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[the-mist-striders]

Episode 10: Otter Hands

So we got our weapons back after departing the orphanage. We decide to do a long rest so that we can get our spell slots and wild shapes back. 

On the way we found the guy Blinsky (the toy maker guy) described as the dude that keeps commissioning dolls of Ireena (lady we brought here with us and dropped off at the church)

He's the barons right hand man and everyone seems afraid of him

We do see them tearing down the decorations of the last festival as they set up the next

They have festivals non stop that are mandatory to attend

Every sign advertises the upcoming festival as "the greatest celebration of the year"

Jeebus this town is sick of festivals

Anyway we chill at the church while Liliya has a breather to contemplate her existence as someone who should be dead but isn't

Meets up with the elf that she talked to at the bar

He's some carnival guy with an angry big cat in a box that we have yet to see. His name is Rictavio.

They talk about the Vestani more and the nearby camp that probably has the dusk elf Kai is looking for

(Like a true bro  )

Meanwhile Kai and Amahlia as humans need longer rest times so we do sleep. Both are sleep talking, Amahlia is using Fauna as a lap pillow

Oh, before Kai went to sleep she did talk to the priest and warn him about the Izak (the guy being really creepy about Ireena with his doll commissions) Fauna is meanwhile warning Ireena of the creepy dude

Amahlia was sleeping

"So this guy isn't a church goer?"

"Alas he is not. She should be safe here"

"What can you tell me about Izak?"

"I'm not sure. He serves my brother."

tfw you find out the priest is the barons brother

Amahlia randomly in her sleep sits up "-so we’ll need to finish him off"

Everyone is confused

Amahlia drops back down and resumes sleeping

So irl what happened is my sister cut in and said that and it made no sense in the context of what was last said. She had no idea what she was talking about. So we just said it was sleep talking

Anyway we finish resting at sunset

It's getting dark, which is dangerous in this setting but were too dumb to be afraid 

We have to find Borat, the guy who bought the bones off of Milovaj

His name isn't actually borat but I can't remember his name

Anyway

We talk to the guards and discover he usually is back inside the gates by now, but last he was there he headed right back out with a mysterious sack over his shoulder

We are pretty sure it's the bones

He hasn't returned so we suspect he may be in danger

Can't afford to head out in the morning. So the party heads out into the mist at night

We track his footprints, we see that they do go towards the Vistani camp, we think he tried selling the bones to them. We do however find more fresher prints heading north. Kai and Fauna turn into horses and book it to see if  they can catch him

Dude went real out of his way

Like what the fuck

We track him to a massive lake, he's on a boat at the lake center and struggling to throw a sack off his boat

The sack, its moving

So. This is where the session got into shenanigans

Fauna turns into a beaver and is going after the sack sinking into the lake

Kai turns into a very cursed looking river otter (no matter the form she has a hole where her eyes should be)

Goes right for the boat

Whispers into his mind "it is I... an angel... what did you throw off the boaat"

Hes drunk

Looks at his bottle like "what the fuck"

Yeets it off the boat

Meanwhile back on shore Amahlia fucking dives In after Fauna and is swimming

This is a big lake btw

Lucerian and Liliya take a boat and are trying to stealthily row

Amahlia is rolling really fuckin well. 

Fam she for a bit was outswimming the boat

Kai is still tormenting the drunk man

He's mumbling about how the Vistani were laughing at him

Kai does sense a mind in the sack, broadcasts to Fauna that there's probably a Vistani in the sack

Does keep in contact to see if she needs help

Fauna does successfully get to the sack

Rolls a fuckin nat 20 to resurface

Just fuckin rockets to the surface

Amahlia is caught up to by Lucerian and Liliya in a boat. They grab her by the back of her outfit and haul her on the boat

Fauna takes the sack to their boat and inside the sack is a

Vistani child, about 11 years old

Liliya is pissed

Btw this entire time Kai is in his head like "what did you dooo" and "confess your sins to me"

Liliya as a cleric stabilizes the girl

Borat is fuckin mad about it and readies a javilin

So realistically borat is very inebriated and probably would have only hurt himself with it

But Kai panics and rolls to flip his boat over with her otter hands

Nat 20

Yeet

Hes drowning

#oh-yeah-we-need-him-alive-to-tell-us-where-the-bones-are

Reluctantly Kai and Amahlia go save him

So there was a communication mishap here

I thought we were pulling him back onto his boat

But this didn't happen

But still the dm allowed me to do cpr on him with my otter hands

Hes floating in the water

It works tho??

Because fuck it

I rolled really fukin well

So now there is a guy dead-man’s floating in the water as an otter launches itself up and down on his chest while making distraught noises, somehow waterboarding the man and doing CPR at the same time.

That communication is cleared up and we do haul him on the boat

Hes stable

But knocked out

Kai is slapping him with her otter hands

Otter hands however were not made for slapping

Kai give Amahlia permission to slap his stupid face

Liliya is like "make it hurt"

Amahlia slapped him two times and he vomits

All over himself

We take both passed out people back to the gates

Likely they won't let us back in

But we try anyway

Liliya is the most charismatic mother fucker in the Mist Striders

So we elect her to do the persuasion

It's a very high DC she'll need to meet

Liliya decides to hold the girl in a bundle and scream "HEELLPPP"

Which does spook them

But she rolls a nat 20

we rolled real damn good

They let us in against their better judgment

And we take everyone to the inn, debating the next best move to *finally* find these fucking bones.

Session end ✨️

Side Notes:

We did do some rolling on the side over some other things around the middle

So, rumors of Fauna being an angel will continue to spread

To the point where a month from now there will be a festival dedicated to the angel

Bitches are going to be painting themselves blue with wear prosthetic elf ears

With animal plushies because rumors cannot settle on the kind of animal she has

Also they think she's working alone, except for a red demon she combats (Amahlia)

Because the children saw Amahlia outside the orphanage and she was real scary

The baron tho is going to love the angel rumor and try to squash the red demon rumor #wishhimluck

The web of lies continues :)))

#all-because-Kai-panicked-one-fuckin-time

I'd like to add that many time in the part with the lake both dms were looking like they were losing 2 years off  their life. Also when rolling about how well the "Fauna being an angel" travels about the city

Both dms while Kai is doing cpr as an otter while still in the water

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[the-mist-striders]

Episode 9: Demon In The Attic

So we left off with the demon emerging from Felix who was sitting on a chair and carving a weird doll

Kai hits the panic button and broadcasts to Lucerian and Liliya that there's a demon. Before going up Liliya sends the headmistress to fetch Amahlia

Oh and we don't have our weapons

The ones we left to get silver tipped that is

Session started with combat :)))

So the squad keeps their distance from the demon, Fauna gets away to prepare an entangle spell. Unfortunately Kai is in range so she holds that move for Kai to get away

Lucerian just has his bow and arrows, though he is fuckin nailing the thing with the shots fired.

Anyway the demon has a turn before Kai :)))

And Kai is now the only one who is close

So basically Kai is like "ohshit" and that's all the time she has before it slashes her with massive claws of black shadowy tendrils

It tears through her armor and she's bleeding bad. 

It crawls up the wall and onto the ceiling hovering above Fauna and Liliya 

Kai focuses on healing herself as she retreats back. 

The head mistress reached Amahlia and she is now on her way.

Fauna uses entangle and now it's restrained on the ceiling like a nightmarish piñata

Lucerian is still nailing it real good and Liliya hits it with sacred flame. Fauna tries to hit it with a thorn whip and misses

Its too restrained to attack

Kai casts eat shit and die guiding bolt. She’s fuckin pissed and puts all of it into that strike of radiant damage. This doesn’t kill it, but it’s hardly hanging on as it dangles helplessly from the ceiling.

Fauna tries again to thorn whip and misses

#you're doing great sweetie

It struggles and cries, managing to stumble free from the vines. As it crawls back to Felix, it’s beloved meat shield, it smuggly taunts “Hah, You would hurt the b-”

Liliya cuts it off by summoning a holy pillar and conjuring a blast of sacred fire.

#rest in piss demon

We check on Felix. He wakes up with a sharp inhale and starts sobbing

It turns out that he saw everything the demon did. Back seating in his own body

He watched his own hands kill his parents, and later shove Cedric out a window in a spat, followed by cursing all the other children with the runes.

Amahlia arrives

#what'd I miss

We fill her in

Fauna convinces Felix that she's an angel btw

Everyone in this orphanage thinks she's an angel

Amazing

We got him down from the attic. Fauna presents the boy to the headmistress.  Says that we cleansed him and exorcized the demon, all in this angelic voice.

The headmistress is grateful

We check on Milovaj because we need to find out where the bones went

Milovaj is awake, alive and looking much better

Has no memory of Kai or Fauna

Milovaj too believes that Fauna is an angel

Everyone is rolling low on insight

#amazing

We ask about the saints bones

He lies and pretends to not know

Everyone can tell he's bullshitting except Amahlia who is just in awe of Fauna

In a cute moment Amahlia gets on a knee and in reverence kisses Fauna's hand. 

Anyway we get him to talk

He sold em for 11 silver 

Which uh

A rip off

We do find out tho that he sold the bones to a fisherman that Liliya heard mentioned in conversation with the nobles that morning.

Kai, Lucerian, and Liliya gently inform him that he was scammed 

Amahlia calls him dumb

"Wh..what?" Milovaj blinked

"That's one gold piece at a minimum" Amahlia condescends

Milovaj informed us that he never has seen a gold coin in his life

To which Amahlia threw one at him

He stares at it in wide eyed disbelief

Amahlia starts throwing silver coins at him and he isn't even acknowledging them except for a hollow "ow"

Meanwhile the rest of us are giving the headmistress 40 gold coins and they're in fucking t e a r s

Sobbing about the blessing this angel has brought upon them

Not questioning the bat in her hair. They probably think all angels have a pet bat at this point

They want to erect a statue of the Fauna

Kai and Liliya mention that the toy maker Blinsky is making dolls of them and that they can purchase those toys as something doubling as a reminder that they're safe

we did it. We solved the orphanages problem and Blinksy's "nobody is buying my toys" problem at the same time

The orphanage is now named after the party; The Orphanage of The Mist Striders. 

