first.

The hunters speak with us and warn us against going into the forest, because of how dangerous it is, especially at night. We tell them that we had just traveled through the forests for several days without incident, and the hunters are wary, telling us that we must be blessed in some way to have such luck.

At this point, Ayla decides to go for a fly and check out the layout of the city. During this, she notices that the rooftops are abnormally full of ravens, and in the distant sky, a swarm of bats is flying away from the city towards the castle Ravenholm. 

Clow goes for a walk, and discovers a saber toothed tiger being kept in a barred cart. While investigating it, he notices two cloaked figures entering a nearby mansion. 

Gren, meanwhile, has a vision of the white cat, which waits for her to follow it. She does so after transforming into a cat herself, and it leads her to the church where a service is ending. Gren shifts back and speaks with the priest, who tells her about a rivalry between the city’s Burgermeister and a woman named Lady Fiona, who has been suspected of leading followers in devil worship. 

The priest also tells Gren of a child orphan who was adopted from the city recently, who they have not heard word from since leaving towards a town called ‘Krezk’ with their new adoptive parents. 

The party regroups at the Tavern, and share our new information. We ask the barkeep if she might know where Krezk is, worried that the child may have been a victim of the witches we’d killed, and are relieved to find that the town is several miles south of Vallaki, no where near the mill.

We take a room for the night, and are woken by the crowing of a rooster as morning dawns on the first sunny day since arriving in this realm. 

The party heads out to the shops to stock up on supplies. There, Ayla is drawn to a wand, which feels like an extension of herself and her magic. The others stock up on monster fighting gear, and from the shop we split up and part of the party decide to go to the church and have our weapons blessed. 

At the church, we see Ireena again, and the Priest blesses our weapons, but warns us that it is only temporary and will wear off. 

We chat with Father Lucien, and learn that he does not agree with the Burgermeister’s Sun Festival, and finds it barbaric. 

Meanwhile, Hazel and Gren had split off to visit the coffin-maker. They arrive at the shop to find a drab building, and an even more drab man inside. They’re able to convince the coffin-maker that they are from a ‘Coffin Institute’ there to check his records, and he allows them inside. 

They ask him about the strange man who had visited before the bones of St Andreas were stolen, but the coffin-maker tells them he hadn’t left a name. He does tell them, however, that the man asked him to ‘take care of his friends’ and warns Gren not to open the coffins in his workshop. Unfortunately, this is said while Hazel is in the act of opening one of them and she catches a glimpse of the person inside opening his eyes and looking back at her before she closes the lid once more (the spooky scary skeletons song begins to play in the distance)

The party regroups, and as we head back towards the church to investigate the room the bones were stolen from, we run into the Burgermeister, who is out spreading the word about the festival. He speaks to us and invites us all to join him at his mansion for dinner. We accept and continue on to the church.

Upon investigating the chest where the bones were being kept, we find signs that it was an inexpert robbery, leaving tool marks behind. 

We go to speak to the gravedigger, an ill tempered young man who takes some convincing before he’ll speak to us. He describes his experience of the night the bones were stolen, that he heard the sound of metal breaking and went out to investigate, where he saw the strange man who spoke to the coffin-maker. From his description, we realize with some dread that the strange man was Strahd himself. 

Strahd being able to enter the city, and potentially the church means Ireena is still likely in danger. We go to warn her and she thanks us for the heads up, reassuring us that she will be on guard.

While we are there, Lady Fiona stops by the church carrying a ceremonial dagger she wishes to have blessed by the priest. Its hilt bears a skull and arm bones, and the entire thing is crafted from silver. 

We chat with her while the priest blesses the knife, and she tells us that she has no faith in the Burgermeister or his festivals, which is why she has been preforming her own rituals at her home, where they sacrifice dark beasts from the forest. She invites us to join her that evening, and half the party agrees. 

That evening, the party splits, some going to the Burgermeister’s for the dinner he invited us to, and the others going to Lady Fiona’s.

The Burgermeister’s house shows how run down the city is, and the food isn’t great, but the group attending have no issues and leave unharmed.

At Lady Fiona’s, however, the party members attending are welcomed inside. Lady Fiona explains that she plans to end all evil that night, and as they enter the ceremony room, they are all bound in chains to an announcement that they are to be the night’s sacrifices. Redacted, only Norix is chained and locked inside the ceremony room.

The ceremony begins, but something strange happens. Instead of the party being killed, it is the cult members who are slaughtered in an instant, as something is summoned in the center of the room. He is a pale, young man in dark robes, and as he looks around, he greets Norix warmly as a friend.

[bruno-in-barovia]

Session Four, Part One

Opal shook off the shock first. She pointed out the wolves that our party had managed to kill and suggested that we make use of the corpses, seeing as we were low on resources.

