Bogdan and Tobin ran into each other during their times in Waterdeep. Bogdan was a monk who wasn’t quite sure where the line between curiosity and nosiness ended, and he had a insatiable desire for learning secrets. Tobin was an artificer – a new type of mage who learned spells like a wizard, but loved to tinker with alchemy and crafting just as much. Artificery was looked down upon by Khelben of Waterdeep, and when the Blackstaff looked down upon something, you stopped doing it. Or you left town, such as what our two heroes did.

Deciding to stick together, they left the metropolis in search of a friendlier home – or at least, a less judgemental one. They traveled southeast for a few days until they came to Daggerford. Morwen, the local Duchess, was known to pay well for adventurer’s and risk-takers who could solve problems that her local guard couldn’t (or wouldn’t), and it wasn’t long before Bogdan and Tobin made a decent name for themselves in doing just that.

Tasked with dealing with some troublesome tribe of kobolds who’d turned to banditry, the pair teamed up with two other adventurous folk, Brume and Yenkin. Brume was a weird one, a large pale man who always wore his helm or hood, afraid of the sun. Until you noticed that he wasn’t just pale, he was every so slightly blueish, and his eyes almost glinted like gold. Yenkin was easier to notice, despite – or maybe because – he was half the size of Brume. The halfling had nimble feet and sticky fingers, and was a great boon for a larger, less agile man like Brume.

The four of them set off and finally found the kobold bandits, killing many and chasing the rest. Several days of chase happened, with the kobolds always just minutes ahead, until the party arrived at the edge of the High Forest and followed them in. Soon they found themselves in the middle of a skirmish, with kobold fighting kobold, and all the kobolds fighting them. Confusion reigned until a half-elf druid dropped out of the trees, explaining that there was a small faction of kobolds who’d left the main group because they didn’t want to be bandits. After some fierce combat, the bandit faction of kobolds was fully defeated, and the party – now with the Tamar, the druid – went back to Daggerford for their reward.

The group had a few more adventures after that: taking out a handful of imps who’d escape a summoning circle by an apprentice wizard who’d reached above her station, convincing a marauding centaur that he’d have better luck in the Misty Woods (away from the humans he like to attack), and defending the hamlet of Secomber from a large pack of wolves who’d been decimating their villagers all winter long.

It was after this last mission, now that the warm days of spring were finally back, that the heroes were welcomed back to Daggerford. And here’s where our story begins.

Our heroes went to the party & dinner hosted by Duchess Morwen for them, celebrating their return to Daggerford after the long wolf-filled winter at Secomber. Of course, Morwen was never one to settle for less, and used the situation to also ask the party to journey a few hours south to deal with some vagabonds who were harassing people.

Her reports said that a camp of miscreants were begging for wine and demanding money, swearing they’d hex anyone who didn’t comply. But the guards Morwen had sent after them came back swearing that the campers were friendly people and weren’t doing any harm. Morwen was convinced they’d been magically charmed and wanted the adventurers to go investigate.

Yenkin led the party to question the guards, who swore that they travelers in question were friendly people. One in particular was a grandfatherly old man who offered them some of the best wine they’d ever had and great stories to boot. Tobin paid a lot of attention to the guards, looking for signs that they’d been charmed, but found nothing.

After going back and talking to the Duchess, she explained she wanted the travelers gone by dawn. She handed the party an ultimatum to deliver to the travelers and sent the party on their way, even as evening was turning into dusk. Clearly she was in a hurry to remove any perceived stain upon the honor of Daggerford.

The party left and headed south to the crossroads where the travelers were encamped, thirty or so yards from the Waystone Inn. There they found the travelers, a group of Vistani led by an old man named Stanimir. Stanimir told them that they were travelers who enjoyed the freedom of travel and good drink, and he told you stories while his fellows danced around the fire. Stanimir used his spells as a mage (unknown to the party at the time) to make the fire part of the story, telling of a noble prince who fought in a long ago war. The prince was hurt and saved by the Vistani, and to reward them he blessed them with the ability to travel safely far and wide.Years passed, however, and the noble prince was cursed and turned into a tyrant. They were looking for brave adventurers to help break their dread lord’s curse.

The party agreed to help the Vistani after some discussion, but decided to sleep in the Waystone Inn instead of around a campfire, enjoying one last night in a bed before traveling.

At the inn, most of the part chose not to eat the sad food offered, but Tamar decided to bravely venture forth and try the potato and lentil soup. The rest of the party felt they had enough to endure, simply listening to the bad entertainment of an obviously drunken minstrel. A short while after, the doors of the inn slammed open and another colorfully dressed man (much like the Vistani that the party had just met) came inside. From the foggy night outside strode in Arrigal, with a missive from his master Koylan Indirovich, Burgomaster of the village of Barovia (not to be confused with the land of Barovia). He begs/tells the party to head 5 hours east and ride for five hours along the Old Svalich Road through the Svalich Woods to arrive at the village of Barovia. The party is confused, because they know for certain there are no woods named Svalich nor a village named Barovia within the area nearby. Before voicing their confusion, Arrigal dropped a heavy purse of coins to buy drinks for everyone in the tavern and left abruptly.

The party decides it seems like they really should head to Barovia before dawn. Morwen wants the Vistani gone, the Vistani want the heroes to help them, and Arrigal wants them to help his master.

While discussing the events of the night, they hear an irritable old man arguing with a much younger man about how wolf attacks had been increasing out towards the Misty Woods. The characters knew full well how many wolves were in that area, having just come back from Secomber after having dealt with them for a winter. But to hear the young man tell it, not only were the wolves back, but there were werewolves as well. At the the old man started yelling, because everyone knew there weren’t no damn werewolves around here.

Tobin tried to ask questions of the old man, but the irritable elder simply started complaining about how adventure’s were milking the Duchess, promising to take care of wolves but doing no such thing and yet still claiming a reward. That was the real problem. Tobin nodded blandly and went along with it, until finally the younger man took Tobin aside and whispered to him that the they thought werewolves were involved because of some missing people, and how the wolves seem to be having much more cunning that normal.

They call it a night, except for Yenkin had other ideas and stayed up later, drinking the strong wines of the Vistani before finally heading to the inn himself.

In the middle of the night a long ominous howl shatters the silence, waking everyone except Yenkin, who’d passed out from drinking the night before. Shortly after, screams can be heard coming from the Vistani encampment. Bogdan is the first to be alert and jumps out his window, running quickly to the Vistani. Brume, Tamar, and Tobin soon follow.

When the three arrive, Bogdan is already fighting a single wolf while several others are tearing through the Vistani camp. Several of the Vistani are already dead, but there is a stiffer pocket of resistance around Stanimir and his children. Stanimir is using his magic openly now, throwing fire at the wolves.

The party and Vistani managed to kill all the wolves, but just as they did Tamar heard some foreboding sounds. Werewolves had waited until everyone thought they were in the clear before charging in, slaughtering the Vistani. The characters quickly found that many of their attacks had no effect on the shapeshifter. Stanimir cast hold monster on one to keep it at bay while Brume and Tamar threw spell after spell of Thunderwave, keeping the monsters at bay. Eventually, the werewolves killed all of the Vistani, and the two not being held immobile ran off, laughing at the party as they did so.

Bogdan noticed that Stanimir’s daughter was still barely alive. Approaching, she whispered to “beware … factions of Vistani” before dying in his arms, moments before Tamar could reach her and heal here. Tobin and the other party members used the nearby fire to finally kill the werewolf after learning that they were simply doing their lord and master’s bidding.

Burying the dead Vistani and taking one of their wagons and some horses, the party set out eastward, hoping to find this Svalich Wood. As they trekked, the warm spring day became colder and foggier, gradually thickening, until soon they were surrounded by fog. Even worse, they were in a dense pine forest, in an area that should have been devoid of pine trees.

Stopping to explore, they noticed that the mists did not get to close to the road. It wasn’t just that they could see better nearer, it was simply that the road was clear of mists. Tamar at this point got a whiff of something putrid, and with a little looking found a dead corpse holding a crumbled envelope.

This letter contradicted the one they had received earlier. One stated that Ireena Koylana was the Burgomaster’s adopted daughter, the other that she was his lover. One said she’d been bitten by a ‘vampyr’, the other that she was afflicted with an unnamed deadly evil. The handwriting was clearly different, although they both had the same seal.

While reading this, the party was attacked by four wolves. Two ran snapping and snarling after Tamar and Bogdan while the others went after the horses pulling the carriage.

Suddenly a strong wind gusted out of nowhere, blowing Yenkin and Tobin over a dozen feet to the side. Bogdan broke a wolves back while Tobin ran backwards to clamber up on top of the wagon, while one wolf got stuck in a large puddle of mud. Yenkin hid and managed pot shots from cover.

A dire wolf approached, and sat and watched the party instead of attacking. Tamar studied it, realizing that it’s body language was off. This wasn’t some regular wolf, this creature had intelligence and cunning.

Tobin showed off the power of Brunhilda, his thunder cannon, and quickly dispatched two more wolves. Meanwhile, Brume tried to spear one and managed to somehow miss and pole-vault from the wagon’s yoke over the wolf, a sight funny enough that Tamar managed to miss herself.

As the last wolf died, the dire wolf charged the party, jumping in the air and heading straight towards Yenkin. Just before the imminent collision, the dire wolf seemingly turned into mist and flew through and around Yenkin, disappearing with the sound of mocking laughter on the wind.

For no reason and out of nowhere Yenkin started feeling sad about the wolves. The party was trespassing and killed these wolves for no reason. It just wasn’t fair. The other adventure’s though this was an absurd way of looking at things, but Yenkin knew they were wrong.

Loot found:
9 daggers
2 hand crossbows and 14 bolts
Stanimir’s spellboook
17 gold
4 horses and a barrel-topped wagon filled with wine & travel supplies

Per Character:
50g from Duchess Morwen (or a single item in PHB up to 50g)

Inspiration

• For a werewolf dying while she was nearby (as part of her Emerald Conclave faction), Tamar is inspired
• For the best/worst accent ever and “caring” about the wolves so much as the end, Yenkin is inspired
• For having the decency to bury the Vistani and wanting to return their posessions, Brume is inspired.

Leaving the dead body behind, the adventurer’s continued along the Old Svalich Road heading what they presumed to still be westward. It was hard to tell what direction was which, or even what time of day it was, with the mists so dense and thick, obscuring all traces of natural sunlight.

The road wavers between an unkempt but still obvious road and chaos. Parts of it have gravel layered in the dirt and others are nothing but the thick ooze of mud dotted with small bushes and entangling grasses. Spots off the road are sometimes almost a bog, despite the steady and unrelenting persistence of the pine trees standing ominously nearby, as if guarding the road.

A half mile of journeying later and the Tamar notices something shining just off the road ahead of the Vistani wagons being driven by Brume. This was in a spot where the road was barely present, a rough and haggard stretch of thick grasses. She had found a small mirror, reflecting more light than what was really there to reflect.

Coming up to help her inspect (the cries of “something shiny” acting as catnip to the curious pair), Tobin and Yenkin approached Tamar to see what she had found. Tobin unknowingly stepped right into a wolf trap buried in the thick grass! Luckily for him, it was so rusted that it didn’t quite shut around his leg.

While examining the mirror, everything it’s light touched appeared to age right in front of their eyes, with it having the grasses go brown and Tobin’s hand become that of a gaunt old man. The visual changed seemed to have no real affect, as the grasses were still alive after being reflected, and Tobin’s hand went back to normal after a few seconds as well.

Tobin also found a long, fancy pipe made out of some dark stone, perhaps a black marble or something similar.

Yenkin wanted to make sure there were no more wolf traps in the area, so he went looking for them — and completely missed the one just a few feet away from the first. Knowing that the wolves in this area were sure to be mistreated — he’d seen his own party members slaughter some, after all — he wanted to disarm the trap and set out to do so with his thieves tools. Tamar shook her head and grabbed his arm before he ruined his tools, and handed him a stick to simply press down on the plate. Thanking her, Yenkin used his newfound ‘tool’ and set off the trap – which again failed to fully snap back in place due to rust.

Leaving this small bit of excitement behind, the party continued for another mile and a half before reaching a gate blocking the road, in the middle of the Svalich Forest with nothing around. High stone buttresses loomed gray in the fog, with huge iron gates hanging off of the stonework. Two headless statues flanked the gate, their heads lying among the weeds at their feet, greeted the players with silence.

Bogdan approached the gates and they opened automatically. Curious, the party drove through, and the gates clanged shut behind them.

Now slightly freaked out, the heroes continued for another two miles before reaching the edge of the forest and entering a clearing, with another half mile between there and the first signs of town. They had reached the village of Barovia. Boarded up houses, abandoned shops, and the cries of a young child were all that greeted them.

Following the sounds of cries, the party encountered Rose and Thorn, a pair of young children. Ten-year-old Rosavalda and her seven year old brother Thornboldt were standing in the middle of an forlornly empty street, with Thorn crying and Rose trying to hush him. As the party approached they could see that Thorn gripped a stuffed doll close to him as he cried.

Rose cried out, begging the heroes to help remove a monster from their house. Their parents, Gustav and Elisabeth, had kept the monster locked up in the basement. But when they went down to the basement to finally kill it, they never came back. The children also though their younger brother Walter, just a baby, was in the nursery area of the third floor.

They’d never seen the monster, having only heard it and been told about it by their parents. Its howl was the worst noise they’d ever hear, saying it sounded like some part of it must die each time it howled.

While trying to do a cheap parlor trick with a coin behind Thorn’s ear, Yenkin was surprised when the boy snatched the coin away from him and pocketed it. Tobin tried the mirror out on the kids, and the boy happily played with it for a moment. Neither of the kids reflections seemed to change any, despite everything else having done so. When he asked for it back Thorn became sad and started to cry again, so Tobin gave him a gold piece in exchange for the mirror (and that gold piece vanished just as quickly into the boy’s clothing).

Placing the children in the wagon and admonishing them not to drink the wine and to stay out of trouble, the party approached the house. Bogdan climbed up the side of the house to the third floor balcony and nimbly clambered up top. The doors were locked, but by breaking a single pane of glass in the door he was able to peak inside before opening the doors. The insides were covered in dust, thick enough to clearly have been a long time since this area was livable. The room was a bedroom of sorts, but it was too dark for Bogdan to make out more.