They told the headmistress we'd take Felix to the church just in case and we'd destroy the amulet he was using which actually translated to "were going to sell this shit because it's not cursed anymore"

Anyway yeah that's how Kai panicked and  convinced an entire orphanage that Fauna is actually an angel

And lordt what a bunch of philanthropists they ended up being.

Also they made sure to get our weapons from the blacksmith so yay

Amahlia did yeet Kai a healing potion when she did get into the attic

Said "you owe me!"

"Bitch I got you laid!"

also Milivoj got to keep all the coins Amahlia threw at him, causing him to be the richest kid in town probably. 

Next stop; Finding the fisherman.

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News & Updates - Edits incoming soon

Hey everyone, apologies that the updates are very spotty, I’m not very good at remembering to update this.

So we got a few things to cover;

1. Amahlia’s player is working on adapting these into a video format! We haven’t published any yet but stay tuned. Here’s a link to the channel so you can go give them a follow early: The Mist Striders (YouTube)

//Edit: if you just got here the below news will be confusing. Feel free to call it good here

2. Since we wanted to do an adaption of the sessions we kind of encountered a few issues. This is what the rest of this post will be about and I will be detailing spoilers in order to address it, so feel free to keep scrolling and not click ‘Read more” if you want to stay spoiler free. You have been warned.

So one of the things is that Imil died so early into the campaign that he didn’t get a portrait made. We want this fact to be less obvious in the adaption (and here too, it always kind of bothered me) it also would help a lot with the video part of the format.

This by itself isn’t an issue however. It’s the real world context of the table that is.

We had a table dynamic that shifted more and more negative that led to a fallout between Imil & Liliya’s player and Amahlia’s player. Imil/Liliya’s player (understandably) left the table, the terms of which are a bit grey and vary from player to player.

So my first idea was to draw Imil from memory, this however isn’t an option because I hardly remember what he looked like and didn’t have access to the ref image that was used.

Second idea was to request permission + some details on what Imil looked like. I am no longer in contact with her so I asked someone who still was if they could ask.

After a month or two, this contact told me that It would be better to just replace Imil with a (similar) new character, and Liliya as well. I didn’t want to pry too much, and am choosing to trust the contact’s intuition that it would be bad to ask (sometimes even a simple question can be salt on ones wounds).

Long story short, I will be swapping Imil’s name for “Cinderell” a character we’re kind of putting together as a group. Haven’t gone far enough to plot out who is replacing Liliya yet.

The actions committed by the two characters will mostly remain intact since we can’t diverge much without changing the whole story.

I’ll be working on some episodes again so expect a burst of updates soon after the updates are complete <3

-Kai’s Player

[the-mist-striders]

Just Kai in her skull helmet look ~

[the-mist-striders]

Chapter 8: Origins of The Angel

We go back to the inn, and have lunch while Liliya chats up the patrons (since she doesn't need to eat)

Kai requests the most tasteless thing on the menu, and ends up with raw beets.

Kellog would be proud of her, except maybe he'd be disappointed that she doesn't get yogurt enemas

Anywho we as a party agreed to solve the church's "somebody stole the saints bones and now our church is defenseless against the monsters that would attack us because we're housing someone Strahd "marked"" problem

Coz it's a bit of a liability to leave a Strahd magnet in the city's church

Liliya does ask around for information about other things, such as the whereabouts of the dusk elf that Kai is seeking (in hopes he can stop the growing void in her face) some details on the windmill.

Liliya tries to hit on some nobles and gets rejected (she rolled too low) she meets an elf who does give us some leads as to which Vistani camp has the dusk elf and the fact that the pie lady lives at the windmill we found (that we technically own now... so like... is she trespassing actually??)

Anywho after we all eat we go to church ⛪️

The party asks to speak with the alter boy who was the only other person who knew where the bones were

We ask if he told anyone and he's like "... No..."

Kai determines this is a lie by "tophing it up" (Which for people who haven't seen ATLA means she's barefoot and sensing through the ground if he's lying)

Surprise surprise he's lying. We convince him to tell us who he told, it was an older boy named Milivoj who was asking him if anything valuable was at the church

After assuring the boy that he didn't do anything wrong and making sure the priest won't beat him we gather info of where Milivoj is. Turns out he helps out at the city orphanage.

The party devises a scheme ✨️

Liliya and Lucerian pretend to be a married couple as we have Amahlia wait outside (because she'd scare the kids. Also her player was feeling unwell and was happy to be sidelined)

Kai and Fauna as druids use wild shape to sneak around in the meantime

Kai turns into a flea, Fauna turns into a rat which Kai rides on

Soo weird shit is happening in this chillies orphanage

The kids are covered in bruises that the orphanage staff can't figure the origin for

Kai does a ton of medicine checks to see what her professional opinion is. I rolled well so she got the information she could. Basically they look like they've been savagely beaten

She examined some girls (as a flea) using their own eyes as they played dolls

The dolls they were playing involved them killing each other. This is played to be ominous and a result of the dark world they live in... though… I am pretty sure this is normal for little girls.

Anywho we got the info we could from that and decide to keep exploring

The druids find a kitchen, the only noteworthy thing being a missing butcher knife. Kai checks for dust to see if it's been missing long. No dust. Nada. A kid is wandering around with a butcher knife yall, this is not a drill

Next they head to some bedrooms and find a filthy room with a strange older boy writhing around as I'd having a nightmare

If Kai had a better relationship with her Quori spirit I could have had her read the dream but alas Kai does not have this  

(Context: Kai is a Kalashtar which is a humanoid that comes from the union of human and Quori spirit. Quori spirits dominate the dream realm, this is how they can perform telepathy)

Kai slips into human form, fauna crawls onto of the boy and covers his mouth as she too resumes form

Kai does medicine checks on the boy and Casts detect magic to determine if he's cursed with something and if so - what?

Loe and behold it's a spell of the necromancy persuasion. Just as Kai checks his vitals to make sure the kid isn't a zombie his eyes open.

He's fuckin confused

Eyes dart about

But he's hardly comatose, he's in awful condition and not even verbal enough to make a muffled noise. Cautiously Kai requests Fauna to uncover his mouth. He remains unable to speak

Kai casts lesser restoration, this allows the boy to speak for a solid minute. He confirms that he's Milivoj and that he's in a lot of pain before being unable to speak again. Kai is able to determine that Milivoj isn't long for this world. So Kai sets out to find the cleric (Liliya) because if anyone can help him it's her. Fauna volunteers to stay behind and monitor the boy

Kai turns into a chameleon, climbs out a window, and up to the second floor which is where Liliya and Lucerian are at that moment

While this was happening Liliya and Lucerian had been talking to the headmistress of the orphanage.

Headmistress talks about how things went to shit after they took in a boy named Felix whose parents were killed

Felix is a weird ass child who's arrival marked a decline in quality of life at the orphanage.  The kids are plagued with nightmares, bruises too of unidentified origins. A kid named Cedric fell out the 2nd floor window and is now in critical condition. Runes appeared carved in the bed frames too that they can't identify

Lucerian and Liliya can speak Celestial and Abyssal between the two of them so they can decipher the runes

"Dark dreams" is what they say

Normal decor for your kids room ✨️

Notably they can't seem to find Felix either

It's here when Kai as a chameleon gets within range to speak into Liliya's mind that they found Milivoj and he's about to die.

The headmistress watches as Liliya's demeanor immediately changes from normal to concern. Then watches her go off to the side of the hall to pick up a chameleon, which notably has no eyes and a void where they should be.

Headmistress : uh what whatcha got there

Liliya: oh its my pet chameleon.

Kai:* flicking her tongue even tho I don't think chameleons actually do that*

Liliya: also uhm. I must go! My goddess demands I go help Milivoj

The head mistress is confused

Like how did this cleric even know who Milivoj is?

Or where he was?

But she does buy into the explanation that this was some form of divine intervention.

They go into his room and

Uh

Fauna is just there

She wasn't hiding or in an animal form

Just standing there

Head mistress is like "Uh… Who is that?"

Kai speaks into her mind in Faunas voice : "it is I. I am an angel sent to help"

Fauna is clued in with a separate telepathic message of “psst. Play along” before she can break the deception.

"Ah uhm yes. It is I. An angel" Fauna bullshits along with Kai.

Dm rolls to see if the headmistress buys into it

Nat1

Headmistress will believe literally anything we tell her

"Are all angels blue like you?" She asks, fascinated

"Uh.. yeah we come in all forms" Fauna continues to bullshit

Anyway meanwhile Liliya is using magic to keep him from dying, it's not enough to cure the boy but it does keep him alive

"Anyway I must go. My work here is done" Fauna says before turning into a cricket, effectively vanishing into thin air as far as the eye can see. 

Liliya also uses "detect good and evil" which is a cleric spell. She detects a presence of evil in a locket Felix came to the orphanage with.

We figure it's time to find Felix. So they task Kai and Fauna to go find him while they investigate further.

The druids dont find him anywhere on the ground level or second floor, so they go to the attic

There's hardly any furnishings in the old dusty attic and a single window to the outside

In the ray of sunshine there's a boy with his back turned to the attic entrance

Kai climbs up the walls and on the ceiling to get closer and remain undetected

With Fauna riding on Kai coz ig it's her turn to be the steed

Then the boy just says (unprovoked) "you don't need to hide like that"

After a moment of stunned silence she speaks into his mind "May I ask how you knew someone with wild shape was near you?"