Elliott checked in on Ireena with Ismark. I knelt by Donavich’s body to see how he could have been killed with that one bite. All I was able to see was that there was a lot less blood than I would expect from a body his size. Huh.

As she headed to start skinning one of the wolves, Opal suddenly shouted to Zazear that she had seen “a kid running that way” and pointed to the corner of the chapel. He took off in the direction she had pointed to find out what was going on.

That handled, we returned to our tasks. Ismark got our attention next.

“Listen, Strahd could come back at any time. You need to get out of here.”

“I mean, he bit Ireena,” Elliott pointed out. “Shouldn’t we be concerned about that?”

“Well, this is the first time, but you need to get going. Father Donavich is the only person who knows how to deal with this, and he’s dead.”

I asked him what “this” meant. Ismark gestured at Ireena’s neck and the two punctures from when the dread lord had bitten her. Seriously, I need answers about this biting thing. Ismark said that a priest in one of the other towns might have an idea of what to do, either that or an abbott who he says lives in a farther village called Krezk. I’m a little confused about the specific danger of a bite from Strahd. We saw it kill Father Donavich, but Ireena, Haku and Lith all seemed fine once they’d had a little healing magic.

Ismark expressed a lot of faith in us, given that we’re strangers to him. He said we handled ourselves well against Strahd, all things considered.

Elliott was a little incredulous at that. “He kicked our asses.”

“All things considered,” Ismark repeated. Yikes. How in over our heads are we?

I could hear the screaming start up again from the direction of the chapel. Well, better now than never. I asked Elliott and Ismark about it.

“Now is not the time.” Ismark seemed pretty adamant about that, but my question knocked something loose for Elliott. He turned to Ismark.

“With the priest dead... I know that he was working towards some sort of solution with the…”

“You’re welcome to check his notes, see if you can find a cure. Actually, that might be good for Ireena. I’ll help, if you want…” He has very intense eyes, as I found when he turned them on me. “Would you help?”

“Sure,” I stammered. “With what?” Help? Helping is good. Helping hot twunks is great. 

“Uh, the priest’s son, Strahd did something—”

“What’s the whole biting thing?” I admit I kind of exploded there, but seriously, it felt like everyone knew something I didn’t, and that was bothering me, and if Ismark was going to connect Ireena with this other person, it sounded like the bite thing was important, and I just, I don’t understand what’s going on. I don’t.

Ismark looked about as frustrated as I felt. “All right. So. You’re clearly not from here. Strahd is a vampire.”

“A what?”

“A vampire. So he can do all kinds of crazy magic stuff and I don’t really know what that entails, but somehow he managed to turn Donavich’s son into a vampire. And Donavich has him trapped in the basement, he’s been trying to save him, but… well, clearly he hasn’t succeeded yet.”

Whoa. I would have liked a minute to process all that, but the conversation moved on. Elliott was on board with going through Father Donavich’s notes, as was I once my head had stopped spinning. Ismark insisted that we needed to be fast, to get out of the village of Barovia as soon as possible, so Elliott and I hurried to the priest’s study. Ireena and Ismark followed, Ireena stopping in the chapel to sit down for a bit. We skimmed through the papers and books, looking for anything that might be useful. Which was hard because I had no idea what would be useful. I had to ask how “vampire” is spelled, for Moirta’s sake. I found a sack and put the things that seemed most promising into it, about a dozen books’ worth. After all, they wouldn’t be any good to Father Donavich now. There wasn’t much that seemed explicitly useful, but some things did, and I probably picked up a fair number that weren’t relevant along the way.

Five minutes later, Zazear came tearing in, calling for the two of us. He explained between breaths that the kid Opal had pointed out for him to follow had alerted the town to our presence, and the townspeople were heading our way—with pitchforks. So we needed to go. I asked about Donavich’s son, in the basement—would he be okay if we left? No one offered an answer.

Elliott asked Ismark why the townspeople would be coming for us. Ismark wasn’t sure but said that he might be able to calm them down so long as it was just him that they saw when they arrived. If they saw us, he said, they would riot. Ismark asked if we would be willing to leave Lancelot, the little dog from the death house, with him. “It would look nice if I had something non-threatening with me, and that dog is the least threatening thing I’ve seen in a long time.” Elliott agreed, both to add to the harmless appearance and because, quite frankly, he’d be a burden if we kept travelling with him.

Our party gathered behind the church while Ismark took Lancelot and started down the road toward the approaching mob. Opal and Lith only managed to get a few sections of wolf pelt taken off, and they decided it wasn’t worth bringing those along. We headed in the opposite direction, to put some distance between us and the village before we could get on the road to Vallaki.