Tobin wanted to climb up as well, and managed to make it easily up to the underside of the balcony. But when it became time to work his way around the balustrade he fell and landed hard on his back.

Seeing his companions difficulty, Bogdan climbed back down and the party entered together into the front door of the house.

The lower levels of the house were spotlessly clean. Entering from a gated portico into a foyer and then an entrance hall, the house was very well decorated and clearly well-cared for. Motifs of windmills and wolves were here and there, on shields mounted on walls to suits of armor placed near stairwells and empty doors. Before leaving the foyer area Tobin notices that the mists outside have gotten even closer to the house.

Oil lamps and stocked fireplaces are in many rooms, allowing for lots of light once the characters light them. Going up the stairs from the main hall, the party arrives to the second floor. There hangs a large wood-framed portrait of the Durst family, with presumably Gustav and Elisabeth standing behind Rose and Thorn, while Gustav holds a baby that is presumably Walter. Oddly, Elisabeth’s figure is seen regarding the baby with a slight hint of scorn.

Continuing up the stairs to the third floor, a cold draft is felt, and suddenly the rooms they are in are no longer clean, but caked with years – if not decades or more – of dust. Here there’s a dusty balcony, a landing overlooking the floors below.

A black suit of full-plate armor stands near the fall wall, covered in cobwebs. Yenkin lights the oil lanterns and Brume moves to open the northward lying doors towards the back of the house, but Bogdan gets to close to the armor and it animates to life.

Delivering a mighty haymaker to him, the monk decides its time to back away and get to safety. Tobin fires a shot and misses, but Tamar snags it with a spell and wraps it with vines of thorns, yanking it towards the stairs – and back towards Bogdan. Yenkin slips into a corner and shoots at it but misses, while Brume moves to stand in front of the halfling and calls upon Lathander to blast the armor with radiant fire.

Deliver several head-rattling blows to the party before Bogdan finally bashes the wolf-shaped visor right off, the armor finally collapses into a pile of clanging regular (if dented) armor.

Exploring the third floor more, they find a master bedroom. Tobin grabs some jewelry; Brume looks for Walter, the missing baby; Bogdan decides to try out the dumbwaiter and sends the wolf head visor of the armor downwards. Yenkin meanwhile explores a linen closet before decided there’s nothing worth anything in there.

Standing at alert in the balcony area, Tamar finally gets a bit bored before going to see something described to her by Yenkin in the closer, something weirdly shaped covered in a sheet. It turns out to be an Broom of Animated Attack, and it proceeds to batter Tamar about hard, dropping her to the floor after a few, ahem, clean sweeps to the head.

Rushing to her defense, Brume charges in, yelling “Two Brumes enter but only one leaves!” It’s clear Brume does not know how to spell broom. It’s also clear he and his sword don’t care as he chops into the animated object. Tobin manages to get behind Brume and fire off the finishing shot, breaking the broom into pieces.

Worried about Tamar, Brume uses his healing kit to stabilize her before carrying her on his shoulder back to the entrance of the house. They now notice that the gate to the portico is shut and locked, and that the mists are thick and ever-present all the way up to the edge of the house. Yelling for Rose and Thorn, Brume gets no answer.They take a short rest while figuring out what to do, and decide they cannot stay here, so they go back to the master bedroom in the third floor area. Barricading the door with pitons, the party rests to recover from their wounds, Yenkin snug in his new tigerskin cape/blanket.

Brume has a dream that night. The rising sun of the Morninglord is bright and clear, and suddenly gets occluded by darkness. It’s as if the sun started casting shadows instead of light. Eventually the whole sun is dark, and from the darkness a pale, pallid white face appears. The face blots out the darkness and then starts a mocking laughter, causing Brume to awake in a panic, also waking everyone else.

Continuing to explore the third floor area, the party find the nursery area, which were the rooms originally seen by Bogdan when he scaled the walls to the front balcony. A side room holds a crib, but there’s no cries of a baby in it. Pulling back the black shroud over it, Tamar sees a tightly wrapped, baby shaped bundle in the crib. When she touches it, however, the blankets collapse in on themselves, revealing that nothing is there.

Leaving the room, however, she does notice an odd strip of wall that has less dust along its floorboard. They discover a slight draft that blows the dust away, and soon have a secret door open that leads up more stairs to the attic.

Once in the attic, they find a door locked with an thick iron padlock. Sensing this is where they must store treasure, Yenkin runs to it and unlocks it. On the inside, however, there is no treasure.

There’s a room with child-sized beds, a toy chest with windmill motifs, and a dollhouse that’s an exact replica of the house they’re in. And there’s two small skeletons on the floor, dressed in the same clothes that Rose and Thorn were dressed in, and Thorn is holding the same stuffed doll they saw with him before. Clearly, the children the party saw outside were not alive…

Loot Found:

• tigerskin rug/blanket/cape for Yenkin
• silver jewelry box with gold filigree (75gp). inside are three gold rings (25gp each) and a thin platinum necklace with a topaz pendant (750gp)

Inspiration:

• For declaring a Broom on Brume action, Brume (not Broom) is inspired. (Broom is ded)
• For being inquisitive and thinking of how to best use devices (like the mirror on a child), Tobin is inspired.
• For nearly dying because of a broom, Tamar is not inspired and in fact is rather ashamed and can we please not talk about it?

The party had just reached the attic of the home of Rose and Thorn Durst, and in that attic had found a children’s room. The room was locked by a padlock from the outside, and on the inside were the dead bodies of Rose and Thorn.

The party decided that the house itself must be a trap, and they were tricked by the children’s ghosts outside. Clearly something was amiss. Despite this, the goodness in Brume dictated that he see the remains of the two kids buried, and he started to put the bones into a sack.

After disturbing the remains, ghostly apparitions of the Durst siblings rose from the floor. Rose questioned what Brume was doing with her remains. After explaining himself and questioning the children, the party realized that these two ghosts were not the same as … whatever the other Rose and Thorn they had seen outside of the house were. The children admitted to not having left their room – their death site – for “hundreds, many hundreds of moons”. They’d been by themselves that entire time, aside from a few adventurers they’d seen who always abandoned them. One of these adventurers, whom Rose named Sebastienne, had told her this house was now called ‘The Death House’.

Their story was teased out of them slowly. Their parents – still admitted as Gustav and Elizabeth – would lock them in their room in the attic to protect them from the monster that lived in the basement. One time this happened and their parents never came back to unlock the room, so the children died from hunger and starvation, simply dying where they lay from weakness. They had never seen the monster (as they were always locked in their rooms), but their parents had occasionally had others over to help fight the monster. The monster’s screams were terrifying. High pitched and sounding as if it came from many throats, yet always at the same time. It’s roar would make them shiver in fear under their blankets in their rooms.

Asking where they could find the monster, Rose pointed at the dollhouse and said to look at it – it would show the way. Paying more attention, it was revealed that the dollhouse was very exact – it showed secret rooms and hallways that the party has missed, including a spiral staircase from the attic, through the walls of the house, down into some sort of basement.

While the children were talking, Brume wanted to lower their remains (still in the sack from earlier) to the ground outside via the balcony window around the corner. While attempting to do so, however, Rose noticed him and started screaming at him. “She didn’t want to leave, and she didn’t want him to leave either!” Flying ethereally through the air, both Rose & Thorn flew right into Brume’s body. Rose came right out the other side, but Thorn stuck in, possessing the cleric and making his desires of wanting to get rid of the bodies vanish.

More talking happened before Bogdan pulled the same trick, except he managed to get out of the room with the children’s remains unnoticed. He climbed down to the balcony’s roof and lowered the sack to the ground, dropping the rope after it before heading back inside.

Knowing which way the basement was, Yenkin decided that the best thing for the party to do would be to stock up with items in the house and try to learn as much as possible before going into the basement. Of course, hearing that they were leaving Rose again flew into a panice and possessed the first person she could — Yenkin.

As such the party went back downstairs and Brume donned the splint armor they’d found previously in the upper hall on the second floor. After this they went to the Library, where Rose had mentioned Gustav always being angry with a book and muttering gibberish while trying to read it. That book was not in the Library (although Bogdan did find a book about werewolves that he kept). Tamar found a fake book that opened into a secret room.

Inside the secret room they found the corpse of Sebastienne, the adventurer Rose had mentioned. He was slumped over a half-open chest, the victim of a dart-trap that had been set to go off when the chest was opened. There they found treasure (listed below) and a letter from Strahd, still sealed with a motif of a stylized raven in front of a castle tower. The letter read:

My most pathetic servant,

I am not a messiah sent to you by the Dark Powers of this land. I have not come to lead you on a path to immortality. However many souls you have bled on your hidden altar, however many visitors you have tortured in your dungeon, know that you are not the ones who brought me to this beautiful land. You are but worms writhing in my earth.

You say that you are cursed, your fortunes spent. You abandoned love for madness, took solace in the bosom of another woman, and sired a stillborn son. Cursed by darkness? Of that, I have no doubt. Save you from your wretchedness? I think not. I much prefer you as you are.

Your dread lord and master,

Strahd von Zarovich

After studying a giant red book by the Priests of Osybus, Tamar realized that the rituals in it were bogus. It was a good thing, too, as they claimed to have the power to summon a demon to grant the caster everlasting life.

After leaving the library, the party searched the rest of the house. They found some crossbows and bolts in the den. They also noticed lots of details in the house that seemed wrong, at least when asking Rose via Yenkin (carvings now had skeletons in place of masked dancers, wolves hidden among deers in the trees, etc).

Back in the attic, Yenkin found some bones in a storage room in a unlocked chest that had been covered by a dusty sheet. He wanted to throw the bones aside, but as he did so the specter of the long-dead nursemaid attacked him. During the fight the specter managed to kill Yenkin. Weirdly, mere seconds after the fight was over Yenkin stood back up, coming back from death. He raved about having some vision and having “seen it all”, all the while now having insects continuously crawl in and out of his ears. Looking at the bones of the nursemaid in more detail, it was clear she had been stabbed to death by dozens of knife wounds.

Finally the adventurers were ready to explore the basement. Heading to the secret spiral staircase they had uncovered while looking at the dollhouse in the children’s room, they entered behind the fake wall and descended through a veritable warren of cobwebs. Brume cast light on his shield, and the party lit one torch; both for light and to burn the webs in the starewell, which were so thick that the group was barely able to see a few feet in front of them.

At the bottom of the staircase, perhaps 50’ straight down, the basement was revealed to be more of a cavern. Tunnels carved directly into earth, clay, and stone and supported by timber braces, the floors were covered in centuries-old footprints. Eery chanting echoed off the walls, their source of direction unable to be determined.

The party found two sets of living quarters, one complete with a well that led to a cistern of some sort below. As they walked around, the direction of the chanting changed and seemed to come from the south.

Finding a dining room strewn about with bones, the party inspected the area a little more closely. It soon became apparent that the bones were literally the remains of multiple meals, and that they were human; someone had been eating human flesh with knife and fork. The party shuddered upon learning the truth.

The nearby larder had a grick hiding in it, who lashed out at Tamar when the druid came too close. Shifting into a dire wolf, the druid traded blow for blow before winning the combat and continuing onwards. From hear, the chanting seemed to come from the west.

Heading east, back towards where they had first come down, the party found six crypts — 5 of them sealed with stone slaps carved with names (one each for Gustav, Elizabeth, Rosavald, Thornboldt, and Walter Durst) and the last one with the slab open and with no name carved upon it. Bodgan tried to open one but the stone weighed too much and he was unable to move it.

Going back to the westward direction below the dining room, the party was ambushed by 3 ghouls at a point where two tunnels bisected each other in a crossroads of sorts. The fight was vicious but over quick, with Yenkin and Brume (courtesy of Thorn) both hiding out of fear while the rest of the party defended them.

Tamar’s wolf-ears picked up that the chanting was coming from the northern leading tunnel, but had not yet told the party since she was still a wofl. The party decided they needed to rest and recover before exploring further, and headed back up to the attic and were going to barricade themselves in the children’s rooms.

Treasure:

• splint mail from standing armor in upper hall (Brume)
• from library
  • book about werewolves (Bogdan)
  • iron key to unlock padlock on children’s room upstairs (Yenkin)
• from chest in secret room behind library
  • 75gp
  • spell scroll – bless
  • spell scroll – protection from poison
  • spell scroll – spiritual weapon
  • deed to the house
  • deed to a windmill
  • signed will from Gustav & Elizabeth Durst, bequeathing house & will to Rose and Thorn
  • letter from Strahd to the Durst’ parents
• from the den
  • 1 light crossbow + 20 bolts
  • 1 heavy crossbow + 20 bolts
  • 1 hand crossbow + 20 bolts
• from living quarters in basement
  • 11gp, 60sp in a pouch made of human skin
  • 3 moss agates worth 10gp each
  • black leather eyepatch w/ carnelian (worth 25gp) sewn into it
  • ivory hairbrush with silver bristles (worth 25gp)
  • silvered shortsword (worth 110gp)

Inspiration

• For letting his insatiable curiosity lead him to trying to open a family crypt even when everyone else was saying no, Bogdan is inspired.

Yenkin and Brume had retreated back to safety to get some rest. Meanwhile, Bogdan and Tamar, feeling more adventurous, decided to tie up loose ends. Shifting into an arachnid, Tamar went scouting deeper into the unknown corners of The Death House. She stealthily crawled along the basement ceiling, entering room after unoccupied room.

She found rooms full of statues and odd relics, empty areas that looked like bedrooms and dens, and an abandoned-looking prison, but not a single living soul. All the while the chanting grew louder and even more eery, “He is Ancient. He is the Land.”. The louder it grew, the more cold chills and shivers it produced. At last, Tamar discoverer the source — a room with chains hanging from the ceiling directly above a blood-stained dais. Murky water surrounded the platform around the dais, with a narrow ledge surrounding the room the only means of egress outside of wading through the water. Unless you’re a spider on the ceiling, of course. Tamar could easily pinpoint this room as the source of the chanting, yet there was nothing here, no people or artifacts or even other animals, that was doing the chanting. The spider was running out of time and had seen enough, so she returned to the attic to rest with her fellow party members.