"Oh, my friends told me" he ominously answers. Kai crawls down the wall and resumes human form, but Fauna remains a cricket.

Kai sees he's using the butcher knife from the kitchen to carve a wooden doll

"Whatcha got there"

"Oh just a doll."

"Is it a special kind of doll?"

"Only if someone wants to use it :))" he says as he stabs the knife into the doll's eye.

This is fine

Normal kid behavior

"May I ask who your "friends"are"

"Oh they're around" :)))

Kai is essentially pushing the panic button as she tries to play it cool

And by panic button I mean she's broadcasting to Liliya and Lucerian that they found Felix and the boy is fuckin weird

Liliya and Lucerian receive this message and cut their conversation short with the head mistress and dash for the attic after telling the head mistress to go get the lady they left outside (Amahlia) and tell her to go to the attic.

Liliya and Lucerian arrive

"Oh I was waiting for you to join me. I can't wait for you to bleed… that Cedric didn't bleed much.. but my parents did" Felix delightfully says as the window he sat in front of starts to supernaturally dim

A shadowy mass pulls itself up from behind the boy and in a dark voice that I did not expect my DM to voice act nearly as well as he did says

"̴M̸o̸r̷t̵a̴l̴ ̵a̴n̸t̵s̵;̶ ̸I̴ ̷h̵a̴v̸e̶ ̵s̶e̷e̴n̵ ̶t̴h̵e̸ ̴s̸h̸a̴d̸o̶w̸s̶ ̴o̶f̸ ̶t̸h̴e̷ ̷G̸r̶e̶a̷t̶ ̶P̴o̴w̵e̵r̶s̴ ̵m̷o̷v̸i̷n̴g̴ ̶t̶h̶r̵o̶u̸g̵h̴ ̸t̸h̷e̵ ̸D̸a̶r̷k̴ ̷S̶e̴a̸s̶ ̸a̸r̴o̵u̴n̴d̸ ̷t̷h̴i̸s̸ ̴s̶p̵h̴e̷r̸e̷.̷ ̴Y̷o̶u̷r̶ ̴p̶a̶l̸t̷r̴y̶ ̶m̸a̷g̷i̷c̵s̶ ̷a̴r̴e̷ ̵n̸o̷t̶h̵i̸n̵g̷.̷"̴

As the party realizes that battle will soon commence- Lucerian reaches for his weapon, pauses and in distress cries out “SHIT MY WEAPONS ARE STILL AT THE BLACKSMITH"

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Episode 7: Party Bonding

So we made it to Vallaki, the City Ismark wanted us to deliver Ireena to. Our quest was to drop her off at the church, however we stopped by the inn to hang out and have some character bonding ✨️

Fauna buys Kai a drink; it's water because she refuses to drink alcohol the reason given being "I was born because of alcohol"

After some confused silence she elaborates that her mother was drunk when conceiving her.

Kai then says "ok, so we'll be traveling together a lot so I should tell you guys to never let me go anywhere alone with a guy. I am asking you all to be the biggest cock blockers in all the land"

"Second, if my hole gets bigger..” she pauses, realizing that sounded dirty “-I mean if my face hole gets bigger- I will start losing self control and may need you to restrain me."

Meanwhile at the same table Lilya is drinking the booze™️

Lucerian is there too and Fauna. Amahlia is passed out on the table. Probably tired from all the fake smiling and forced friendly demeanor she's been having to do for the -checks watch- last 5 minutes

Fauna starts talking up Lucerian to Kai. Saying that he's strong, reliable, and a provider

Kai: my curse makes me super fertile 

Fauna: he'd make an excellent father 

Kai (deadpan): if I have a child I will die

Nobody asks to elaborate they just go #oh

Lilya is sitting next to Lucerian, Lucerian is flirting with her, she's nervous and is clearly into Lucerian but doesn't know he's flirting with her.

Kai is into Lucerian (tho only carnally) and has the galaxy brain moment of "if those two got together he'd be easier to resist"

Uses her telepathy to speak into Lilya's head "he's flirting with you btw"

Causing Lilya to blush and start to drink a bit more to get herself tipsy, unable to flirt unless drunk

Lilya while drunk is like (Slurred @ Lucerian) "Youu stabbed me"

This would be confusing if everyone at the table didn't already deduce that Liliya has Cinderell’s memories.

Kai asks Fauna what was up with the fortune teller talking about "self discovery" when going over Fauna's fortune

So back story time for Fauna and Lucerian✨️

So a thing in elvish culture is that there's a ritual they do to earn their second name. Their original is the name given at birth, the second name by some kind of rite

Fauna never got hers, because their entire clan was wiped out while Lucerian(the older brother) was out hunting for his ritual. He came back with everyone dead and a baby Fauna laying in a tree trunk. Because of this Fauna never got her ritual because the clan is dead

Lucerian is driven by rage and revenge, while Fauna is self discovery

"And that's how my entire clan died" is the line Amahlia wakes up to from Fauna, followed by Kai saying in deadpan "my dad killed my entire family"

to which Fauna's player said "trauma bonding!" And we all clanged our glasses together

At this point Lucerian and Liliya are making out at the table.

Kai is like "fuck yeah girl. Make him unavailable to me" as she streams "careless whisper" into Liliya's mind

#an excellent use of Psionic power

Fauna does ask Amahlia about what her deal is and Amahlia says she doesn't really know who she is either. We all failed our insight checks so we all are just like "Yeah that checks"

Anyway Amahlia starts trying to hit on Fauna and it's fuckin weird

Amahlia is like "wuzzuppp"

"I normally want to kill things, but you I don't want to kill"

peak pickup lines

Kai is still at the table btw

Fauna expresses some interest in Kai and Amahlia gets weirdly competitive and it's the most one sided thing ever 

Amahlia:  "ok but I don't have a weirdly shaped head"

Kai: "Ouch. That's a low blow"

Amahlia: "I atleast have eyes" 

Kai: "Why are you being so competitive, I'm not taking Fauna from you" 

Lucerian and Liliya start getting up from the tavern and Fauna- not having it- grabs Lucerian's sleeve

"Don't do it." Fauna says with a stone cold glare at a drunken Liliya, Lucerian himself is also pretty inebriated. He opens his mouth to protest, but stops himself, agrees its a bad idea and sits back down.

Fauna is like "I'm going to take a bath, if you want to help wash me ;3" At Amahlia, Amahlia however has 1 brain cell and doesn't realize she's hitting on her

Kai slips into Amahlia's mind like "Hey idiot, she's flirting with you"

Amahlia- who was previously sitting there confused screams “OH SHIT” before taking off after Fauna.

Kai goes to her single person room like “woo i successfully failed to get laid. Now it's just you and me mammoth tusk :)”

They reconvene in an hour to head to the church to drop off Ireena

The party observes that they seem to be setting up for a festival, and they seem tired of festivals. Apparently the Duke is throwing festivals twice a week or some shit. The people are tired as fuck of festivals

Even more odd, whenever a city guard walks by-the people tense up and fake a smile

Implying that happiness has become mandated here 

They find the church that they would drop Ireena off too. The church looks like shit, as if a single attack would probably knock the bitch down.

Priest asks to speak privately with the cleric, apparently the church had some holy relics stolen and the church was no longer being protected by their deity fucking gods man.

Lilya wants to- after mass - go investigate who took the relics so that she can peacefully leave Irene there. Otherwise she will attract Strahds attention and he will likely burn that church down

But while mass happens we go shopping

Kai is like "I want a helmet. -looks around, sees a ton of wolf heads on spikes- ah. Perfect." -takes it off the pike and calls Fauna over to help make a wolf skull helmet-

#just girly things

Got us some silver weapons, and some warm clothes. We go to a apothecary (potions shop) whose clerk doesn't seem to know anything about alchemy or what the potions do- but god damn he's going to upsell it

The party decides to haggle for it, Fauna decides that this by itself isn’t enough so she sleight of hands some extra gold.

Afterwards they then for funsies go to the toy shop because why the fuck not

Meet Blinksy

It’s Him

A heavy set man who's speaks in a heavy Russian accent with a pet monkey

He also sells the weirdest fuckin toys

We got a toy executioner +guillotine

A marionette of Strahd (whom Kai looks at and goes "ehe. See I knew he was ugly")

The dolls all look uncanny, realistic with their mouths and eyes stitched closed

There also a doll that has a striking resemblance to Ireena

Apparently someone keeps commissioning the doll, he makes one for each month and probably had an obscene amount of Irene dolls

He does it because he's singly handedly keeping his shop open. His toys don't sell well for some reason :(((

Fauna requests a top hat for 3B

He takes the executioners hood off of the execution toys set and gives it to her

Fauna keeps rolling to successfully put it on the bats head. He's loudly complaining in a jersey accent (that only Fauna can hear) like "why are you doing this to meee"

Amahlia commissions a 3b plushy

oh Amahlia is feeling sofft

They do commission an actual top hat

We also try explaining to him that he could in bulk make plushies of 3b and his own pet monkey Piccolo

He's like "oh I make piccolo with an executioner's mask?"

Lilya: noo. Uh. Make it look just like Piccolo. Nothing else

Blinksy: ohhh so I make him like this? *gestures at the dolls that have their mouths and eyes stitched shit

Kai: no no no, make it look cute. Children love cute things

Blinsky:

We single handedly revolutionize how this man makes toys

They do buy Kai the Strahd marionette so that they can burn it later 

Lucerian gets a bat-mobile

By that I mean a mobile like the ones above baby beds. It's all bats flying in a circle

We tip him handsomely and agree out of game that we would burn the world for Blinsky

Blinsky also is going to make toys of us, asks us what the name of our band is

They all put their heads together and come up with a name

“The Mist Striders”

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[the-mist-striders]

Episode 6: A Ride to Vallaki

Kai is told to seek a Vistani dusk elf, eager she sets out to ask around the camp

Except there's one small problem

A lot of the men are gorgeous

Not just that, but they're her type

IE; tall dark haired roguish types

She approaches the campfire. Freezes. Whimpers "why are they all hot"

Lilliya whispering: I don't know. We just have really good genes

Luciren and fauna hear this, and have no idea how to process that conversation.

Anyway there are Vistani dancing around the fire

There's music

Looks like a good time

A hot one tossed his scarf around Kai and has dragged her into the dance circle

She's as tense as a log

She only manages to stay upright because the guy is passing his performance rolls, otherwise she'd just go -thunk- on the ground

Lilliya being a bro smoothly starts dancing into the circle and switches places with Kai to get her out of there

This is when she's handed off to Lucerain, the only dude in the party, and a guy who does also match her type

He slings her over his shoulder

Rip Kai

Dm requests a con save for Kai

Nat1

The dam has burst

She's covered in sweat

#@the d20 die: “ Hey bro what the fuck”

She's making a string of weird "eeeeeeeeEEEEEeee" noises that would unsettle anyone in any situation.

A feeling that doesn’t belong to her is threatening to take the reins. She’s shaking in Lucerian’s arms, wanting nothing more than for him to drop her, conflicting directly against an alien force inside her.

Finally she manages a coherent but very high pitched "let me down"

He lets her down. The party is confused.

After taking a breather and a very long chug of her water skin she manages to pull her head covering up to expose the hole in her head

Gestures to it

“This Curse… It wants more than my head… It’s genetic, and demands I make more for it to feed on…”

There’s a moment of silence among the group as they register what she is alluding to.

“It makes me feel things…” She shakes her head violently

Fauna gives her an understanding nod, signaling she has no need to keep forcing herself to speak.

Anyway meanwhile Lilliya asks about the dusk elf in Kai's stead, gets some Intel on a separate Vistani caravan. Liliya is the true mvp

The day is young, so they set out on the road cutting through the woods

A nice brisk walk in the mists

How relaxing

They reach this large open gate with corpses strewn about, posed as a warning

#thats-pretty-neat. Anyway let's go

They hear hooves approaching. They ain't trusting shit, so the party is hiding behind the gates, trees, or bushes except for Liliya. Liliya stays out just in case and assumes that since Vistani are a normal sight around here she's probably the safest

It rides to where we are

Stops

We see it

Its this fucker

Its holding an unlit lantern

Holds it up. 

Looks around. 

We all fail our stealth rolls 

But it doesn't attack. It just twitches and convulses. Screams, then rides off

At this time it's getting dark

Amalia took this to be an insult

Is like "Imma kill it"

Starts fucking running after a dude that's on fucking horseback

Lilya trips her and Lucerian grabs her

She is not happy about it. Is struggling and thrashing

Fauna goes to her murder gf, cups her hands around her face and pleads with her to calm down

Amahlia isn't pleased by how we won't let her kill things

Lilia goes to slap her, Kai stops the slap by thrusting her staff in the way.

Fauna hands Amahlia 3B, the bat she keeps in her hair. Offers to let her pet him to calm down

3B isn't happy about it. 

He’s screeching "how could you betray meeeee"

Only Fauna hears this. Everyone else just hears distressed bat screeching

Fauna :see he's so happy that you're petting him :)))

Amalia doesn't hurt 3B. But the petting is unpleasant for him 

We find a Mill surrounded by standing stones 

Thing is, this wind mill is referenced a fuckin lot

But subtly- so I kept forgetting to mention it

It was on the murals/wallpapers in the Death shit-house, we also have the deed to it that was found in there as well.

In Faunas prophesy the mill is also referenced

Before Kai knocks on the wall to "see" inside, Lilya suggests we drop off Ireena because when on an escort mission, it's best to get rid of them first

She pauses. Shrugs. "ok."

Kai and Fauna have a galaxy brained moment

Realize that they can both turn into horses and carry the rest of the party to the town we need to get to much faster/easier

Neigh neigh motherfuckers

Kai turns into a black horse with a hole in her head just like in her true form. Tbh she doesn't look out of place in this fucking weird land

Fauna turns into a fancy, pretty horse that wouldn’t look out of place in a MLP cartoon.

Luciren does at first try to ride Kai. Kai isn't fukin having it so he's riding Fauna instead

Amahlia calls dibs on Fauna because gf

So Kai has heath ledgers sister and Lillya

Everything's chill till we see an open grave with bones scattered

Now there's something about going through a murder house that kills the sense of curiosity

It was a big steaming cup of "nope, the fuck not"

We keep trucking

Lillya's player suddenly asks the dm to have the riders roll to keep on the horses

Luciren's player is like:

Liliya fails her roll and now I'm down a rider

Lillya tells us to keep walking, she'll just catch up

Horse Kai is like:

"Get the fuck back on my back"

Lillya keeps insisting we just keep going

Fauna meanwhile is like "k." And keeps trotting

Lillya keeps on insisting that she will just catch up to us???

Like come on m8

Anyway everyone's gangsta until they hear a bunch of wolves howling close by

A scene of Lilliya running while screaming ensues as I'm going at a slower pace but am also hauling ass too so that she can make it back on

Wolves are like "FOOOODD"

She is pulled back up onto the horse

We book it, and manage to outrun the wolves

We made it to the gate.

Fauna stops immediately when she notices the gate, flinging everyone on her back off in the process

the fucking whiplash

We change back to normal because there's no way they're letting in a horse with a void where it's eyes should be

Fauna asks Amahlia to be "honey with extra sugar"

We talk our way past the guard

"Wow!! I Love your speeaar:))))))) It looks soooo eFfective! Haha :))))" -Amahlia’s tone is so sickly sweet that it comes back around to hostile, causing them to be intimidated as they watch the party enter the city.

Congrats guys, we have successfully brought Ireena to Vallaki! Now we just need to not screw this up!

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[the-mist-striders]

Episode 5: The Tarot

So last we left off we got this dead guy to the church so that his last rites can be done, and he can go and get buried. Before getting there though in the distance we see the priest drag a body into the chapel.

We needed to persuade him to hurry and do the last rites

We don't see the body he dragged in 

#sus

Then we hear "FATHER IM HUNGRY" being bellowed from a mysterious basement

He just wants us to take him on a late night McDonald's run. No biggy

We ask the priest what's up with that

Hes shifty as fuck, says nothing is wrong

So Kai, Fauna and Amahlia go and see what's up with that while Lucerian and Lilliya are focused on last rites 

We find tracks, locate a room with the body stashed in and a trap door to the basement. Very normal stuff. The priest begs us to not go down there. Informs us that his son was visited by Strahd and now required uh. A special diet

Kai prods a bit and confirms that the priest is in fact killing people for his son

Amahlia is like "imma kill him" 

Amahlia No

Lilliya convinces the priest to let us kill his son, putting his son out of his misery

Priest is a broken man. Says "just make it quick and painless"

Kai, Lilliya, and Lucerian go to the basement to kill the lad

We forbid Amahlia from going with us because Amahlia is kind of a murder hobo. So we have Fauna babysit her outside

The vampire boi is scuttling around in the dark. We locate him, and Lilliya offers to let him drink from her wrist so that they can talk

His name is Dorul

Doru is like "but I wanna drain you all the way tho. All of u"

We tried to the very end to make his death quick and painless but Doru has like… 1 brain cell and that brain cell is hungry

He fucking lunges at Kai because he thinks she'll be easier to take out

Surree go for the blind bitch. I see u

Combat is initiated

He did try to bite Kai but failed.

Not sure if you'd even wanna drink cursed blood but idk

Our "quick and painless" attempt to put Doru out of his miserable existence becomes a bunch of loud noises and him screaming

Dorus father listening in as the adventurers loudly struggle to kill him quickly

At the end he is in the bargaining stage of grief

Begs us to not kill him and instead use him

Says he'll eat our enemies

When that doesn't work he says "I'll do anything you wannt"

Lilliya is like "we want you to die"

He eventually dies. Ismark does superstitious rituals like cutting off Dorus head, burning the remains, shoving garlic in Dorus mouth, normal shit

Btw it was pretty funny at the end of Dorus fight because we had him in a corner and we were just beating the shit out of him

A weird side note: the dm showed a picture of him from the book and like. Every woman with an inkling of maternal instinct was like "aweee" meanwhile I'm thinking he looks like a younger Tommy Wisau

Anyway after we successfully killed him quick and painlessly we find the father being a fuckin mess

Hes eyeballing a rope hanging from the ceiling

Lilliya does talk-no-jutsu to keep him from killing himself and to instead try to bring hope back to the village. Ismark is like "oh shit that's a fire idea. Sorry sister, I know I said I'd escort you to that safer village but I now have a new purpose. Hey adventurers we just met, can you escort her?"

In the background Kai is getting the rope off the ceiling and stashing it in her bag

The last rites for Ismark's dad are done and we have lowered the body into the grave. It's midnight and we get to see what this "midnight parade" the locals are talking about is

It's a long line of the ghosts of adventurers before us who tried to take on Strahd just walking off a cliff single file

And while this is intimidating the idea is kind of funny to me because the line just keeps fucking going and never stops. Like I get it- holy shit how could we succeed when so many failed- but at the same time this is a very comical amount of dead people

So as Fauna watched a comically long line of dead adventurers go off the cliff edge of Strahd's castle (which is perched on a mountain) she has a mental breakdown

Fauna in the midst of the meltdown asks “Does a place like this even need heroes?"

Kai says "well I'll die anyway. May as well die faster"

Amahlia: "I can help"

Liliya: “It’s places like this that need heroes the most”

3 kinds of people

We stay the night at the church as the priest is under suicide watch.