Bogdan, meanwhile, had planned a quick retrieval of the sack he had dropped outside the house earlier. That sack held the remains of the children, and now that he had located their tombs in the basement he figured they should be laid to rest there. While mistrusting of the fog, the monk was quick enough that he wasn’t too worried about whatever it might do to him. Heading to the first floor of the house, Bogdan existed the house through the front doors (which had shut of their own accord, but thankfully were no locked) and with his left hand resting on the building quickly circled around back. The longer he remained in the mist, however, the more he felt it sapping his strength, and he quickly tired until a deep exhaustion was wearying him. He snapped up the bag and dove into a nearby window, fearing he had no more moments to lose before he lay down and died, so exhausted had he became. Back inside the cursed house again, Bogdan used every bit of strength to climb the stairs back to his friends.

During Bogdan and Tamar’s scouting, Brume tried to diagnose his good friend Yenkin’s bug infestation. After giving Yenkin a close inspection, the “healer” could find no logical explanation, magical or otherwise. Yenkin’s skull would have to be filled with insects at the rate they emerged. Dark forces were definitely at play. Brume suggested using a valuable scroll (remove curse) that Bogdan had been caring around, but the miniature Half-King refused his offer. Hubris, Brume assumed, but just the same he would honor his friend’s wishes. Bogdan returned looking as if he had fought a war single handed, and Brume could find no way to help restore the monk’s state of exhaustion. Rest, and lots of it, seemed to be the only course of action, and that couldn’t happen as long as they were trapped in this house. Tamar finally returned, and with that the heroes slept. Brume had another horrifying vision — a faceless man was chained to a post, surrounded by shadowy figures wearing hooded robes. The figures were all calling for the man to die, that he had to die to appease the great devil. Just as the man was stabbed in the chest, his face was no longer devoid of features, but was Brume’s face instead. Brume awoke with a scream, feeling the pain in his chest as if it had really found its mark.

Brume and Yenkin set out to complete Bogdan’s idea of saving the children by placing their remains in their corresponding crypts. Brume felt Thorn’s spirit leave his body as the boy’s remains were laid in his coffin, but Rose did not do the same for Yenking. The rogue felt like she – like he – had unfinished business. Yenkin was still possessed and cursed with brain mites, and yet he seemed almost stoic. Tamar, still scared fro having seen her own named carved into the empty tomb, asked the others to look at it for her. None saw her name, however, and all proclaimed it was left empty and uncarved.

Brume’s shield, the focus of his light spell, illuminated the dungeon-like corridors and soon they found the room with the large statue, as described by Tamar. The statue held a sphere, some sort of mottled smoke-gray crystal orb, in one hand. Yenkin couldn’t resist and immediately began searching it for traps. Brume warned him greed would be his undoing while Tamar swore at him in Draconic, a language known to have over two thousand curse words. As soon as Yenkin picked up the globe, five shadowy figures materialized. Yenkin quickly realized his folly and replaced the glass ball. The hafling’s blade sliced through one of the figures as he darted away. Brume acted simultaneously, summoning a mighty thunder wave, one that would shake the very earth. A single “shadow” was instantly vaporized and the rest simply retreated back into the statue.

Yenkin decided to press on and came to a door. The Half-King leapt at the challenge of picking it’s lock. Noticing Yenkin’s absence Brume followed after him and was met coming the other direction. Yenkin yelped something about a mimic that looked like a door as he bravely advanced in the opposite direction. Bogdan decided flanking the creature was the key to success and circled around behind it. They could hear it bumping along behind them and then it stopped. As they turned the next corner the anthropomorphic door had relocated into an empty doorframe that they had just previously been through. Discretion is the better part of valor, Tamar said, and everybody agreed, leaving the mimic alone.

The mimic had been guarding a bedroom with dirt walls and floor, a four poster bed, and an open chest filled with torches. Yenkin scrambled over to the chest and as his hands met the wood, two ghasts leapt out of the soft earth and attacked. Tamar, Bogdan and Yenkin were face to face with the cannibalistic monsters. Tamar had taken point in dire wolf form and was ready for a fight. What took place in the next few seconds was over in a flurry of claws, teeth, fists, and steel. In the ruckus, Bogdan had been seriously injured and had fallen. A half-elf sorceress, Clementine, had been held captive by the ghouls. Upon being free she joined the fight. Brume chanted a prayer in celestial and Bogdan’s wounds knitted themselves back together, returning him to the fight. The ghasts were defeated, but victory was not without its price.

The loot in the footlocker was the items kept by the Dursts after killing Clementine’s former adventuring group. She was the last one alive, with her next on the menu to be eaten by the pair of ghasts. The party patched up their wounds, looted the room, and identified the dead monsters as Gustav and Elizabeth Durst. Rose abandoned possessing Yenkin and floated nearby, shocked and terrified at the fate of her parents., Their actions in life had doomed them to transform into these flesh eating fiends instead of dying a normal death. Their grotesque corpses, still wearing the robes they wore in life, were laid in their crypts. The Durst family would finally rest in peace.

The didn’t want to spend anymore time here than necessary. The chanting continued below and the adventurers knew it must be why they were still trapped in this horrid building. Moving on, they entered the flooded room and were careful not to walk through the water.

Bogdan leapt over the water to the dais, and as he landed on the dais a group of shadowy figures manifested along the walls. “One must die! One must die!”, they chanted as they pointed at Bogdan. Brume waded through the water and climbed the stairs of the dais.

The shadowy figured held torches, but these seemed to absorb the light instead of granting any, and Brume’s shield dimmed. As Brume reached the top of the dais, they shifted to point at him, continuing the same chant: “One must die! One must die!”. Brume challenged their demands, saying “There will be no sacrifice, not by our hands!”

As their chanted demand was denied, the chant changed. “Lorghoth the Decayer, we awaken thee!” they screamed in unison. A large pile of refused and bones stirred to life. It was massive, over teen feet tall and as wide around as two of the Vistani wagons. The pile started glided across the water, moving smoothly and quickly. It became clearer that this pile was some sort of undead creature, a massive undertaking involving the bones of hundreds of people, glued together by dark energies and human refuse. At the top, where a head might be on a normal creature, was the intact skeleton of a baby human. The party found out what had happened to the stillborn corpse of Walter Durst.

Suddenly, the chant again changes and the shadowy cultists speak faster and faster, “The end comes! Death, be praised!” The mound was within reach and attacked Brume, dropping the stalwart cleric with a single deadly blow. The adventurers sprang into action. Bogdan blasted the creature while Yenkin poured a healing potion down the throat of his buddy Brume. Tamar, still in the form of a large dire wolf, pulled Brume to safety and then aided Bogdan in fighting the “shambler”. Blow after blow was exchanged, and the monster had hardly flinched. Most of the party assumed this was an un-winnable fight and retreated to the hallway assisting from safety. However, Bogdan and Tamar would not be denied, and pressed the attack. Their resolve payed off with Bogdan landing the final blow, causing the pile of bones to fall apart.

Treasure

• in room with ghast:
  • cloak of protection (Bogdan?)
  • 4 potions of healing (1 used already – rest carried by Yenkin, Clementine, and Bogdan?)
  • chain shirt
  • mess kit
  • flask of alchemists fire (used by Clementine)
  • bullseye lantern
  • set of thieves tools
  • spellbook covered in yellow leather, with 9 spells in it
  • up to 30 torches
  • up to 6 large black voluminous robes
  • leather sack with 15 candles
  • pair of iron candlesticks
• gold ring worth 25g (on skeleton’s finger, Bogdan has?)

Inspiration

• For letting curiosity dictate “what the hell, these mists can’t hurt THAT bad” … Bogdan is inspired
• For doing what he was told not to – probably because he was told not to – and trying to grab the orb from the statue, Yenkin is inspired.
• For yelling at Yenkin to not do it – please, no really, ah c’mon wait stop GODDAMMIT DON’T DO IT ARGH – and inventing new swear words in draconic, Tamar is inspired.
• For refusing to even consider sacrificing anything on the dais, Brume is inspired.

The party stands in front of the remains of Lorgoth the Decayer, a massive pile of human remains and refused once held together by dark magics. Atop the pile is the tiny bones of baby Walter, the youngest still-born bother to Rose and Thorn. The party decides that Walter’s corpse needs to be interred as well along with the rest of the family, so Brume claws his way to the top of the pile. It was nauseating work, but the cleric managed to cope and finally retrieve the small skeleton and bring it down to the others. Yenkin (controlled by the DM) has to be told not to try and dig through all of the bones to look for loot.

While heading towards the family crypts, several of the heroes notice that the constant dust and footprints over the entire basement/dungeon are missing along one corridor. They decide to return the remains before exploring further. After this, finally having a moment to breathe and relax, Clementine introduces herself to the party. She is a half-elf sorcerer, and had been part of an adventuring party that had chased werewolves to Barovia before being caught up in the Death House. Her party, except for her, had been eaten by the ghasts (Gustav and Elizabeth Durst).

While discussing the corridor emptied of dust, Bogdan decides to return up the spiral staircase to the attic, lighting his way with a torch. Once there, he notices some extremely startling changes:

• all of the windows were gone, replaced by solid walls of bricks.
• all of the doors were gone, replaced by vertically spinning scythes within the door frames, spinning fast enough to make whirring sounds
• the fireplace was pouring out thick black smoke
• the interior walls were newly cracked, with rivulets of blood pouring out from all of the cracks, making the walls damp

Choking from the smoke and frightened, Bogdan quickly dashed back into the staircase, running into Tamar leading the rest of the party upwards, having noticed Bogdan ran off without them. After explaining the changes around fits of coughing and stutters of fright, the group retreats back down to the dungeon level. After talking it over, they decide to explore the dust-free corridor before daring the even more dangerous house above.

Bogdan cleverly suggests that they should approach it from the eastward direction, so the party heads back towards the room with the table and chandelier instead of a straight-forward approach. Of course, the “door” is back in place and Bogdan moves foward to combat the mimic.

The battle was intense. Bogdan’s staff and fist both got stuck, magically adhered to the surface of the mimic within his first two strikes. While Tamar stares in disbelief — who fights with a door?!?! — Brume and Clementine unleash their spells at the mimic, showering sacred flames and magic missiles upon it. Bogdan is able to yank his hand free and retreats, abandoning his staff, while the “door” chases him with clunky movements. Clementine gets caught too close and is grabbled by the door’s tongue, pulling her closer, and survives from some fast heals by Tamar as Brume distracts it with his longsword. A few dangerous attacks
more and the mimic is defeated, nearly falling on Clementine in the process. Yenkin (again via DM) has to be yelled at by Tamar to avoid trying to drag the entire door behind him, claiming it was loot.

Resting for a short while, the party then moves into the room free of dust, where Brume finds a hidden door. The door is behind a false wall of clay, nearly rotted, and Brume has no difficulty in bashing it down. Inside is a short staircase ending at the foot of a ladder leading upwards. Brume heads up the ladder, almost falling as one rung breaks away, before reaching the underside of a barred trapdoor. Opening the door, Brume finds himself in the den in the first floor of the house, with all of the same dangers (sickle doors, blood walls, black smoke, bricked up windows) as in the attic.

Misquoting some scripture, he blesses himself and lets bold action dictate his future, charging headlong at the eastward wall separating him and his allies from the exist. Smashing through the blood-sodden wall, he lands in the foyer area with the front door in sight, only to be set upon by rats swarming from the broken wall. Unleashing a mighty wave of thunder, he scatters most of the rats before killing the rest with his sword. He yells for his party, and together they escape the Death House, all choking from the poisonous black smoke that was filling the den.

Now back in Little Barovia , the mists had retreated. They were still present, but now much more like normal fog, only thick enough to be noticed at a distance. The party welcomed the respite from the indoor gloom, even if only to return to the outdoor gloom and the land of the mists. A little over 24 hours had passed by the party’s reckoning, so they guessed it was roughly the same time of day as when they had entered. Strangely, though, the horses were still warm and did not appear to be any more hungry than normal.

Decided this house was a blight, and to save any future adventurers from it, Clementine set about lighting it on fire. Walking around the outsides of the house, she used Produce Flame over and over until the house was well and truly turning into a bonfire. (“It was totally an accident, officer, I swear.”)

All of the nearby houses look much the same. Most are boarded up. It’s gloomy enough that even though it is daytime (or whatever passes for daytime in a land this choked with mists), candles or other lights are needed indoors, yet no lights shine from within these dwellings. A few have some small sounds coming from them, but it could be a stray animal or just the boards of the houses settling, so the party keep going forward until they reach the center of town. They they find a tavern and a storefront.

They choose to go into the tavern. it has a sign in front that reads Blood on the Vine, but careful examination reveals it’s been changed from Blood of the Vine. The tavern looks like it was once a nice place … long, long ago. It’s run down and shabby now, and has very little in the way of occupants. A short, pudgy man named Arik is the barkeep, a blond man drinks alone in the corner, and three Vistani woman chat quietly among themselves.

Brume approaches Arik to buy a drink, and the man is pretty dull. He stands there, cleaning already-clean glasses, until he answers Brume’s questions with as few as words as he can. A good description for him is “plain”; he wears drab clothes, his eyes have a dull look to them, and even his voice is bland when he speaks. While ordering his drink, Brume overhears the three Vistani talking, and catches a snipper about ‘… think Madame Eva would know?’

Brume, realizing they likely of the same people as Stanimir, approaches them and asks if they knew the old man. They admit they do, and inquire as to why Brume asks. As the cleric relays the tale of their fall to wolves, the Vistani make a point of asking if it was wolves or werewolves. Tamar confirms that at least some of the wolves were werewolves. At the end of the tale, the three women introduce themselves as sisters named Alenka, Mirabel, and Sorvia.

Brume indicates that he has the spellbook of Stanimir. Sorvia, the one who had asked about the werewolves, asks if he will return it to the Vistani so that they can give it to Stanimir’s apprentice. Brume hesitates, unsure if the spellbook should really be returned to them. Alenka then says that she can prove that they knew Stanimir — his wagon has an “open secret” to his friends. Underneath the seat of the driver’s position, in a cleverly hidden false drawer, is a stash of exceptionally good Tabac. She asks the party to go with her and her sister’s outside so she can prove it.

After they all go outside, she does indeed prove that what she said was true. Upon seeing that the party was also truthful, that this is indeed Stanimir’s wagon, she offers a reward for them burying the old man and bringing the truth of the matter to his people. She hands Brume a bag of 75 gold and a spell case containing a scroll of Calm Emotions. Brume in turn hands over Stanimir’s spellbook.