Kai is the guardian of the rope.

The priest before bed has pie with Fauna. Causing them to have blissful dreams (the pies have that effect)

The next morning we set out to meet madam Ava, who according to the group of Vistani wanted to see us. We're taken to a clearing next to a lake full of tents. 

Btw at this Vistani camp there's a Ton of roguish looking dudes who are total snaccs

RiP Kai is dead

Pour one of for Kai 😔🍾

and Rip to the mammoth tusk she carries with her 

We go straight for madam ava 

And are like

Because it's the fucking lady that brought us here and gave us the tarot cards

She tells us in very riddle-y vague terms how to stop Strahd and where everyone should start on their personal goals. Each character got a tarot card.

“ 3 treasures to help kill Strahd”

“The avenger- (Luciren) this treasure lies in a dragon's house. Hands was once clean, now its corrupted Knowledge of the ancient will better still help you understand the enemy.”

“Healer (Amalia) Tells of a powerful force of good and for protection, a holy symbol of great hope, Look to the west. Find a pool blessed by the white of the white sun.”

“Charlatan. (Fauna) This is a card of power and strength. Tells of a weapon of vengeance. A sword of sunlight. I see where you can find it. A lonely mill on a precipice”

“Seer (Kai) This card sheds light on one who will help you greatly in the battle against darkness. Look for a dusk elf. He has suffered a great loss and is haunted by dark dreams. Help him and he will help you”

“Marionette (Liliya) Your enemy is a creature of darkness whose powers are more than immortality Look to great heights. Find the beating heart, the castle, he waits nearby.”

With the direct yet vague instruction of what they should do next, the party must figure out their next move

Please remember to keep Kai in your thoughts and prayers as she survives these trying times of being trapped in a camp of hot guys

😔🙏

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[the-mist-striders]

Episode 4: The World's Most Sort-of Competent Pallbearers

Note: So dm did a little rewinding, not a retcon because it didn't break anything we did, but he did allow a character moment between the siblings Lucerian and Fauna since they were pretending to not know Amalia and Kai since Amalia was screaming about wanting to kill the entire family inside as Kai was trying to drag her out as the father is threatening Amahlia with a broom

Fauna is fucking pissed that Lucerian tried to sacrifice himself. Lucerian defends his actions, saying he wanted to be sure Fauna could make it out of the murder house, and he knew he could trust the rest if the party to sacrifice themselves

So Lucerian promises to never do that again.

He did however also ask her why she bonded with the crazy lady and not the more tame blind lady

Fauna had no idea Amalia was a crazy bitch, thought she only threatened to kill the kids, beat the shit out of empty suits of armor, and murdered the taxidermy wolves because the house was a weird situation

#ah ignorance is bliss

Fauna says “I just hope we won't have to betray them, like with our last party” 

It's a Shame Kai an/or Amalia were distracted and didn't hear that

#cant meta-game

Fast forwarding through the already established scenes in the general goods store and to where we left off- heading to the inn

The town looks desolate

Some of the homes look ransacked

Some look boarded up

In the window of a boarded up home we spot someone moving around inside 

Normal shit

The town is colorless and dreary. Like twilight with its blue filter except the filter is piss yellow

An old woman in the distance is pushing a cart, knocks on a door, the family cautiously answers.

The old lady sells pies apparently

And the family is addicted to the stuff

So much so that they're in debt to the old woman

They make up for it by lending their first born (a 6 year old) to the old lady to do housework

Normal stuff

Kai doesn't trust anyone. Is convinced the pies are spiked

Amahlia theorizes that she's using children in her pies

Fauna just wants a pie

Kai used detect poison, she asked specific questions and was reading her internal reactions in order to sus out why the fuck a family would be this addicted to pies

It turns to a conversation about the town and Count Strahd, whose castle is visible from there in the mountains

She implies that every night something happens. Refuses to elaborate. Says it's beyond description

#wow thanks

Pie lady talks about how Strahd is a cruel demon of a ruler

Fauna buys an apple pie

Amahlia hands the lady her tarot card and asks what's up with the card

Old lady is reading the message on the card

Not realizing that Amahlia is fucking running away

Old lady is innocently confused as to why that happens. Asks Kai to bring it back to her. Kai declines, says it tends to find its own way back, thus wrapping up this interaction

In the distance there's a wailing. The dog (Lancelot Is reacting. Struggling against Fauna's carrier. Fauna is reluctant to bring the puppy home but alas Kai convinces her it's the right thing to do

His owner is loudly wailing "GERTRUDA" In her home. Answering the door when Kai knocks, Fauna hands Lancelot over. The woman requests we find her daughter Gertruda. Gives no clues except for a very shitty doll with botched bodily proportions and an awkward smug look drawn on its face.

For some reason Kai is the one the mother requests this from and ends up putting the doll in her satchel

(Why are characters who are supposed to be quiet always end up doing more of the talking?

then again nobody in the party has the charisma skill.

Totally won't end up biting us in the ass at some point)

After that's done Fauna does decide to try discussing Amahlias behavior

She says "have you ever heard the phrase 'it's easier to attract ants to honey than to vinegar"

Amahlia blinks "what the fuck is Honey"

Turns out Amahlia lives on a diet of salted pork

Kai chimes in to help convince Amahlia to be less crazy

We reach a compromise to where we with a password of sorts can permit Amahlia to go apeshit. Using "honey" for "pls keep it together " and vinegar  (or "smash") for when Amahlia should be intimidating and violent

Causing Amahlia to start speaking in an extremely fake and exaggerated chipper voice with a smile that doesn't reach the eyes. As a side note I would like to add that every-time she talks this way Amahlia rolls for intimidation because of how terrifying it is.

They head to the inn and this creeps out the bartender as we discuss rooms + a thing to bathe in since they all smell like sewage water

#squad goals

The bartender/ innkeep is like a DMV worker. His soul is gone, his eyebags dark with a voice void of cheer. He's always "cleaning" a glass using a rag that's actually not very clean

Takes some persuasion to get a room, since this town fukin hates outsiders

In the corner there are some well dressed folks making fun of a guy who looks like Heath Ledger in a language none of the party speaks

One of them- a guy who resembled that one guy who got kicked out of Saudi Arabia (?) For being too handsome approaches Kai, nearly killing her instantly

(This guy)

Kai internally again (bass boosted)

She has a weakness for handsome rogues + a certain condition that is out of her control.

He has his hand on her shoulder and asks her to come talk with him and his Troupe of strangely not dreary lads

Alexa play wake me up inside.

Amahlia saves Kai's ass (literally) by in a fucking fake cheery voice saying "oh she's not social :)))"

Guy says "that's too bad" winks at Kai and fucks right off

Pictured: Kai internally

Very weakly says "thank you"

the girls are bonding guis

He tries again when Kai is away from the group

She pulls out 2 cloths, shoves one in her mouth balled up, and wraps the other around her mouth and fucking book's it for her room. Yes this is a very normal reaction, Kai is fine guys.

Meanwhile heath ledger asks Lucerian to take the group to his family manor later

Dm asks me "Kai doing anything before bed" with a shit eating grin

I with a straight face respond "oh the usual"

Nobody at the table questions it.

Btw Kai called dibs on the single room

That night everyone else ate at the bar. Fauna is the only one that trusts the pies. Kai lives on a diet inspired by Kellogg himself, eating a raw and unseasoned potato because spices and sweets are too horny

Fauna mentions that they keep having her pay for shit

Amahlia reaches Into her pocket to pay her back

Pulls out tarot card

Amahlia just drops it to the floor and goes back into her pouch

Pays her back (yay)

She wakes up with her blind fold off

Feels her face and in horror realizes that her *situation* has gotten worse over night.

That these lands are effecting her condition and may be speeding it up

Because of this *condition* her original blindfold no longer fits on her head. She with a heavy heart gets out another blind fold that she carried around just in case this happened. It’s a tighter fit and covers the top half of her head, including the bridge of her nose.

Shaken, she leaves her room, Fauna notices the shape of her head is different.  Bizarrely flat around the eyes

Fauna asks if she can help in some way (not knowing what the fuck is even going on)

Kai is too shaken to speak. She just shakes her head

Fauna being a true bro knows she doesn't want to be touched, just sends good vibes that Kai can sense

She appreciatively nods her head

Coincidently my dice rolls started to suck, which we easily say is because she's shaken from the speeding up of her death

So as all of this is happening, the new character Cinderell’s player made to replace Cinderell walks into a bar

The well dressed people go as white as a sheet

"You're supposed to be dead"

They do the superstitious equivalent of making a cross on your chest

Well... cultural equivalent

Her name is Liliya. 

Liliya doesn't remember much of who she is

Turns out the well dressed bitches are "Vistani" (I hope I spelled it correctly) outsiders in Barovia (where we currently are)

Her Vistani pals are sus about their friend being alive

Liliya is a stranger to the party, but she feels like she recognizes them

Another odd thing about Liliya is the holy symbol she is wearing

It's Cinderell's holy symbol

Liliya notes that something about this group makes her feel.. familiar... but it reminds her of a place surrounded with water.

Kai feels sus, so she rummaged through Cinderell's gear (which he left with her before sacrificing himself on an alar) and pulls out his signet ring

Liliya looks at it, tenses up and shoves it away.

#hmmm

Kai bribes the bartender for further details on whatever the event at night is that everyone keeps referring to in vague ways.. Bartender mentions that they should be fine as long as they don't join the parade

Kai also plays detective and asks around for details on Gertruda and her disappearance. Doesn't really learn anything new, just that people think she ran away into the mist and that they're sure Strahd got to her and she's as good as dead

Also Getruda is like. 17.