After conferring with her sisters, Mirabel then asks the party to travel with them in the morning to meet Madame Eva at a camp about a few hours journey away. They offer the party free logding and drinks for as long as they wish as a further plea to come with them, as well as gratitude for honoring their dead friend Stanimir.

While this was happening, Tamar notices that a raven perched on the eaves of the tavern, watching them. Watching them intently, in a very un-raven-like behavior, now that she noticed. Casting Speak With Animals upon herself, she tried to ask the raven what it saw. The raven answered clearly, without the usual intelligence barrier most animals would have in this situation. It mocked her, refusing to answer any questions clearly. It did give a warning, however — that many animals (although not ravens) served as spies for Strahd. Shortly after, the raven flew away. As it took to the wing, it circled the druid, and a single feather fell from it that Tamar.

They all head back into the tarern, the party to their table and the Vistani to a back room. Clementine approaches the blond man drinking by himself in the corner, who introduces himself as Ismark Kolyanovich.. Asked if he knew much about the town (and specifically where they could find the burgomaster, Kolyan Indirovich), Ismark replies in the affirmative. He says that Kolyan is his father, but has passed away. Clementine then asked if he knew anything about his father sending out a letter.

Showing him both letters, Ismark says that the one they were given by Arrigal at the Waystone Inn back in Daggerford must be a fake, because Ireena is his father’s adopted daughter, not his lover. Also that the handwriting was not the same as his father’s. The other letter he said looks like the real thing, but was unaware it was sent. He asks about the body they found it on, and claims it was his father’s manservant Dalvan Olensky. That letter’s date (in the Barovian calendar) was a little over a week ago. He speculates that his father found out about the fake letter somehow and wanted to warn the party away from Barovia.

Guessing that their prowess exceeds his own, Ismark then begs a boon of the party. He wants them to take his sister Ireena to the fortified town Vallaki, in the heart of the main valley of Barovia. The journey would be to the west, far enough away to be a full hard day’s worth of travel. Tamar asks why he wants to move his sister, and Ismark starts to explain.

Strahd von Zarovich is apparently attacted, or perhaps even infatuated with, Ireena. He has already bitten her twice, as they are two sets of bite marks on her neck. The weird part is that it’s commonly known that vampires cannot enter a private home without an invitation by a resident, and no one has invited Strahd in. Regardless, as the story unfolds, it turns out that Barovia as a whole was cursed by some feel deeds that the ancestors of the Barovians did. No one remembers what the bad deed was, but the effect of the curse was that the devil himself, Strahd, became their dread master. It was then that the deadly mists surrounded the area, and no one can leave. Anyone trying to enter the mists starts to choke or dies from exhaustion, and the few who manage to survive more than that end up back where they started no matter how long and hard they try.

Previously, the land had two gods, the Morninglord and Mother Night. One watched over them during the day, and the other at night. But since the curse, Mother Night has unanswered their prayers and there has been no sun to pray to during the day. Some even say it was Mother Night herself who cursed the land, such was the betrayal by the Barovians’ ancestors.

When asked if any had tried to fight back, Ismark mentioned a powerful mage who had fought against Strahd a year ago, but he lost and went crazy after. He was simply referred to as the “Mad Mage” since.

Ismark distrusts most Vistani, and says they are usually servants of Strahd. The three sisters who own the Blood on the Vine are exceptions.

When asked about animals spying for Strahd, he said he didn’t know anything about it. Noting the raven’s feather on Tamar, he said that it was widely accepted that ravens were an omen on all luck, both good and ill.

Treasure

• bag of 75 gold
• spell scroll of Calm Emotions

Inspiration

• Tamar, for being baffled at why a human would fight a door, is curiously inspired.
• For burninating the Death House, Clementine is inspired.

The party left the Blood on the Vine Tavern and headed across the street to
Bildrath’s Mercantile. There, the owner Bildrath shows racist trends against halflings, and within seconds of walking in Bildrath is yelling at Yenkin to get out. Suspecting the greedy half-king would be up to no good if left unsupervised, Tamar follows the rogue outside.

Brume soon finds out that Bildrath also has a mercenary outlook, because his prices are beyond exorbitant. The lack of competition and scarcity of goods means he can charge what he wants to the handful of Vistani and extremely rare adventurer who pays for his wares.

Brume wishes to head to the Church of the Sun to pay his respects to any pious villagers who are there. Along the way there, however, the party runs across a surprise. A dilapidated peasant hovel — basically, a random representative of most of the houses in Little Barovia — transforms as they walk past, becoming an open-air bazaar style shop. Inside the shop is a horrid looking creature, who introduces herself as Jenny. She’s been nicknamed Greenteeth, although she professes to have no idea why (while sporting a merry set of moss-green teeth, of course).

Jenny tells the party that she barters and haggles for magical services and sometimes magic items. She chooses to appear as she wishes, and in seemingly unnoticed by those she doesn’t want to be seen by. She’ll sell her services for hard gold coins (at a hefty markup) or also loves to peddle favor for favor.

The hag also clearly has a thing for Yenkin, who is rather vocal about not returning the sentiment. Undeterred, Jenny kept calling him ‘dearie’ and even snatched a bug out of his ear to eat it, proclaiming him to be a ‘delicious little thing’. The rest of the conversation happened with at least on other hero between Yenkin and Jenny, and not nearly enough space for the rogue’s liking.

As they were about to leave, Jenny finally took her eyes off of Yenkin – for a few seconds, anyways – and noticed the artificer Tobin with them. They chatted amongst themselves, and Tobin decided to stay to see what magics and alchemy he could learn from Jenny, and the hag herself interested in the thunder cannon carried by the dark-skinned man.

Saying their farewells and watching as the shop faded back into a decrepit house, the adventurers continued along the street to the church. Arriving, it was clear that the church — like most everything seen in Barovia so far — had seen better days. Large cracks in the wall between wooden planks left candlelight fleeing into the dim afternoon air. Inside, they could hear a man chanting through some prayers, until a high pitched scream pierced the near-silence.

The praying man was Father Grigori Donavich, the priest of the church. Gaunt and haunted with large dark bags under his eyes, Donovich was malnourished, sleep-deprived, and still zealous in his belief of the Morninglord. He was praying for his son Doru, who’d been turned into a vampire spawn a year ago. Doru was the source of the inhuman screaming coming from the basement under the church.

Father Donavich explained his son’s fate. A year ago, the Mad Mage had been rallying locals, saying that together they could defeat the devil Strahd. The mage led a group up to Castle Ravenloft and fought a battle against Strahd’s minions, prevailing and storming into the castle itself. However, eventually Strahd himself entered the fray, and the army was shattered. Few escaped with their lives, with even the Mad Mage falling off of a cliff and dying. Doru returned to Father Donavich not long after, changed into undead, and has been locked in the basement since while Donavich prays for his son’s salvation.

Brume unleashes his Radiant Soul, become more angelic in appearance, and attempts to soothe Donavich. Seeing that Brume is clearly a high ranking cleric of the Morninglord, the priest begs Brume to help his son, and has the Aasimar swear an oath to not harm his son before telling them about the trapdoor in another room that leads to the basement. The trapdoor is chained and padlocked shut.

Yenkin is wary of the basement, so he has Tamar and Bogdan stand on the trapdoor while he unlocks it, so that it can only be opened about 1 foot’s worth. The talk to Doru through the gap, who begs for food and says his evil father has imprisoned him below. He says that the reason the church is abandoned is that the town knows what his father has done. The party is unsure, so tries to see if he will eat regular food and drink, thinking a vampire would have no desire for them. Doru takes both, danged from a rope and lowered to him.

Finally Brume has the trapdoor opened. He goes down the stairs and uses Bogdan’s Scroll of Remove Curse to attempt to cure Doru, but the spell fizzles with no apparent effect. Immediately after, Brume is set upon by Doru. The prisoner — clearly a vampire spawn, despite his earlier lies — grabs Brume and bites into his neck, feeding upon the blood he so clearly desires. Brume, in a panic and fearing his own life, casts Thunderwave and knocks the spawn back before retreating. He knows he broke his oath not to harm Doru, but also feels he had no choice. As Brume stands on the trapdoor, Doru launches himself up at it, but can’t dislodge the heavily armed (and weighted) cleric. Yenkin locks it back up as the party goes back to talk with Donavich once again.

Donavich refuses to believe his son is beyond salvation, and says that Brume must not give up yet either. The Morninglord, despite not answering Donavich’s prayers, is still the only hope for Doru. The priest then begs that if the party is every near Krezk that the search for the abbot of the Abbey of Saint Markovia. Agreeing that if they get to Krezk they would try to do so, the party then left back towards the town’s center, hoping to carry on past that to Mad Mary’s home. They found her home without too much effort (since the crying inside was their clue from earlier), but no matter how much they knocked on the door they could get no response. Debating if breaking and entering was warranted, they left the boarded up house alone and sought out the burgomaster’s house instead.

The house of the burgomaster, Kolyan Indirovich, was once a small mansion, but is weary and torn down like the rest of Little Barovia. Iron gates have been forcibly twisted, with one gate fully wrenched off of its post and tossed aside. The outside of the house looks like a small battlefield, liberally scored with claw markings and blackened soot stains. The weeds around the house are overgrown, except nearer the walls of the abode; there, paw prints and human footprints mar the turf, and are littered with the broken glass of the windows. The windows are all shattered, boarded up.

Calling out at the door, a woman answers. It is Ireena Kolyana. The party tries to talk to her, but she becomes convinced they are agents of Strahd and refuses to open the door. After some failed diplomacy (and as Ireena’s yelling becomes more fearful and forceful), the party decides they need to return with Ismark Kolyanavich, so they return to the Blood on the Vine tavern.

There, Ismark is visibly annoyed that the party tried to visit his house without him. He questions the party’s motives after Bogdan answers questions out of order, starting to suspect there is something more to the group than they present. Distrustful but not yet dismissing them, he asked for the heroes to come to his house in the morning — after he’s had time to explain and calm Ireena down. They’ve caused enough damage for one day, he snarks to the group as he leaves.

Sleeping for free at the tavern (curtesy of returning Stanimir’s belongings to Alenka, Mirabel, and Sorvia), the party returns downstairs the next morning. There the three Vistani sisters ask if the group is ready to travel and see Madame Eva. It’ll be about two hours worth of travel to get to the Vistani camp. The heroes agree, their plan being to go and see Madame Eva and return by midday in order to meet Ismark at the burgomaster’s house.

They set out in two wagons, with the three sisters riding in their own and the party riding behind on Stanimir’s old wagon. Leaving Little Barovia they enter a broad meadow, and after thirty or so minutes cross the Ivlis River, over an arching stone bridge. An hour later after that they reach a crossroads with an empty gallows swinging in the wind, and a about a dozen graves nearby.

All is well, until after they pass. Suddenly, the once-empty gallows now holds a decaying body of some Barovian peasant. For some unknown reason, however, Tamar does not see the Barovian but sees her own lifeless corpse hanging in the cage. She begs to know what the other adventurers see, but when everyone but her clearly sees something different, she starts to freak out even more. This is twice that she’s seen signs of her already being dead – while very much alive, thank you.

Not long after, they round a corner and arrive at the Vistani camp, nestled against the the waters of the Tser Pool. Five tents and four more of the barrel-topped wagons loosely circle an open area in the middle, where several Vistani lounge. Horses are docked nearer the Pool’s waters. The three sisters explain that Madame Eva hates surprises, so they wish to go talk to her before the party sees her, but that the rest of the camp is open to them.

Despite being mid-morning, some Vistani are already drunk. They give the heroes wine and and sing songs. Soon, a Vistani man with an impeccably groomed goatee starts to tell stories. He introduces himself as Oleg Drazkoi, and it doesn’t take long to realize just how incredibly drunk — and yet functional — Oleg really is.

The first story story went something like this (paraphrased):

A mighty wizard came to this land over a year ago, and stood where you’re standing now. He wanted to rally the I people of Barovia against the devil Strahd. He stirred their passions, stoked their fires with the flames of revolt, and bore them up to the castle en masse. The peasant army fought the minions of strand and held their own for a time, but then the dread lord himself appeared and those who had not fallen fled. The wizard and the vampire fought each other, spells flying from the courtyards of Castle Ravenloft to the precipice a thousand feet above us. Thunder shook the mountains and rocks fell upon the great wizard, but he was not moved. Lightning split the heavens and struck the wizard, but he stood fast. But when the devil moved against him directly, the wizard’s magic met its match, and he was thrown to his death. I climbed down to find his body — hoping to find something of value, you see — but the Ivlis had already washed him away.

The second story went more like this:

There was a noble prince, many thousands of moons ago. This prince was beloved by his family and feared by his enemies. He brought peace at the edge of a sword to this valley, but found himself injured and separated from his army. We, the Vistani, found this prince and nursed him back to life. We brought him back to his army, and his family. There, the prince’s beloved brother was set to marry. It was then that the curse struck, and the prince wanted blood above all else. The curse — whatever caused it — made the noble prince become a terrible master. …. I can’t remember the rest …

As Oleg finishes his second story, Madame Eva approaches and beckons the adventurers to enter with her into her tent, a much larger affair than the other tents. Madame Eva announces that she must first uncover the heroes pasts in order to learn their futures. She holds each of their hands and turn, and as she stares at they her eyes glaze over, the pupils and irises disappearing until solid white orbs stare deep into them.

This is what she says about each:

• Bogdan
  • Child of a monastery, you have wandered far from your path. But do not fret, there are forks in the road ahead, and your curiosity will lead you back to the Sun before your days are done.
• Yenkin
  • Half a king, half a man, son of him called Short, I see you. I see your fingers itching, twitching, but know that if you so much as pocket a handful of sand in my tent, I shall curse you such that you will wish to be back in the halls of your uncle.
• Clementine
  • Daughter of Dragons, you have not yet unlocked your full power. Awaken the ghost of Argynvost and ask him to tell you more.
• Brume
  • You may not know your own past, Brume, but I do. I know of you indeed, Nelchael, “Sword of Thunder”. The Lord of Morning is not your holy father, he is more of an indulgent uncle.
• Tamar
  • Your soul smells of kobold, wild Moonthing. You do, however, wish to desire a trait known to many Vistani, though you know it not. Speak with Oleg outside after and ask about ‘his famous list’.