Kool

The people bullying Heath Ledger invite us to go with them to meet a woman named Madam Ava. They agree to do it tomorrow after they visit heath ledgers manor to see what he wants

Manor looks like shit

No windows

Blood splatter

Scratches all over the exterior walls

#ideal summer home

Cautiously heath ledger let's us into his totally legit house

Walls are also covered in holy symbols

#interesting

Also there's a dead body in a casket

Its starting to rot

Very normal

Liliya originally doesn't follow us, she doesn't know us and doesn't trust us. But does change her mind when given a strong feeling that we were going to die unless she came to help

me hearing the Dm say this as a player:

So the gist of Heath Ledger's deal;

His actual name is Ismark, and his sister's name is Ireena. He and his sister were once a powerful family who fell from grace, their father is dead and they wish to bury him in the family crypt.. an entire block away

They need help because no matter what time of day or night people harass them. So they need the help if some fighters to keep away danger

Oh and Heath Ledger's sister was visited by Strahd one night (has a visible vampire bite too) and suspiciously the minions of Strahd who keep assaulting the house don't attack her

Nothing suspicious for us to be concerned for

We agree to help them after tugging on our heart strings

4 of us are carrying the casket

Kai and Fauna are watching for attackers

Because uh

apparently at night the streets are full of wolves and angry bats

Fauna at the back keeps the wolves at bay

Bats are attacking us from above

A bat rips Kai's face covering off, but everyone is too preoccupied to notice yet

Suddenly I get higher rolls again. Ig Kai just has nothing to lose at this point

Kai does also keep wolves at bay

The church is a few steps away. The pallbearers are exhausted

A priest is dragging something long and oddly shaped into the church. We're close behind and make it inside

The party sees what she was covering up this whole time

A vanta black void that seems to go on forever where her eyes and upper bridge of the nose should be, the edges revealing bits of bone and tissue

Everyone ( except heath ledger and his sister who aren't looking) did not know what to expect, but it certainly wasn't that.

Fauna just

Gives her a shirt she can wrap her head with

An act of compassion- but I did for a sec interpret it as "o_o... cover that back up"

The crew is yelling for the priest to grant the dead guy his last rights

He says he’s too busy and won’t tell us why

After Liliya threatens to do the rites instead he finally agrees to help

The party then hears a loud "FATHER I’M HUNGRY"

I have a feeling the voice isn't asking for the priest to go get Mcdonalds

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[the-mist-striders]

Episode 3.5: Welcome to Barovia

As of now they had just arrived to the town

There's a few things tho

So our sewage smelling asses are seeking an inn because despite them being in that house for 2 in game hours or so they're tired as fuck

The town looks abandoned

But Kai knows people are home, because someone was in range for her to detect their mind and read it

A kid that just wants to play outside and their mother wishing the outsiders would just leave town

Kai and Fauna as druids also want to get this dog home because an adventure isn't a good place for a dog

Tho fauna is reluctant to leave the dog to their owners

Kai uses a druid ability to talk to animals, asks the dog where he lives, and reads his mind. Getting a view of what the house looks like. Tabling that for now tho they want to find an inn

Kai knocks on their door

The father answers by telling them to get the fuck out of town

"Sooner you tell us where the inn is the sooner we're out of your hair"

He kind of just points in the general direction of the inn

He thinks "bloody servants of Strahd should just leave"

Kai- being a mind reader out loud says "oh we don't serve Strahd"

#oops.jpg

Dude freaks the fuck out

Screams

Amahlia having another galaxy brain moment rolls for intimidation

Threatens to kill all of them

Fauna and Lucerian are pretending to not know Kai or Amalia

Amalia fucking breaks their door down

The mother and son are in the corner terrified and sobbing. The father is terrified and trying to push us back with a broom

Screaming Incoherently

#Cinderell has been dead for like. 20 minutes and already we dissolve into chaos

Fauna drags Amalia out of the house as Kai in deadpan just says "nobody will believe you."

(to which the co-dm said "who are you- Robin Williams?)

They find a store. Go in and ask the shop-keep for directions. Amalia asks to buy a new javelin. The assistant is big strong and fucking stupid.

Pictured: Kai internally

He also clearly likes her (because my dm is evil) so Kai just pulls her hood down to cover herself

Normally a javelin would be 1 gold coin. They are selling it for 5

Amalia is pissed and is Karen-ing it up with the assistant

When this goes nowhere she asks Kai to seduce him. Kai weakly is like "noo"

Fauna pays just to solve the problem.

[This episode is short because it technically happened at the tail end of 3]

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[the-mist-striders]

Episode 3: One Must Die

So we last left off with the party realizing they’re fucked.

I would also like to mention that this is the top floor of the manor. As far as we can tell at a glance this is it. 

Kai does her echo-location thing and finds a secret door in the master bedroom- a spiral staircase down

Congratulations to the party! We found the basement that's supposed to have monsters in it

And it's very... basementy

Spooks part ????/????

Anyway, they find a locked room. Fauna presents a key she found in the study. Unlocks it and there's 2 child sized skeletons on the floor

The clothes matching the kids that led us in here

:)))

So the actual ghosts of the kids materialize and they talk to the party.

They say their mom locked them into the room to keep them safe

They starved to death

#Mother of the year award

Cinderell, being a paladin of the Raven Queen asks where they'd like to be buried. They say they want to be with their mom and dad. The paladin with the help of Lucerian scoop up all the bones and have them in some kind of sack. When this happens the kids possess Cinderell and Lucerian. Lucerian suddenly becomes meek and Cinderell becomes a bit more bossy.

We go into another room and it's full of corpses too

Fauna triggers a trap

A trap in the form of the angry maid’s spirit

Kai runs the fuck away because she not equipped for this shit

Lucerian runs the fuck away too and nearly yeets Kai’s blind ass down the staircase (but I succeeded in a dex save)

So me and Cinderell’s player do hatch a plan while Amahlia and Fauna fight the ghost

I have herbs, Cinderell is a paladin, and a match to burn the herbs. Cinderell does some chanting, takes by herbs, hauls ass to the box filled with the maids bones, and yeets the herbs inside. Setting the box on fire

While this happens the maid is balls deep into Amahlia

By this I mean the maid is fondling her guts

And is on her death saves

Amahlia is dying

Kai steps up and fucking book's it across the room towards the distracted wraith and wacks it so hard from behind that it finishes it off

Kai uses a healing spell and saves Amahlia's ass

Please no one notice how I keep changing how certain names are spelled, I can only edit this so much.

They rest, they level up and heal, tiem for the next floor below

They find absolute darkness. No longer do their surroundings resemble a home, it's a dungeon. A crypt

Kai hears distant chanting

Can't pinpoint what they're saying

When she mentions this the rest of the party hears it

#this is fine

The kids nudge the paladins towards the mothers burial crypt. They leave the bones there, releasing their spirits. They also fetch the fathers corpse from the noose and place him in his grave.

They press on, Amahlia is the only human and thus can't see

Must be rough

Lucerian is holding Amahlia's torch, he nearly lights up a room with it before Kai stops him

In the process revealing her telepathic nature by speaking directly into his mind

You see, she can hear something in that room

Its big and has many legs

And it was the quietest way to stop him

She reveals that this whole time she could read their minds

Fauna is embarrassed because she sings the theme song of my little pony internally every time she's spooked

Please no one question where she could have heard the my little pony theme song we are in a dungeon ffs.

Fauna also discovers she can talk to animals (because she leveled up as a druid)

Turns out the dog has an Aussie accent.

Who knew

Btw this is what the dog looks like

3B, The bat in her hair is also constantly panicking because he has no idea what's going on at any given moment. Also 3B has a jersey accent. 

Kai, using herself as a radio of sorts we navigate deeper, passing messages around telepathically and listening for enemies

I knew a blind telepath would make a useful party member

However, they do get jumped by 3 ghouls

Because I failed my rolls for Kai to see it coming

They manage to avoid most traps/encounters using Kai's senses, but sometimes my dice will be like "fuck you. have a low #"

Amalia dashes ahead to smash some ghouls

Now mind you the halls are narrow

Amalia only gets past Kai because she flattened against a wall to make room

Should I mention Kai uses a crossbow and how nobody questioned ever why a blind woman is using a crossbow

(She uses other people's eyes ( and her own senses at times) to aim)

So uh

Lucerian can't hit any of the ghouls because Amalia is in the way

So he has a bright idea

To fucking try jumping over her

Amahlia is an average height adult woman and he's slightly taller and covered in heavy armor

As decided by a series of rolls between Amahlia and Lucerian - here's how that went

They fucked it up

Lucerian knocks Amahlia down, sending them both to a dog pile on the ground

Cinderell has an idea too! Basically he wants to go up and around in attempt to flank the ghouls

Says "I got this!" Takes off into the dark hall

Next the party hears is a loud bang as Cinderell steps on a floor trap with spikes below

Cinderell passes the dex save, grabs the ledge and pulls themselves up

#ideal party moment

Oh but what's this?

The party is making a lot of noise

A giant caterpillar/worm like thing emerges from the hallway that Kai heard it crawling around in

It has fangs and tentacles

And craves our meat

And its Kai whose first on the menu

Oh, and fauna turned into a cat, got past everyone and joined the fight. She left 3B and the dog behind to keep the animals out of danger.