She then proceeds to do a reading of the Tarokka Cards.

The adventurer’s asked Madame Eva questions, especially about her intent. (other questions?!?!?) She says that she wishes the noble prince of legend restored, and not killed. She wants him to be free of his curse and back like the stories say he used to be, so that he can help all of Barovia recover. It is this desire that fuels her own actions to give aid to adventurer’s in the form of Tarokka readings.

Afterwards, Tamar goes outside to see what ‘special list’ Oleg has, and it’s a list of every swear word he’s ever heard in every language. The druid’s eyes light up.

Treasure

• I don’t think there was any.

Inspiration

• For going angel and trying to save Doru, Brume is inspired.
• For resisting Jenny Greenteeth’s adoration, Yenkin is depressed but also inspired.
• For seeing her death everywhere and starting to adapt to deal with it, Tamar is inspired

Brume talks to the vistani about the horses & wagons they’ve been using. They belonged to Stanimir, but the party has been making use of them. Madame Eva says that the Vistani are really protective of their wagons, and they’d rather not part with that; but because the party brought the wagon back along with news of Stanimir, she’l sell them horses at a hefty discount. The adventurers end up paying 50g for five horses. Brume also buys some fingerless gloves off of another Vistani, with plans to use them as a surprise later.

The group leave Tser Pool and head back towards Little Barovia. As they crest a hill and come back to the Ivlis River Crossroads, they see the gallows again. Last time a dead body appeared as they left, but now it is empty again; no one sees either Tamar’s corpse or a Barovian corpse.

Continuing through the Svalich Woods, just before they wold have reached the stone bridge crossing the Ivlis River, they meet a well dressed gentleman alone in the road. It looks as if he was waiting for and expecting them.

The man is Strahd von Zarovich. He asks the party to step down from their horses so they can have a polite discussion, but the party is leary and refuses. Seconds later, he asks again, and they find themselves strangely listening and stepping down from their horses. His request was very reasonable, after all. Strahd wishes to talk with them about a young girl, Ireena Kolyana. According to Strahd, Ireena belongs to him. She pledged herself to him in exchange for Strahd resurrecting her father, who’s been dead these last few days.

Brume and Tamar disagree, saying you can’t own people. Strahd chuckles at this, saying of course you can. She made a vow, willingly; would the party force her to break her own vow? Strahd tells them they need not believe him, of course; he suggests they ask Ireena, and look her deep into the eyes, and know the truth for themselves. She’ll probably deny it vocally, but her actions and demeanor thereafter should reveal the truth.

Suddenly, Strahd asks Brume to come stand next to him. Brume, weirdly out of character, cooperates. Strahd lashes out with his hand and savagely snaps Brume’s neck with one hand. Staring the the jaw-dropped party, Tamar is the first to react and as such Strahd waves a hand in her direction and casts a spell, leaving a very angry and loud chipmonk in the place where the druid was standing.

He solemnly tells the party that this was a simple demonstration. They really ought to make the correct choice about Ireena, and not do anything foolish. With that, his body disperses into mist and he disappears. Suddenly Brume, dead and collapsed onto the ground, is standing and fine, if oddly silent; some illusion had convinced the party that he had been killed when he had not. Tamar was a real-live chipmonk, however, at least for the next hour or so.

Shortly after Tamar returns to her normal form — and continues a tirade of swearing —the adventurers arrive back in Little Barovia. They see what looks to be a smoke cloud in the air, and as they approach it’s clear that it is coming from the neighborhood where the Death House once stood. They decide to investigate before seeing Ismark and Ireena.

The Death House is apparently being rebuilt, as they soon learn. The smoke cloud is actually a thick dust cloud; with no visible reason to explain why, the house is steadily forming back together from nothing. The bottom floor looks more or less intact, but there is no roof or upper stories yet. clemetine says fuck that and goes to burninate it. AGAIN.

As Clementine sets to work, Tamar notices a body collapsed in the street not far from the Death House. The body is not-quite-dead, and it’s soon revealed that it is Zack Justwelm, a paladin who bears an extremely large greatsword and a holy symbol of Lathander. Zach is from Clementine’s old adventuring party! Clementine thought she was the only one who was not eaten, but it turns out Zach was buried in a different cavity in the basement, and once the party defeated Lorgoth the Decayer, the wall of earth holding him as a prisoner slowly started falling apart.

Zach woke up tied in that cavity, and managed to get out of the basement … only to find a cloud of swirling dust. He tried to go through it to get out, but the dust choked him and he passed out. He’s missing his three retainers, younger squire-aged children who help serve him. They were left in a wagon while he explored but there’s no wagon around anymore.

Yenkin, Tamar, Bogdan, and Clementine continue to watch the Death House burn. Meanwhile, down the street, an old woman is pushing a peddler’s cart and selling what appear to be meat pies to the villagers.

- brume and zach see her sell a meat pie to one house, and in the next hand over meat pies in exchange for a small boy
- old woman is Morgy
- zach accosts her, harassing her. wants to know what she’s doing with the kid
- Morgy explains kid will work to help her make pastries
- Zach doesn’t believe her. grabs her by the throat
- Morgy goes all grandma on Zach. mind his manners, what kind of servant of the Morninglord is he. ask the boy, she says!
- boy is Lucian Jarov. says his parents asked him to go with Morgy. he doesn’t seem to mind
- Zach realises he dun fucked up. Tries to back off and aplogize
- Brume is interested in pastry. Wants to know more about it, not so much eat it. Gets charged extra – 5gp – because of Zach
- They leave Morgy alone, go back to Lucian’s house and talk to parents
- parents make a point of not inviting characters in
- explain same situation to Zach
- all this racket causes three kids (ages? names?) to come out from across street, are Zach’s retainers
- they decide to go see burgomaster’s house
- yenkin feels ill, says he’s gonna stay at inn for a while, try to hide from Jenny Greenteeth
- they get to burgomaster’s. Ismark is irate that they took so long, it’s after midday
- see a new person. not willing to invite an unknown person it, so Ismark says to wait. a few seconds later Zach gets splashed in the face with holy water
- all is good, party goes into manse
- inside is all boarded up, holy symbols everywhere. homemade pine coffin lays on floor in a side room
- its Kolyan, previous burgomaster
- Ireena says she can’t leave him there, but no one in village will help them
- villages are they’re scared of her cause of vampire bites.
- Brume (?) asks if she remembers seeing strahd. its fuzzy memories, but barely
- did she agree to go with him if he saved her father? she doesn’t remember that.
- says she does not want to belong to strahd, even if she did say she was his
- party agrees, says they’ll take her to Vallaki
- she doesn’t want to go with her father like he is. will they help bury him? villagers refuse to help because they are scared of her
- party agrees
- zach almost drops coffin on way to Church of the Sun
- they get to church, meet Father Donovich
- he says that they can dig up plot tonight, but ceremony needs to happen at dawn
- warns about ghosts at midnight. Rose shows herself and says she wants to see the ghosts
- party agrees to dig grave. rest help clean up / restore church somewhat, moving debris, boarding up holes, etc.
- takes afternoon, agree to say the night in church. party (minus NPCs) will see what ghosts are about
- eery green light aries, party sees over a hundred ghosts from a small graveyard. clear that ghosts aren’t 1-to-1 with graves
- ghosts are former adventurers. one is Sebastienne, the man who died of the poison dart trap in Death House. Rose knows him, talks to him
- party can’t hear Sebastienne, only Rose
- Rose translates after. ghosts are eternally doomed to fight Strahd. can’t escape Barovia, even after death.
- each night they get a chance to fight him in Castle Ravenloft, each night they fail
- each night they have small hope they can do it, and hope turns to dread. says Strahd loves that hope turning into despair.
- they ride out of town, across ghostly bridge that spans Tser Falls for a quicker route to castle
- party does not want to ride out of town at night, goes back to church
- next morning, have burial. Brume misquote scripture. Donavich is like “no no no, dammit, you’re doing it wrong”
- party rides out for Vallaki
- along the way, see dead body in road
- as Brume approaches, dead body stands up and shoots at Brume, with others in woods doing the same.
- its an ambush
- zach makes all the bandits tired from dodging his sword non-stop, cause he can’t hit them
- Bogdan kills a couple. whacks one into a tree.
- Tamar goes wolf-mode and gives on a killing-nibble
- After bandits are dead, realize all but one are dressed like Vistani.
- they did not attack Ismark or Ireena
- scimitars and crossbows w/ bolts if anyone wants some.
- TODO: come up with numbers and add to loot list
- arrive at gates of Vallaki

The party approach, now a mix of ten people, approach the gates of Vallaki. The ten people are Brume, Bogdan, Tamar, Clementine, Zach, Zach’s three retainers, Ireena, and Ismark.

Before approaching too close, Brume gives a gift to Bogdan; a pair of fingerless gloves with Continual Flame cast upon them. Brume says this is a repayment for using Bogdan’s Scroll of Remove Curse, and hopes that the gloves will be both useful and cool, since they provide light and will likely make enemies think Bogdan’s fists are literally on fire.

The fortified town is surrounded by a 20’ tall wooden palisade, the tops carved into points. Walkways behind the palisade are evident by guards patrolling on the walls. Sturdy iron gates block the dirt road from proceeding further into the town, and planted into the ground around the gates and road are wolves’ heads mounted on pikes.

Two guards, a man and woman, are behind the locked gates. The man demands that everyone who would enter must first lower their hoods and bear their heads; helmets and hoods are not allowed while entering Vallaki. “Won’t any vampires sneak in on our watch”, the guard tells them. He also asks their business while the party lower hoods, remove helmets, and follow the guards instructions.

The party state they’ve traveled from Little Barovia, and are wanting to find a safer place to live. Vallaki seems to be the best place. (NOTE: Not entirely sure what the party said, kind of winging this)

While most of the party is human, some are not. Brume can pass as one if there’s not much scrutiny, but Tamar and Clementine have some obvious half-elven features. Tamar manages to hide her ears behind her hair, but the male guard notices Clementine’s pointed ears. The male guard calls out to her, telling her she should take her friends to the Blue Water Inn past the center of town. There’s already a “slant-ear” hanging out there so she’ll feel at home there, and proceeds to open the large gates.

The female guard, upon notices the symbols of The Morninglord being worn by Brume, tells him that he might wish to visit Saint Andral’s Church on the far side of town. She also tells him that if he needs supplies, he should look to Arasek Stockyard for those.

The party enter Vallaki through the now-open gates and head towards the Arasek Stockyard. There, they meet the owners, Yelena and Gunther Arasek. Yelena tries hard to convince Zach to rent one or more storage units (playing upon his lower intelligence and vanity), and ends up making a deal with him; he gets a discount on his purchase today, but has to agree to rent a storage unit for 25g/month by end of the week. The party guy a few supplies and continue along the main thoroughfare through the town.

They come across the town square. Limp and tattered garlands decorate the homes and shops, and small painted boxes of dead flowers are mounted on the sides of many buildings. There’s are several proclamations posted for “The Wolf’s Head Jamboree” being taken down, while signs for “The Festival of the Blazing Sun” are being put up. The signs all say ‘attendance required, rain or shine’ and ‘all will be well’ upon them; they are being replaced by town guards, who are in turn directed by a very large man, Izek Strazni.

Izek is the right-hand man of Baron Vargas Vallakovich, the burgomaster of Vallaki. Izek has a monstrous right arm, demonic in appearance and clearly not human as it is capped with fingers and claws more appropriate to a monster than a man. Zach, seeing a man clearly larger than him, feels his testosterone rise up and saunts over, intending to show off his own muscles and large greatsword to Izek, who wield a similarly sized axe. Izek, unimpressed, uses his one monstrous arm and traps Zach’s sword in its sheathe, and with barely a grunt shoves Zach backwards with the sole arm. He tells the smaller Zach that he looks like a troublemaker, and the Baron likes to keep tabs on those types. Zach should report to the Baron’s residence int he morning. It didn’t feel like a request so much as an order, to be honest.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party were drawn more to noticing the three men, two women, and two boys locked into three sets of stocks at the North end of the square. Each stock is locked with a heavy iron lock, and each criminal locked up is wearing a plaster donkey head.

Tamar, asking some local children, find out that the people are punished cause they weren’t happy enough. The small child she asks proudly recites “maliciousness unhappiness” as the cause of their arrest, with only a few stutters. Tamar also has some long deep philosophical conversations with other kids. Her DM forgets the conversations. It’s okay, though, cause ALL WILL BE WELL. The party has a few grumbles about the state of the tired, wet people locked in the stocks, but they choose to not cause a scene and leave, headed towards the inn further into the city.

The Blue Water Inn has quite a crowd, several drinking and several listening to the other “slant-ear” in town,
Rictavio. Rictavio is a half-elf bard, and is entertaining people with impossible stories. He tells of a singing, man-eating plant that seems utter ridiculous, but he swears it is true. Before that he told of a previous companion in his circus acts, a female orc who could chew through thick iron chains with nothing but her teeth.

At a table away from Rictavio, three younger men sat and drank. The three, Vaz Vizorach and Nikolai and Karl Wachter) invite some of the party over. Tamar hangs back to listen to Rictavio, but most of the rest of the party go, including Ireena and Ismark, who try to remain mostly silent.

The three young men love to drink, talk, and cause mischief. The sons of nobles, bother powerful and minor, they have little else to do. While talking, Vaz realizes how much adventure and danger the party has seen, and becomes enamored of the stories. Its clear he’s envious of the adventurer’s life, and wants to “kill some bandits” himself. It’s revealed that the Wachter family is extremely rich and powerful, and basically are vying with the Baron’s Vallakovich family for most powerful in the city.

Bogdan is feeling the mischief synergy, because he uses some Ki to make Zach’s sword “talk” with a convincing illusion effect. The Paladin becomes immediately convinced that Buster, his so-large-it’s-compensating-for-something greatsword, is in fact magical.

Karl, having been drinking too much and indulging a bad idea, distracts Zach and tries to steal the “magical sword”. Zach trips him before he gets far and intimidates him, so that Karl runs away in fear. Nikolai apologizes for his brother’s behavior, and leaves to see to him and make sure he doesn’t anything foolish to himself or others.