They did pass a check to detect the worms arrival and to be smart enough to run away

#the dog is ok

So I won't sugar coat. Kai gets her ass beat

It's fukin rough. It uses poison damage that paralyzes

So Kai wasn't able to do much even when I could pass a constitution save

Cinderell makes his way to the back finally

The woerm is chewing on Kai’s head

Kai accepts this as her cue, turns into a rat and makes a dash

Cinderell smashes it with their battleaxe

Its dead bitches

Kai heals her own ass

The ghouls are dead

They managed to survive

...for now

They find a statue of a dude and a colorful glowing orb

Fauna needs to be held back so that she doesn't grab it

There are strange shadows in this room and we can feel eyes on us ... watching

Oh and there's skeletons chained to the wall... they sure do know how to decorate

They find a door

Cinderell and Kai don't trust nothing

Kai detects magic on the door. Cinderell shoots it activating a trap that would eat you if you tried to open it

Totally normal stuff

Everyone in the party is just like "fuck this house"

Amahlia looks down and the tarot card is back

She rips it and moves on

They find a room with a chest of magical shit that Kai can see with borrowed eyeballs + detect magic

But bro

We didn't even touch anything

Cinderell just

Looked at a painting

And out comes a ghoul like thing

I don't think it was a ghoul, something stronger smarter and maybe harder to kill

Not sure

Because that thing was fucking ganged up on on sight

The party was #done and out for blood

Little bitch died

Oh and the reason we didn't know it was there was because I failed 3 perception checks in a fucking row

Which btw Kai is now toph'ing it up and going barefoot because I'll be damned we get jumped by another ghoul popping out of the ground

No one can smell her boot feet because the air is already putrid from all the ghouls and that woerms insides 

In true spirit of #fuck this house we didn't bother with the rest of the floor. They went down the stairs that Cinderell found when he tried to flank the ghouls

When they reached the lower floor they could now understand the chanting they heard on the floor above

"Strahd is ancient, he is the land"

to which the squad starts roasting the chanting. Kai personally did it by saying "I fucking get it! Strahd is old and strahd is dirt! Who cares!"

"strahd is older than dirt'- Amahlia I think, idk

We find a room full of alters with different things on a pedestal

Random shit like clotted blood in a glass, a dried patch of skin, dragon tooth wrapped in wire, a lock of hair, shit like that

What's funny is this setup is for a ritual that isn't a thing. It does nothing

Cringe blood cult with their fail ritual

2 different doors ahead. Kai checks both, one is a flooded room, the other another series of hallways. They start with the later and find yet more skeletons chained to the wall

#im kink shaming at this point

Kai finds a secret passageway that leads to the flooded room but this entrance opened up to where there were platforms

I have Kai put her finger tips in the murky sewage water so she can feel for movement- something brushes against her fingers, causing her to jolt back, Last minute she sees red eyes in the water.

Amalhia has a galaxy brain moment and throws her javelin into the water

To ""kill the water""

She goes in the water to get it back. All the splashing keeps Kai from figuring out what the fuck is in the water

At the center of the flooded part of the room is a platform with an alter, to the right in the water is a stack of bones

Fauna just goes for the altar by wading in the water

Kai is paranoid, won't go in

Cinderell offers to carry her

Kai almost accepts

But for reasons unbeknownst to Cinderell she pauses, then turns and just leaps into the water while screaming “It’s not personal!!”

They all get to the platform

The whole squad smells like sewage now

#squadgoals

With all of them on the center platform a bunch of hooded figures with no face except for red eyes manifest everywhere in the room

There's a knife on the altar

Now the chanting changes to something else

As hooded entities manifest in the room

"One must die"

#ohno

So I, as Kai’s player was launching into "how can I twist the wording here" mode

Or "is there like... a bug somewhere we can kill?" Or "can we sacrifice a ghoul?"

Dm is evil and won't tell

Lucerian thinks out loud "they need one of us to die... and we have a dog"

At the same time Amahlia has a galaxy brained idea to write a '1' on a piece of paper. The dms are shocked that Amahlia is actually literate

They let her make the attempt

Kai lends her some paper, she writes "1" on a piece of paper, takes the knife and stabs it

The paper erupts into black inky smoke

"Yes! I did it!"

The smoke clears

Revealing the fucking tarot card

Cinderell goes looking into the stack of bones

Hoping to find rats or something

No luck even with a nat20

Kai is having an existential crisis on what it means to die as she contemplates sacrificial alternatives

Cinderell has their galaxy brain moment

The chanting is speeding up

They’re being timed

He gathers bones from the stack and assembles a skeleton

Rolls for deception to see if maybe he can trick the spectators

As he pretends to sacrifice himself and use the skeleton for a body

Lucerian stops him because he knows it won't work (via a nat20 on insight) 

That's when Lucerian gets out a dagger and attempts to commit suicide

Chaos happens

Cinderell is attempting to grapple the knife away

Fauna the ray of sunshine is having a crisis as she watches her brother attempt to sacrifice himself

I enjoy how literally no one even entertained sacrificing the dog

Lucerian stabs himself on the neck

#ohshit.jpg

The chanting is loud and so much faster than before

Time is running out

Do we save Lucerian?

And if we do ... what then? Who will die instead? 

Fauna sets 3B and the dog down on the floor. Says "take care of each other" before attempting her own suicide because she can't live without her brother

This sets Amalia into action. Since she seems to have a crush on fauna

Amalia dashes over and force feeds him a healing potion

In all the chaos we don't see Cinderell step aside, take his chest armor off, grab the sacrificial dagger, and stab himself in the heart right over the alter

He uses one of his weapons to command we stay back and let him die

With a nat 20 intimidation

The party is probably pissing themselves

He dies so that the rest can leave

Something inside the stack of bones emerges, vaguely human in shape... but not quite right It goes to Cinderell’s corpse and devours him

#traumatic.jpg

But hey at least they can leave this house right?

They go back where they came

And find the staircase to the basement blocked off

Fuck-this-house.com/fuck 

Fauna is somewhere murdering a door

Lucerian trying to calm her

Amalia too

tfw the barbarian is telling you to chill

Kai finds an exit in the hallway the woerm was in

It's a ladder to the very first floor you enter on

They did it. They escaped.

The party then in an act of friendly bonding set the house on fire.

The smoke trail marking the end of the Death house arc.

There's a basket of fine whine and cheese on the road where the children once stood. Inside the basket is a note that says

“Welcome to Barovia :)”

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[the-mist-striders]

Episode 2: Well We're Boned.

The party ascends to the next floor, which feels strange and counterproductive since they're looking for the basement but -hey- they don't have a choice.

The next floor has a study,  

In this study Amahlia finds a book that claims to detail her life.

#this is normal

Amahlia skips to the end and it details Amahlia reading this very book, unknowing of the entity that watches her, with an illustration of herself from behind.

Normal people would find this intimidating, however the siblings Fauna and Lucerian start to roast the unknown entity’s shitty artwork. 

The shadow entity came here for spooks and now just feels attacked.

Kai taps at the book shelves and walls until she finds an indication of a secret room. She requests Cinderell’s assistance in finding the switch. 

They find a chest which contains the skeleton of a person who set off a trap. 

Kai doesn't trust anything. But Cinderell does, so he goes to the chest and looks at what's inside.

There's a deed to the manor and for a windmill.

#congrats on your homeownership

There is also a book of bogus rituals that have no chance of actually being effective, along with a note from a mysterious Count Strahd that basically says “Your rituals aint shit. Die.” (Direct Quote)

Meanwhile Fauna finds a key, no idea what it goes to yet though.

Go to the next room. 

Kai tries to tap the wall outside of it to see what I detect on the other side via vibrations

Nat1

Staff just fucking goes threw the wall

Anyway she can now hear a puppy

In an attempt to stop Fauna from diving in after it Lucerian and Cinderell try to stop her. They fail and end up hugging by accident

#bromance

The party now has a small doggo. The tag says its name is Lancelot.

All is good.

The suits of armor on this floor are being stabbed by Amahlia

Next floor

Suit of armor comes alive and tries to remove Cinderell from the census by shoving him off the balcony and down the staircase

Cinderell gracefully dodges, knight is frozen in place probably embarrassed by its failure

#living suit of armor? No am just a statue

Oh and the house now is done playing pretend and is now showing its true colors

This happens after the knight tries to put Cinderell on a shirt

Lights are out

#oh no the horror - Kai probably

The wallpaper is all starving people and wolves

Cobwebs galore

The house that once pretended to be normal with normal signs of life now looks like it hasn’t seen an occupant in a long time.

The children who were following the party also turned to dust, leading Amahlia to scream “I FUCKING TOLD YOU WE COULDN’T TRUST THOSE KIDS”

Fauna, despite being an elf with dark vision, is scared of the dark, so Cinderell creates a makeshift lantern.

We head into what looks like a master bedroom.

We find a ghost maid in a bedroom that can only say "don't wake the baby"

In the other room is a rocking bassinet

#yeah no we ain't going in there

The ghost is also looping, like a hologram replaying over and over their final moments of “Don't wake the baby” followed by what looks like her being stabbed in the back.

Turns out the father had an affair with the maid and had a bastard child, his wife wasn’t happy about that and eventually killed a bitch.

Meanwhile Amalia is assaulted by a broom handle in the closet nearby

Handle to the face

She breaks the broom

We find the corpse of the father hanging in the other master bedroom 

Suicide note says 

"Hey kids. We fucked up by doing rituals. Sorry you are in this mess now. Love ya Bye"

Not an actual quote

Buut this is where everyone in the squad at this point knows there's a blood cult going on here, likely it was in an attempt to make the land fertile again..

So to recap, the kids that led the party inside the death house are actually not kids, and there was a blood cult here that was so bad at being a blood cult that the guy they were doing the rituals for told them to eat shit and die.

The current victims being a blind woman who suspiciously knows what people are thinking, a moon elf who is afraid of the dark with a pet bat that can’t fly, an angry mysterious sun elf, a paladin, and a crazy lady. 

How could it ever get worse.