Brume goes to talk to the innkeeper, Urwin Martikov, and arranges food and loding. He passes over the cheaper fare (boiled root veggie stew and Purple Grapemash No. 3), and opts for the better food (wolf steaks and Red Dragon Crush, a higher quality wine). He noticed that the wine barrels behind the bar were both blazoned with the same brand for “The Wizard of Wines”. He also gets three rooms with a total of ten beds put in them for everyone to sleep for the night. He starts to indicate that Ismark and Ireena were looking for safe homes, but Ismark cuts him off, keeping the Cleric from potentially saying too much to a stranger they don’t know yet.

Brume and Bogdan briefly consider going for a late-night mission to unlock the people in the stocks, but decide it would lead to punishment as they weren’t sure where to hide the people they’d free, nor why anyone wouldn’t automatically suspect the newcomers who just walked through. Instead, the party discusses what to do about Ireena and Ismark. Brume is of the mind that they’ve completed their task; the two are in Vallaki and safe, and have lodging for the night. Tamar suggests that the party (sans the two Little Barovians) scout aroud the city tomorrow and get a better feel for things. This way, they can suggest a more permanent solution. The party agrees, and goes to sleep. The next morning they pay for another day and night’s worth of lodging to be sure, before heading out to explore.

Their first destination is Saint Andral’s Church, on the far West side of town. There, they meet Father Lucian Petrovich, who is cleaning up the church. <<<some>>> After a quick talk, Father Petrovich takes Brume aside. Noticing the Cleric is a devout of The Morninglord, he asks Brume to do him a favor. The church has recently been vandalized, and a holy artifact was stolen — the bones of Saint Andral himself. The Father wants Brume to help track them down and return them.

Father Petrovich says they should start by asking Yeska, a young altar boy. Petrovich had told Yeska about the bones a few days prior, to put the boy at ease when he had nightmares of monsters coming into the church. Investigating, the party found out that Yeska in turn told Milivoj, the groundskeeper and gravedigger.

Milivoj is outside in the ground, a muscular sullen young man who packs his shovel around on his shoulder. He doesn’t agree with the Baron’s “All Will Be Well” mantra. Brume finally intimidates him, with a little bit of deceit, into admitting his act in the theft. Milivoj had told Henrik van der Voort, the local coffin maker, about the bones. A day later, Henrik had paid Milivoj a lot of gold to dig them up and bring them to him. Milivoj accepted, because needed the gold to help feed him and his family, especially his younger sister.

The adventurers go to visit Henrik at his shop. Knocking on the door yields no results, as the man inside yells “I’m closed.”. More knocking, and shouting through the locked door only lead to more and more panicked shouts of “GO AWAY!” from inside. Bogdan tries to pick the lock to the door but doesn’t get it open fast enough, so Zach kicks in the door, bashing it nearly off the hinges in his haste to get inside.

They question Henrik and find out that the coffin maker has the bones upstairs. He claims it’s not really his fault, however, as they made him do it. It turns out they are vampire spawn who’ve been living in his storage area upstairs. Henrik is clearly scared.

Bogdan sneaks up the stairs and uses his Ki powers to cast silence. He sneaks through the kitchen and into Henrik’s bedroom, and looking at the cabinet he was told about finds the hidden compartment that holds a canvas sack of bones. He returns to the party. They talk and decide to kill the vampire spawn up above.

They all go back upstairs, silence still around them. Once in the storage room they see six crates, all very obviously marked “JUNK”. They place themselves strategically, and when first crate is opened … all open at simultaneously in some sort of trap the party must have missed.

Combat ensues, with the party fighting for their very lives. It quickly becomes apparent that the vampires are taking little damage from most of the party members’ attacks, and that they are healing themselves almost as quick as the heroes damage them. Even the bones of Saint Andral had no effect on them. Things are looking dire…

Treasure:

• Bones of Saint Andral, in a lovely canvas sack

Inspiration:

• Tamar – for having more in common philosophically with human kids than human adults
• Brume – For lying to Milivoj for the greater good (and feeling bad about it after)
• Bogdan – for making Zach’s sword magical.

Still in the upstairs portion of Henrik van der Voort’s coffinshop, the party exchanges blows with the vampire spawn, unleashing deadly attacks to no avail. Tamar casts Moonbeam before morphing into a Dire Wolf. Bogdan, divinely aided by a Protected from Evil spell from Brume’s magic, smashes the undead with his staff. Zack springs to action, swinging his great sword in heroic arcs, wildly missing. Brume senses the true nature of these “abominations” and manifests his true angelic nature, sprouting wings and a halo. The spawn literally tear into the party, raking their sharpened claws into the heroes’ flesh. They claw, they grab and bite, and try their best to prevent escape. Clementine walks into a maelstrom of violence and bloodshed, unleashing a volley of Scorching Rays upon the undead.

The party, hard-pressed and feeling the pressure, fights back desperately. Tamar’s Moonbeam chars a few of the vampires, igniting their ferocity. Bogdan, despite his magical defenses, is overwhelmed by the vicious monsters and gets knocked unconscious. One of the bloodsuckers dug its claws into Brume and held out, trying to bite him; Brume channels the Morninglord’s divine power and is able to Turn three of the six spawn, making them flee in terror, also while casting Healing Word on Bogdan, reinvigorating the monk so he may return to battle.

Now the fight is looking a little more fair, giving the adventurers a tiny chance to catch their breath. They realize that the vampire spawn have done a great deal of damage within just a few seconds. The party fights back valiantly, spells and thunderous blows balanced against gnashing bites and gruesome claws. Brume has an idea and hopes to open an avenue of escape. The pale cleric cast Thunderwave and shatters a nearby window, cracking the stone wall separating the party from alleyway outside. The cone of thunder also catches two of the spawn in the blast, knocking one prone.

Zack, growing more determined after a despairing number of misses, Smites one of the fiends and deals it a mighty blow, sending it back to hell. Two of the vampire spawn cower from Brume, but the remaining few fight even harder, seemingly determined to prevent any of the living from escaping alive. Tamar seizes an opportunity to break free from her attackers. The giant wolf charges towards the wall, intent on jumping through the window and towards freedom; she manages the jump, but not before smashing through the wall around the window frame. Landing in the alley below with a thud and a snarl, Tamar realizes the window frame is stuck around her neck, as if she was wearing a giant wooden necklace.

The druid, still badly hurt, doesn’t waste time and makes a dash for safety. Zack Smites another vampire, and with the air of an impeccable braggadocio proclaims: “two down, four to go!” One by one the heroes make a dash for freedom, with vampire clawing at their backs

Bogdan’s superior speed sees him sprinting to the end of the alley before everybody else. The monk makes a huge commotion, yelling “VAMPIRES ARE ATTACKING” and “THEY HAVE THE SACRED RELICS”. The noise serves its purpose, drawing the attention of two Vallakian guards.

Tamar is grappled and brought to the ground, reverted to her half-elven form and overpowered by one of the spawn, struggling to avoid becoming a meal in the grasp of the vampire spawn’s bloodlust. Zack, on the opposite end of the alley, had been knocked to the ground by another spawn. Fearing for his life, the paladin channels Lathander’s holy light and drives the undead into a frenzy of claws and teeth. Brume, still in his angelic form, flies from the opening in the upstairs wall to the adjacent rooftop to gain safety. Two of the vampire spawn broke away for unknown reasons, after one shouted at the other in a horrific guttural language no one understood. They ran away from the alley mouth, and within seconds the party lost sight of them.

Tamar and Zack are now both in dire straits, and Brume feels the pressure and is in a tight spot. He has to choose which to save, and the wrong choice could mean death. Unable to save both of his friends, the man-angel let practicality have its head and chose to heal the adventurer closest to him. Flying down to Zack, Brume first retrieves the bones of Saint Andral in their hempen sack, and whispers Healing Word in the paladin’s unconscious ear. Zack frees himself, but Brume’s choice meant that no one was close enough to Tamar.

The druid pays the ultimate price. Drinking one half-elf dry, the deadly vampire spawn turns it’s attention to Clementine, looking for a second meal. Zack, beaten and bruised and nearly out of any means to help himself, heals himself with what little divine energy he has left before he plows through a window in the building across the alley. The abjured vampire, left behind without seeing where the paladin went, swears and spitting by himself at the back, until Brume flies away. The cleric heads to Tamar’s bloodless remains mere seconds too late; he scoops her up and ascends to safety, leaving the abjured spawn free to menace people once more.

Clementine is attacked by the remaining vampire spawn. The two guards try first defend her, and later to pry them off of her, but to no avail. The undead bleed her dry as well, their unquenchable thirst ever driving them forward.

Zack finds himself in a room face-to-face with a Vallakian citizen armed with a cleaver. Realizing the man is a butcher, the paladin throws the man some gold to cover the broken window and manages to push past to safety, yelling about the danger behind him so the butcher isn’t caught unawares as well.

The party is now scattered, and two of them are dead. Will the remaining adventurers make it back safety and regroup? Can they get the holy bones back to Saint Andral’s Church? Only time will tell.

Treasure:

• None

Inspiration:

• For putting his incredible speed to use to warn the townsfolk (and plea for help), Bogdan is inspired
• For putting the lives of his party members above his own, and feeling the cost of choosing which party member to save, Brume is Inspired
• For being tasty, Tamar and Clementine are ded. So ded.

- Brume, Bogdan, and Zack all make their way back towards Saint Andral’s Church, each to their own path
- Brume, exposing his Radiant Soul, flies with his angelic wings carrying the bloodied (and near bloodless) corpse of Tamar. He lands in a small neighboor off the main road, and makes his way from there towards the Blue Water Inn.
- Bogdan flees down the main road, running as fast as only a monk can. He screams warnings about vampires behind him
- Zach leaves the butcher’s shop he found himself in, and hears the carnage of the vampire spawn fighting village townsfolk. He flees in the other direction (bravely advancing in the opposite direction, as it were) by climbing a nearby building, jumping roof to roof, and running through small alleys towards the main road from there
- Brume and Bogdan just happen to meet each other around the Inn. there Brume runs inside, begs the use of a cart and donkey from Urwin Martikov (the innkeeper), and places Tamar’s body in it. The pair run on to the Church
- at the church, Father Lucian Petrovich is attending to two young women. One is conscious but weak, and the other in unconscious
- Weak one is Paloma Sandoval, a Vistana ranger.
- Finally Zach clanks up while Brume uses Healing Word to heal the unconscious lady to consciousness. She is Sophie Byrne.
- The two women were hunting werewolves along the western reaches of the Svalich Woods when they got overwhelmed. Next thing they know they were waking up in Vallaki.
- Father Lucian tells the two that Willemina Rikalova saw who brought them in.
- Brume interupts, telling Father Lucian about the vampires in Henrik van der Voort’s coffin shop and the carnage they’ve wrought, as well as recovery of the Saint Andral’s bones.
- the Father restores the bones and does a small ritual. Zach casts a spell/ability and realizes that the church is now consecrated again
- tamar’s body is wrapped and placed in the back of the church behind the altar for now. Clementine’s body was left with the two guards that fell near her
- Brume starts to ring the bell in the church, hoping it will convince people to see refuge in the church. Yeska asks what he’s doing and Brume puts the boy to work tolling the bell
- Sophie and Paloma ask Willemina about their recovery. Willemina tells that she was near the Sunset Gate when a female Vistana with a wooden leg dropped them off. She ran (well, walked briskly for an old lady) to Father Lucian and told him so he could try to help the two recover.
- Meanwhile, Zach and Brume set back off to gather their people from the Inn and to rescue the prisoners in the stocks
- Stopping at the inn, Zach runs in screaming for his kids to get ready. They soon come down stairs, but none have shoes on. DM laughs because he has kids and kids suck at listening.
- Brume realizes Zach isn’t gonna remember about Ismark. Brume grabs the other man but finds out that Ismark and Ireena got into fight.
- Ismark relays that he wanted to go back to little barovia to see about succession for someone being a burgomaster, but Ireena did not want him to go. She said that Ismark would become a target for the devil Strahd if he goes, because Strahd will be there looking to hold her to her promise. When Ismark asked what promise, she screamed in frustration and ran out; by the time Ismark could follow she was gone.
- Brume and Zach discuss, but realize they won’t have time to search for Ireena at the moment because they have no leads, and she could be anywhere in the town. Instead, Brume taks Ismark and the donkey/cart to head to the stocks, with Zach following as soon as he can.
- As they run towards the town square, there’s an exodus of people fleeing the massacre and/or running towards the safety of the church.
- Brume asks several what they’ve seen, and finds out eventually some guards ran towards the massacre site. While most don’t know, a few finally responded that they saw prisoners in the stock
- Finally, once there, Brume is able to use his sword to pry apart the stocks and free the men, women, and children there. It took several minutes of work to finish, all in all
- the three of them return to the church
- other people are arriving at the church too, and rumors could in with them – there was a large massacre on the east end of town with villagers and guards
- the party and villagers stay in the church for hours, long enough for the party to get a long rest. The villagers mostly head home at night but the party remains till the next morning
- They found out a total of 23 townsfolk, 6 guards, clemetine, and tamar were killed in the attack.
- Brume wants to find Ireena. He asks Ismark, and finds out she normally wears a locket with a small painting of her and their father, Kolyan.
- Brume casts Locate Object and tries to walk the city, divining its location. He’s lead to the Burgomaster’s mansion
- a woman carrying a large bundle of twigs knocks on the door and is let in
- Zach, since he told by Izek Strazni to meet the Baron yesterday morning, knocks on the door
- a maid answers and lets them in. Inside they see lots of twigs, some woven into wicker shapes, scattered on the floor. The maid takes them to a den to wait for the Baron
- the den has a number of comfy couches and chairs and a big stuffed bear head, with teeth as big as a man’s face
- Baron Vargas Vallakovich comes in. He’s wearing a breastplate and rapier, and carries himself with the surety of one who is lord and master of an entire place.
- he has two very large mastiffs with him.
- He asks what the players would like of him. When he finds out they’re missing Ismark, he says no one should be missing, as being missing causes a lack of happiness. And happiness is key, he assures them, with many utterances of ALL WILL BE WELL
- The Baron says he’ll help by spreading the word and using his influence, as well as having guards keep an eye out. He then says he’ll want payment for his help and asks that the party be his guests of honor at the next festival, the Festival of the Burning Sun
- more conversation I can’t remember
- The Baron finally says that the party should wait and meet his wife. She’ll have more contacts and can leverage the womenfolk in the town to help find Ireena.
- Baron leaves, and several minutes pass. Brume is sure the locket is upstairs, but doesn’t have a good way of thinking about how to get there.
- A few minutes pass, and Baroness Lydia Petrovna enters. She’s a frail woman, prone to fits of nervous laughter and flighty responses. She takes the party into a dining room, where Barovian peasants feast upon rich cake. She explains that she feeds them cake in exchange for gossip and because they are building the wicker pieces for the festival.
- She talks about missing servants – a butler and her lady’s maid. Sophie offers to help find the servants.
- Lydia says that’s nice and wants to accept, but she can’t accept without talking to her husband first. If he agrees, she’ll let them look around for clues and help try to find the servants
- meanwhile, she’ll spread word of ireena via the drawing Bogdan did and will have more people looking for her

Rest is muddled in my head. I know the following occured, but not when or the ordering compared to above:

- met Blinsky in Blinksy Toys. He sells creepy, but well-intention toys, for “leetle girls and leetle boys”. He wants everyone to be “hyappy”.
- most of his toys are normal, if odd. however one doll behind the counter looked a lot like Ireena
- when questioned, it turns out Izek had been forcing Blinsky to make them on threat of burning down his shop. He’s hade one a month, and has made 73 dolls that look closer and closer to the right woman, at least according to Izek

- party heads toward coffin maker’s shop.
- pass town square, kind of a recovery area
- see Clementine’s dead body
- go on to coffin maker’s shop
- Henrik is not there. find bag of money, all with Strahd von Zarovich‘s visage
- found a receipt of 6 large crates by one Vassili von Holtz
- realize they are being spied on by Ernst
- after being caught, tries to spy again. then caught again by Brume
- Ernst tells party to go see Lady Fiona Wacther at the Wactherhaus
- on way to Watcherhaus went back by the dead bodies and saw Henrik’s corpse
- guards said they would have to stake everyone before mass burial
- Lady Fiona Wachter is ambitious. wants to overthrown Baron Vargas Vallakovich
- her daughter Stella is crazy because of black magic. assumes Baron knows black magic or has someone who does because of Izek’s demon arm
- Stella was to be engaged to Victor, Baron’s son, until their magic made her crazy. she now thinks she’s a cat
- Lady Wacther says more about Izek, but my notes made no sense.
- says to take out Izek and she can handle rest. return at nightfall to get a poison Ernst will arrange to have for them to use to take out Izek
- go back to Baron’s house. search for clues for both Ireena as well as missing servants, the Butler Andre and Nyanca the Lady’s Maid
- bathroom, hallways, kitchen areas, etc. not much has interest
- one room looks to be a vanity room, has large mirror and wedding dress in it. both are spotless, obviously cleaned often
- find locked rooms upstairs. one is Izek’s room. he has dozens of Ireena dolls and lots of empty bottles on floor labeled ‘Purple Grapemash’
- behind bottles (tied, gagged, and unconscious) is Ireena
- Zack defaces eeeerthing
- Sophie mends up behind him before giving up
- Another locked room is closet, has beaten and manacled Udo.
- rescue Udo and Ireena both. Brume flies with Ireena back to Saint Andral’s Church, rest of party climbs out window and carries Udo
- Baroness is all lonely, still waiting for adventurers to come downstairs and they never ever will
- go back to church. ask Father Lucian about his sister, the baroness
- he says Baron makes her nervous, to the point that she’s developed a nervous tic of laughter to cope with his ALL WILL BE WELL madness
- Lucian sends Milivoj to fetch Wilemina, the wife of Udo
- Zach sent little boy townsfolk to fetch Lady Wachter. Paloma paid the boy.
- Karl Wachter comes to church, says Lady cannot be summoned.
- Zach takes Udo and Willemina to the Watcherhaus with Carl for safekeeping as they’re a witness against Baron
- guards came to church to summon to Baron. party said no. tried to knock guards unconscious but Paloma killed one.

Inspiration

• TBD

Treasure

• bag of money from Henrik van der Voort, all stamped with the visage of Strahd von Zarovich
  • 30 silver
  • 12 electrum
  • 8 gold

- after the guards attacked the party, Brume becomes more worried about the safety of Udo and Willemina.
- So even though Zack Justwelm is with them on their way to the Wachterhaus, Brume sets off after to help protect them.
- Father Lucian isn’t really happy that Paloma killed a guard at Saint Andral’s Church, but grudgingly accepts her rationale for it. He refuses for the guards (living or dead) to be hidden in the church, however, so the party drag the bodies back behind the church and leave them laying in the graveyard
- Ismark has had enough of playing the innocent and letting others dictate his and Ireena‘s safety. He takes some weapons and armor off of the guards and arms himself, with plans to arm Ireena as well.
- when the party ask if he knows how to use a blade, he demonstrates some remarkable competence; he’s more than capable of holding his own.
- Ireena finally comes to, and Father Lucian decides she’s been drugged in some manner. She went from straight knocked out to awake and lucid with far too little transition to be anything like a concussion.
- at this time Paloma and Sophie hear what sounds like pebbles being thrown against the church windows.
- they go outside to investigate. Paloma’s hawk, Santa Muerte is clearly focused on something flying away, and Paloma sees that it’s a small flock of ravens
- the ravens fly away toward the center of town before anyone can make out a better location for them
- there is a group of pebbles tied in a small net, and that is tied to a letter. this is what hit the church window
- letter reads: “Night and Day war amongst themselves within ”/wikis/vallaki" class=“wiki-page-link”> Vallaki. Light appears at the top of the burgomaster’s house at night, and darkness gathers in the day at the basement of the Wachterhaus. But what happens when dark and light are both equally bad?"
- the bottom of the leader has a small stamp on it that looks like this:
- The party, after much debate of what to do, decides to go snoop around the Wachterhaus.
- They avoid main roads, hoping to avoid the notice of any guards that might be looking for them
- taking small alleys and crossing through some wooded and open lands, they arrive to Wachterhaus sight unseen
- Paloma scouts around and sees a door to presumably a cellar on the side of the house. There are some windows nearby. She watches and sees people pass by inside, but none pay attention to outside
- the party approaches the cellar doors together. The blood hawk Santa Muerte stays outside in a tree, but the rest start to proceed inside one-by-one
- a soft dirty floor houses two sets of stairs and four cots, but otherwise the room seems fairly empty. the floor is crossed by obvious footprints going from stair to stair, and oddly enough one set walk straight up to an empty wall
- Paloma crosses the floor with intents on seeing what lies up the second staircase, but eight skeletons claw their way out of the dirt floor and start attacking
- a hunter of undead, Paloma knows that the skeletons don’t have any special resistances against her axes and bows, and starts attacking. the rest of the party rushes in to help
- Bogdan’s attacks are especially powerful against the skeletons, with his bludgeoning blows shattering ribcages and exploding bones around him.
- Ismark, unleashing some pent-up frustration, yells a huge war-cry. (Paloma winces, as they’re now fighting and yelling while literally under the house of Lady Fiona Wachter, whom they’re supposed to meet again in a few hours).
- Ismark starts cleaving through skeletons, dual-wielding a longsword and shortsword and chopping down two at a time
- Ireena tries to run into combat as well but isn’t nearly as effective as her brother
- Half of the skeletons rain arrows down upon the party as the rest close the distance and swing deadly swords.
- the wall to the side, where footprints end on the floor, suddenly spins on a central point and four cultists come dashing out to join in the fray
- Sophie lights up the place with her Flaming Sphere, burning the asses (literally) of a couple of cultists
- The cultists lob arcs of black fire at the party, chased by a smell of brimstone
- Bogdan takes the bulk of the damage and receives a Cure Wounds by Paloma
- The party downs all the skeletons and kills three of the four cultists when the last living one tries to flee
- He invokes a spell that causes Sophie to be frozen in place on the stairs as he dashes past her and out of the cellar. The party tries to give chase but is delayed with Sophie blocking the entrance for a precious few seconds
- as he flees, the last cultist desperately asks “Why did you forsake us of the Four Quarters?!?!”
- Santa Muerte, however, was having none of it. By the time Bogdan got back up the stairs and outside, the hawk was sitting on the dead man’s chest with obvious claw marks around the guy’s face. Bogdan wasn’t sure but he thought he knew what smugness looked like on a hawk now.
- Bogdan chances a quick peak into a window to see how noticed they might be. He hears a servant yelling for Lady Wachter to go to safety and that the servant would check out the commotion in the basement, but Lady Wachter sternly yelled ‘No! Don’t go down there’.
- Bogdan then went back into the cellar
- Paloma and Sophie were inspecting the hidden room. It has a pentagram on the floor
- Sophie tries to burn the pentagram away with her Flaming Sphere
- a deep voice suddenly shouts ‘WHO ARE YOU TO DISRUPT MY SUMMONING?!’ to Sophie, and then Sophie hears something like bat wings flapping around her head
- Sophie, feeling scared and confused, freaks out and backs away
- The party think maybe it’s a bluff and try to destroy more of the pentagram. it becomes clear that it’s black paint on a stone floor
- the voice continues to yell ‘YOU, MOON CLERIC, SHALL SEE YOUR PRECIOUS MOON SHATTERED AND MOTHER NIGHT DESTROYED. KNOW IT WILL BE YOUR FAULT!"
- it then talks to Paloma, saying “VISTANA CHILD, YOU KNOW OF CHOICE. DO YOU CHOOSE LOYALTY AND REWARD OR BETRAYAL AND CURSES?”
- while saying ’loyalty and reward’, a pile of coins shower onto the remnants of the pentagram
- the entire party hears the wings this time and then it’s gone
- Sophie and Bogdan both relate what they know about the ‘Four Quarters’. There was an infamous diabolist named Devostas who had mastered black magics. He was captured, and sentenced to death by being drawn and quartered. Depsite being ripped apart by the horses, he fell magic was so strong he didn’t die. He gained a cult-like following in the years since his refusal to die, although there’s confusion as to what happened with Devostas himself afterward.

Inspiration
- Sophie, for freaking the hell out when the voice started talking about destroying her very religion

Treasure
- 60g (20g that mysteriously appeared at Paloma’s feet, 40g on cultists persons). was this kept by party??

- party starts split
- Bogdan, Paloma, Sophie, Ismark, and Ireena return to Saint Andral’s Church after leaving the cellar of Wachterhaus.
- at the church, Bogdan talked to Father Lucian. Bogdan asked the priest who he thought should succeed Baron Vargas Vallakovich as Burgomaster of Vallaki if the Baron were to be deposed.
- Father Lucian said he could only really think of two choices: Lady Fiona Wachter as the next most powerful noble, or Urwin Martikov as a well-liked and friendly man due to his position as innkeeper of the Blue Water Inn
- Bogdan then asked Lucian about the The Four Quarters. The priest made his fancy holy gestures to ward away evil before telling Bogdan that the cult came to power in the more recent years as people hoped to unlock Devostas’ ability to avoid death as a means of escaping the mists of Barovia.
- Sophie admits to being scared at this point, worried that the demonic voice they heard at the Wachterhaus might actually go after her god. She refuses to leave the church at this point.
- Paloma talks Bogan into returning to the Wachterhaus (by the front door this time) to try and go find the rest of the party. It’s a little early for their meeting but not so much that it’s unreasonable to arrive.
- They arrive and Paloma knocks. The ranger asks the maid that answers the door if she’s seen the rest of the party, and maid replies no. Paloma then asks the maid if they can come back later since they want to find their friends first.
- The maid, visibly annoyed, shuts the door in Paloma’s face as an answer.
- Paloma sends her hawk, Santa Muerte, to circle around in the air hoping to find the rest of the party

MEANWHILE, EARLIER

- Brume and Zack are escorting Udo and Willemina to the Wachterhaus from Saint Andral’s Church. The two adventurers want to keep the older couple safe from the reach of the Baron as they can be witnesses against the Baron’s imprisonment and torture tactics.
- They take the main road instead of side streets, hoping speed will make up for lack of stealth. Between the Inn and the Wachterhaus, however, something weird happens
- Brume and Zack feel a strange tugging sensation, and they’re suddenly whisked towards a wall, but instead of smacking into it they … phased through.
- Inside, Jenny Greenteeth is smiling her winsome smile and welcome the two to her shop in Vallaki. Apparently the old gal gets around.
- a long conversation happens. It bears fruit in a few ways:
- Brume asked her to talk to Tobin Shaw about procuring a Drift Globe, a magic item that can manipulate light. In exchange, he had to stare into her eyes for an unconformable amount of time before she screamed straight at him, deafening him for a long time.
- Zack agreed, by an oath signed in blood, to go to Old Bonegrinder and deal with Jenny’s “cousin”. In exchange, she promised to upgrade Zack’s sword “Buster” for him.
- Jenny explained that she herself was the source of Lady Wacther’s power. It took a while to flower, so to speak. Jenny giggled that she told Lady Wacther that the exchange was five years of life; it wasn’t her fault Lady Wacther thought Jenny mean Lady Wacther’s life. Instead, Jenny took five years of life from Lady’s Wachter’s former husband, Nikolia. (Not to be confused with her son, Nikolai…). The husband died from this exchange.
- Due to some prior agreement she’s made (and wouldn’t reveal), Jenny says they cannot go to the Wactherhaus before dark. Asked what as in it for them, Jenny merely giggled again and said she wouldn’t kill and eat them.
- Jenny told the two adventures to come back to her the next day and she’d have their stuff. Zack would have to leave their sword with her overnight. She then kicked them out.
- Appearing back in the street, Udo and Willemina are confused because Brume and Zack were missing for a few seconds. Playing it off, Zack says something came up and they need to return to the inn