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[the-mist-striders]

Episode Directory:

The Death House Arc Episode 1 - Session 0 Episode 2 - Well we're boned Episode 3 - One Must Die Welcome to Barovia Arc Episode 3.5 - Welcome to Barovia Episode 4 - The World's Most Sort-of Competent Pallbearers What-The-Hell-Are-We-Even-Doing Arc Episode 5 - The Tarot Episode 6 - The Ride To Vallaki Episode 7 - Party Bonding The Bones of St. Andral Arc Episode 8 - Origins of The Angel Episode 9 - Demon in The Attic Episode 10 - Otter Hands

[the-mist-striders]

Episode 1: Session 0

"You all were in your own worlds. Traveling somewhere, seeking something. On the road you stop somewhere and rest."

There is blackness, a void where no light dares to touch. This is normal however, afterall Kai is blind.

What is not normal are the approaching foot falls of something huge out in the near distance, combined with being completely paralyzed. It draws nearer, closer and closer as the helpless blind woman starts to lose all sense in her body, as if death itself had found her.

There is a village. A village Fauna calls home, but no one recognizes her. Not her best friend, nor her older brother knows anything about her. A faceless reflection snaps and breaks after her eyes meet the flat surface they should have been reflected back in.

Amahlia felt a burning emptiness. A hunger for something intangible. She felt nothing, she perceived an empty abyss, only having the awareness that something should be here. An anger surges through her core as she feels a building rage filled scream rising within.

He saw fire, fire and blood painting the village in crimson. An awful smell of decay fills Lucerian's nostrils as he scoops up the limp corpse of a girl. Hallowed glazed over eyes frozen open stared right into his own. Her lips part and in the blink of an eye her face warps into another loved ones'. In a voice both dry and flat she accused "Why couldn't you save us... Luci?"

Cinderell found himself in the void. He is separate from his goddess; the Raven Queen. He can not feel her presence. He calls into the blackness, and there is no reply. Just as he believes this is the furthest from her he has ever been, vertigo kicks in as he feels himself falling even further and further away.

As the 5 nightmares conclude they find themselves alone inside a fortune teller's shop, except for a woman so frail that a blow of wind would surely destroy her. She presents to them a tarot card held between her fingers.

Kai used her special ability of seeing through other's eyes to read the tarot card. "Go to the blood on the vine Tavern." She takes it with hesitation.

Fauna takes her card with a starry eyed smile.

Lucerian takes it with confusion.

Cinderell with conviction.

And then there's Amahlia who slaps the tarot card out of the woman's hand.

Amahlia probably broke that woman's hand.

#Rip.

All fades to black.

There are no eyes Kai can see through, so it's just her and her druid focus/staff. The air feels more dense, but with a bit of echolocation she can tell she's in a wooded area. With no eyes to borrow she can no longer read the card in her hand, so she remembers what she saw through the fortune teller's eyes.

"Awe fuck. That means I need to go where there's people."

She picks a direction and starts walking.

Fauna found herself on the misty road surrounded by trees, right next to Lucerian, her older brother. She checks her hair to make sure her pet bat "3B" is still with her. Satisfied to feel him still clinging to the side of her head in a sleepy daze. Fauna bounds on-wards with a Pep to her step, excited for a new world to explore as Lucerian cautiously follows behind, keeping an eye on her.

Cinderell feels lost, but knows he can only find his way to civilization if he gets going.

Amahlia finds the tarot card in her hands despite knowing she slapped it down rather than taking it. She tossed it over her shoulder with a huff and wandered away.

They all wandered into the mists lost and alone.

Or so they thought.

In an instant Kai could suddenly hear footsteps behind her, she could sense the presence of minds accompanying them. To which Kai calmly stopped and inquired who these people were. By this I mean she around brandishing her staff like a bat, yelling "WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!"

Fauna isn't threatened at all. In fact, she seems happy to have "more friends." However, Kai, Amahlia, and Lucerian are like

While Cinderell is just off to the side watching with a mix of amusement and caution.

Fauna excitedly shows her tarot card after spotting it on someone else (probably Kai. Idk) and is like, "You got a card too?"

They all pull out their tarot cards, realizing they all were taken here by the same means. Amahlia, meanwhile, hands Fauna her card because Amahlia wants nothing to do with it.

They agree on a truce to figure out what is going on. They keep walking until they find 2 scared children standing in the middle of the road. They beg the strangers to help them. You see, a monster has gotten into their basement, and their parents are still inside. Very normal stuff that felt sus as fuck.

So Imma take a moment to note something about Kai's telepathy. Kai is a kalashtar, a race known to have telepathic abilities. Her ability to see through eyes, however, is a home-brew solution because of how many dnd abilities rely on sight, causing her blindness to potentially be problematic. The scope of her abilities does get nerfed as time goes on, as we try to keep her balanced. This said; in the very beginning, Kai could read active thoughts. This is removed later, but for now, she can read minds without any strings attached. I will note later on whenever her abilities get tuned and adjusted into something less broken. This said👏

Kai reads the children's minds because this is easily either a trap or genuine. Their thoughts appear to be scrambled and chaotic, and their fear feels real. Their gut says to not trust them, but they can't shake the thought of "ok but what if they really are just scared kids in danger?"

Everyone in the party agrees to help the children except Amahlia, who only comes along for the ride.

The manor is in the woods and from the outside looks normal. It's 3 stories, Gothic style architecture, normal shit for the setting

The manor is in the woods and from the outside looks normal. It's 3 stories, Gothic style architecture,  normal shit for the setting

They go inside and nothing seems amiss... at all.

Like it looks like business as usual

The kids follow us, hiding behind Cinderell's leg (who was the sweetest to them)

Cinderell gives them something to snack on and has them hide in the closet while we look around

Kai first looks into the living room. Which has 3 curious looking wolf taxidermies on the floor. Kai doesn't trust it so I have her poke at them with her staff. Nothing

In the room over there's a loud crash

Because Amahlia is beating the shit out of one of the glass doors into the dining room. Why you might ask? Well clearly it's because it had the audacity to be in her way.

Fauna is looking around, there's wood carvings around the fireplace. In a flash they go from flowery and pretty to ghoulish carvings of wolves, then back again

#normal shit, nothing to see here

Fauna thinks it's a good idea to seal the kids into the closet by jamming a broom through the handle. Something the party found questionable but did not stop.

They all move to the kitchen (except Amahlia). There's a suspicious lack of food that can go bad in there 

Kai hears what sounds like a party in the room over (the dining room) she points it out, everybody now can hear it (except fauna who is investigating the dumb waiter that suspiciously has no access to the basement that allegedly exists.

Btw there is no visible staircase to the basement either.  The stairs only go up. 

Everything is fine, good and normal

Kai and Lucerian cautiously walk to the dining room door. She reaches for the handle, grabs it, twists it, and the sound stops.

Interrupted by Amahlia approaching them and saying "I just killed all the wolves in there"

Which btw again, were all taxidermies

Opening the door, they find a table covered in the most delicious looking food ever, and plates full of half eaten meals

-As if they got up mid meal

There's a mural along the walls that looks happy and chipper

But Lucerian blinks, the mural changes to starving children being mauled by wolves, then back to happy children frolicking in a field

Kai caught this one too because she was using his eyes

This is when the whole squad officially recognizes that this isn't normal

#fuck this house

They go to the front door

Its locked

Kai senses nothing beyond the door

She mentions it when Amahlia suggests breaking a window

Panic ensues. They think they're in a nightmare, Kai swears it can't be because she is incapable of dreaming. Nobody asks her to elaborate

In fact Kai is a mystery to everyone who despite being blind seems to get around just fine.

Amahlia makes a dash for the closet, pulls out the broom handle, and swings it open as she screams "I KNEW WE COULDN'T TRUST THOSE KIDS"

Cinderell and Lucerian hold her back from unleashing her wrath on the sniveling children cowering in the back of the coat closet.

Kai brushes past them and gets on their level. "How do we get into the basement?"

Just as before, their thoughts are too chaotic to decipher.

In the background, Fauna manages to calm Amahlia, the barbarian down.

There is no choice. They can only go upstairs.

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[the-mist-striders]

The Party: (Season 1)

Art by Scarlet Knightmare

Kai

A mysterious blind druid of the stars

2. Fauna

A ray of sunshine with a pet bat named 3B who can't fly

3. Amahlia

A terrifying woman with a temper and zero impulse control.

4.Lucerian

The brooding Ranger of few words.

5. Cinderell

A paladin of the raven queen who is being pulled along on the invisible threads of fate.

6. Liliya

A mysterious cleric of the Raven Queen who is supposed to be dead.

[the-mist-striders]

SYNOPSIS:

Five strangers find themselves in the mists of a bleak world. A world brimming with tension and lacking in hope. All they have is each other and vague prophesies that they must follow to change everything and, in exchange, resolve their personal goals.

Disclaimer:

If you come here expecting a formal retelling of the events of this campaign, you're in the wrong place. The format of the retellings is very shit post-y with more focus on comedy than something resembling what you'd find in a high fantasy or horror novel.

Curse of strahd is a horror campaign and will feature disturbing content. This will not be emphasized as much since the retellings tend to lean more on the side of comedy. The lines between horror and comedy are very thin after all.

Also, I am Kai's player, so the retellings will tend to have a bias towards her side of the story. In this campaign, we are all the main characters, and I wanted to make that as clear as I can.

If these conditions are up your alley, however, welcome aboard!

TAGS:

#episodes = posts that detail a session

#episode highlights= I, on occasion, draw or meme about a snippet of what may have happened at some point. Context usually not included.

#memes = memes related to dnd but not linked to the specific campaign this blog is about

#Curse of Strahd =everything in this blog minus general dnd memes that may be sprinkled in will have this tag. This is the name of the module we are playing after all

#about us = posts that detail information that can be potentially useful to read (but not necessary per say). This post, in particular, + the post with a basic rundown of the party, will have this tag.

#behind the scenes = random behind the scenes stuff #Art = Drawing I did on the side of moments in the campaign or just the characters

#News & Updates = For any news & updates pertaining to the series

Links:

The Party First Episode Episode Directory