MEANWHILE (AGAIN), back to regular time

- The party regroups at the Blue Water Inn, where Brume and Zack have been drinking a lot.
- Paloma notices a pair of hunters she’s met before: Szoldar Szoldarovich and Yevgeni Krushkin. They’re wolf-hunters who tried their hands at hunting werewolves. They disliked the extra danger, and how much worse werewolf tastes compared to wolf. They did give a few other intriguing bits of news to Paloma, however
- 1) They’ve been noticing some weird flashes of purple light coming from the top of the Burgomaster’s house at night.
- 2) Tsernovna, a Vistani camp southwest of Vallaki, has some “bad apple types” of Vistani there. Those Vistani are upset because they’re running out of wine and because of some other trouble that Szoldar and Yevgeni aren’t aware of.
- 3) They mentioned that Lake Zarovich is more dangerous, with scores of wolves hunting its shores. Still, despite that, the town drunk Bluto Krogarov has been seen trying to fish the lake anyways, even though he’s been warned off.
- 4) The Mad Mage has been seen “fishing” between the shores of Lake Zarovich and Mount Baratok. Of course he was “fishing” by throwing lightning into the lake and frying dozens of fish at once while rambling. The two hunters steer clear of him and believe he’s very dangerous and crazy.
- Meanwhile, Urwin (the innkeeper) has been bringing more wine to the table. He tells Bogdan that he’s starting to run low. He asks if the monk would be willing to go to The Wizard of Wines and see what the problem is. They normally get a shipment every two weeks, and it’s been four since the last one. Urwin says he’ll pay them for the trouble, especially since they’ll have to deal with ‘the old crow’ that runs the place, explaining he’s a recalcitrant old man.
- Vaz Vizorach comes in and wants to join the party for drinks, but thinks its unfair they have such a headstart on them. He goes up and talks to Urwin at the bar for a bit, and comes back with some hideous concoctions in small glasses. The stuff is nauseating but more or less sobers Brume and Zack back up.
- Zack wants to go with party to Wachterhaus. They say no. He then says they owe him a night of drinks. Tries to flirt with Ireena, but gets told off by Ismark’s glares and Paloma being friendly.
- the 8 of them all leave for Wachterhaus
- There, Lady Wachter agrees to hide/protect Udo and Willemina. She’ll present them in morning to people at church during service and rally townsfolk to cause of dethroning the Baron
- Wants Ireena to also talk about what Izek did in capuring her
- other plan is for adventurers to use one of two poisons (contact to knock unconscious, digestable to kill) against Izek or the Baron directly during the Festival of the Burning Sun on the next day
- party is unsure if they’re still honored guests at the festival or not
- they leave the old couple there, and the other 6 go to investigate the purple flashing lights at Burgomaster’s house
- Brume and Zack handle distraction; Brume throws rocks at the house till he breaks a window, and Zack sets a small tree on fire with dried rope and oil. Ismark and Ireena chillax beside them
- Meanwhile, Paloma and Bogdan climb to top of roof and then into attic. they find a room on far side
- door to room has a sign saying “ALL WILL NOT BE WELL”, has light coming from under it
- inside see a dead skeletal cat
- Bogdan opens door, gets zapped by a huge bolt of lightning, falls over
- Paloma sees cat is not dead, but undead. there are more inside
- pentagram on floor, young man sees her and vanishes
- warns them away, saying they have to leave
- Paloma begs to tend to Bogdan first. Young man agrees
- She heals monk and they leave, but not before young man says she should try to meet up with Victor Vallakovich tomorrow during the festival. Paloma feels oddly compelled to follow this advice.
- meet up with party and they go back to inn to rest for the night

- party rests at Blue Water Inn, split into a couple of rooms
- Brume has another of his dreams. In this one, he finds himself before a pool of turquoise with currents of aqua gently rippling through it. A young man, blonde of hair, falls inside the pool, and at first panics. He calms down and seems to be looking for someone or something. After what seems like a lifetime, his eyes light up, as if he had found what he was looking for. He stretches his arm upwards, reaching out …
- and Brume is being shaken awake, a hand gripped over his mouth. Over him stands Urwin Martikov, the innkeep. Urwin tells Brume he has to wake his friends and to hurry, for a little birdie has told him that Baron Vargas Vallakovich, burgomaster of Vallaki, is sending guards to the Inn to find the party. Urwin is emphatic about not wanting trouble to happen at the Inn or near his family
- Brume does as he’s instructed, and within minutes (before even donning armor) the party is walking away from the Inn in the pre-dawn darkness where it’s starting to rain
- the party stands around for a while, dithering and dickering about where to go or which direction to head. Eventually they decide to head eastward away towards the less populated side of town, thinking about finding an abandoned house and holing up
- they spent long enough arguing, however, that they see torches weaving and bobbing, spitting in the rain, stomping fairly loudly
- the party braces for combat, and it turns out the seven torches are really only five guards. a bit after combat starts, it becomes more apparent why; more guards had snuck around behind them and set up an ambush, moving quietly and with no light while those in the front stomped with torches as a distraction

- guards with bows and spears alike tried to capture the party. Paloma let loose volley after volley as Brume called down the powers of the storm and wreaked havoc with lightning, neither caring about leaving the guards alive at this point. Bogdan Gromov used some Ki to cast darkness while simply knocking those he found unconscious, and Zack made do with his loaned longsword to finishing the demoralizing defeat of the guards.
- Ismark lays into several guards before backing up near an ally to protect Ireena.
- the end result was 7 dead guards, 3 unconscious, and 2 who managed to live and flee. the carnage was spread about the main thoroughfare and several back alleys
- Zack now thinks nets are evil. Evil, evil nets.
- the torches had been dropped near enough to a building that its side had caught on fire. <someone> cast some <wind> that, along with the rain, put it out.
- the party decides they need to be armed to the fullest if the baron is getting this aggressive. They seek out Jenny Greenteeth to hopefully get Zack’s sword and Brume’s driftglobe.
- Jenny does not disappoint, although her gifts each have their own quirk.
- Brume’s driftglobe normally appears as a dirty, shapeless hat. Upon a command word, it changes into a virulent green halo, and from then can be moved around as his wishes. A repeat of the command word and it turns back into the dirty misshapen hat.
- Zack’s sword is moss green in color, and while sheathed looks like it’s shrunk to a dagger. While drawn, it reverts to its size. It’s also very loud, now; it has a definite clank when hitting the ground, and even swooshes when whipped through the air.
- the party heads to Saint Andral’s Church for the morning service, and to see how Lady Fiona Wachter‘s plan works out.
- The party doesn’t really trust Lady Wachter, despite having agreed to her plan on two different occasions now. She brings her sons Nikolai and Karl, as well as the old couple the party placed under her protection, Udo and Willemina.
- Lady Wacther wants to have Udo, Willemina, and Ireena testify against the atrocities the Baron has done to the people of Vallaki. This, combined with the growing distaste of weekly festival and common dread, should be enough to turn them against the Burgomaster.
- Zack starts arguing with Lady Wachter, Brume and Ismark start trying to say Ireena shouldn’t be placed in danger
- Ireena is getting pissed because they are talking as if she wasn’t there and her own master
- eventually, a compromise is reached that leaves most people unhappy but not coming to blows; Ismark will testify on his sister’s behalf without naming her.
- As the sunrise should be happening, the rain turns into a thunderstorm.
- After Father Lucian Petrovich‘s sunrise service on this day for the “Festival of the Blazing Sun” (not to be confused with another shitty stormy day in Vallaki), Lady Wachter addresses the huddled masses in the church. She tells of the Baron’s wickedness, how he prefers fake happiness to real solutions, how he has abused the town
- Udo tells of how he was imprisoned and beaten, with his wife not even sure where he was. How he was only saved by the party, not by anything the Baron has done
- Ismark tells of how his sister was kidnapped by Izek, the Baron’s right-hand man. There was no defense. If the Baron knew, he was complicit; if he didn’t, he was incapably of running his own house, let alone the village.
- The crowd agrees, and soon they start storming out of the house, torches in hand, to march upon the burgomaster’s mansion
- As they approach, there are 8 guards standing in front of the mansion. They were forewarned by those guards who escaped earlier
- The party manages to intimidate the guards, and they stand down since they don’t want to fight their own townsfolk and friends
- Party has mob circle baron’s house, not letting anyone in or out, but otherwise to stay back and be safe. Ismark and Ireena stay with crowd
- Lady Wachter is asked by party to come in with, so the five of them enter
- They find servants downstairs hiding and tell them to stay put
- they go upstairs and search in Victor Vallakovich’s room, finding him hiding in the corner
- Zack checks Izek’s room, kicking the door down. He’s not there.
- Zack (?) knocks Victor out. Paloma feels oddly compelled to make sure Victor is okay
- Brume opens the door to the library, and Izek was waiting for that. He smashes his axe into Brume, dropping the cleric unconscious in a single blow
- The party drags Brume back and heal him
- Izek gets in more mighty swings, knocking Zack unconscious twice in two rounds
- eventually, through the powers of their healing magic and the might of their arms, the party kills Izek

- Zack tries to saw off Izek’s demonic arm. He can’t saw it, so he starts chopping. Eventually he cuts it off, minus an 18" gouged out section of floor or so. Collateral. Whoops.
- Paloma asks Brume to tend to Victor Vallakovich, since he was knocked unconscious by Zach. Brume asks why she’s worried about him, and Paloma doesn’t really have a good answer. She just thinks Victor could be a good friend.
- Paloma talks to Victor. He asks why she’s in his house. She keeps equivocating, but eventually admits they came to kill Baron Vargas Vallakovich.
- Victor says “Took you long enough!”. She asks if she can escort him outside to safety, and he replies with something like “Don’t you think I’m safe in my own house? And if I’m not, shouldn’t I already know the way out?”
- Eventually he agrees to stay safe, and promptly disappears after casting some spell.
- Brume searches the library. He finds 38 gold in Izek’s pouch, 3 keys in the desk, and grabs a few books from the hundreds, perhaps thousands that are there. One is a book of horrid poetry, written by someone named Vogon. The second is a book that looks like it’s on advanced alchemy, although Brume can’t make much sense of many diagrams, and lots of words are unfamiliar too him. The third is a “religious” book: “Volo’s Guide to the Gods: All Gods Poop, Divinely”
- Exploring the other rooms before the main bedroom, Brume comes across the wedding dress that’s in pristine shape and kept wonderfully clean. He decides it’s part the dress from one of his dreams and takes it.
- Paloma questions his new attire. Brume says her socio-gender constructs aren’t applicable in a time and place such as Barovia, and bitch he looks hot in that wedding dress anyways.
- Okay, maybe that last bullet point didn’t happen. But it totally should have.
- Brume opens the door to the Baron’s room, hoping to not get hit with an axe like last time.
- The Baron’s two large, angry, and territorial looking mastiffs (Solya and Vedma) guard the door while the Baron is behind them, rapier drawn. Baroness Lydia Petrovna is behind the Baron, whimpering in fear. They also see a draw cord on ceiling that presumably leads to attack.
- Brume tries to cast Hold Person on the Baron but it doesn’t succeed.
- One of the dogs gets its teeth into Bogdan and drags him to the ground, growling while its jaw is clamped on the monk’s forearm
- Paloma, thinking only of the pretty puppies (and not the being-chewed-on-monk), casts Speak With Animals and gets the mastiff to agree to loosen his bite on the monk in exchange for some jerky.
- Brume tries to talk the situation down with the Baron, but the Baron is angry and beyond reason. THIS IS HIS TOWN, HIS FAMILY HAS OWNED IT FOR GENERATIONS. HIS SHITS HAVE MORE PEDIGREE THAN YOU UP-JUMPED PISSANT PEASANTS. Etc etc.
- He refuses to surrender. Instead, he commands the other mastiff to sit on Bogdan and put its teeth near the man’s throat. He asks then, near insane with rage, if the party would pay the price of their friend’s life to take him out. Brume tries to reason more, but the noble won’t hear it. He commands the dogs to attack, and they do, nearly killing Bogdan.
- Brume, desperate to save his friend and not really understanding how frail the Baron is behind his braggadocio, unleashes his full power in a devastating Thunderwave, instantly killing one dog and the Baron both. The two corpses slam into the far wall and nearly explode, falling in a shattered lump that’s barely recognizable.
- Bogdan frees himself from the other mastiff and applies “stick to the forehead” in return, knocking the large dog unconcsious
- During this, Brume hears thumbs and growls from the nearby locked closet. One of the keys from the desk opens this closet and behind it is a dragonborn.
- The creature is Kheldar. He was kidnapped by the baron for being a “monster” in town, and savagely beaten and tortured to see if more of his kind were about, and what new kind of monster he was to work for Strahd.
- The party introduces themselves (Paloma is more curious than afraid, despite never having seen a dragonborn before – or even knowing what they were). Kheldar re-arms himself and grabs a cloak from the Baron’s closet to try and hide his head/face.
- Brume takes that Baron’s body (head only?) and has Zack carry Izek’s demon arm and they deliver them outside to the mob.
- Lady Wachter gives a speech about how the Baron’s days are over, and how she plans on making Vallaki better and safer. She has three steps for now: make sure the Baron’s family or possibly allies aren’t going to try and get revenge, rid the empty houses of any vermin and/or zombies hiding in them, and restore the flow of wine from The Wizard of Wines (since wine is the chief source of happiness for most Barovians)
- Brume & Zack go back upstairs
- Paloma wants to keep the unconscious mastiff as a pet. She tries to talk Bogdan into carrying it. The argument does not go in her favor.
- The master bedroom is a mess. The Baroness, Lydia, has passed out from shock. The party carries her to Victor’s room and leave her laying in his bed for now.
- they then go explore the attic, coming back to the door where Bogdan got shocked a lot before
- they search the door but don’t find any clues as to what caused the lightning, so Kheldar opens the door … and gets lit up with lightning for his trouble. He manages to stay on his feat, although his scales smell highly of ozone now.
- Inside, it’s much like Paloma remember seeing. There are 6 undead cats (cat skeletons, really) roaming around that she decides are fluffy and has to capture into a sack, for safekeeping.
- there looks to be a teleportation circle on the floor, the best the party can figure. Kheldar thinks it looks more like a dragon egg.
- they find clothes in a trunk that seem to belong to the butler and a lady’s maid. the clothes are covered in a thick, jelly-like ooze that smells like rotten fruit.
- they leave the attack and take the clothes to the servants in the first floor. Servants agree that they belonged to the butler and lady’s maid, and are freaked out enough to leave in case whatever happened to the two missing people happens to them to.
- they take Lydia to the Saint Andral’s Church so her brother, Father Lucian Petrovich, can attend to her.
- While there, Father Lucian discusses what happened and says Brume should seek penance in the morning during the next sunrise service.
- meanwhile, Paloma took the bag o’ dead cats to an “empty” house. The house turned out to have five swarms of rats in it, that viciously bit the ranger … until she freed the little devil kitties. The rats fled in fear, the cats chased in morbid enjoyment, and the ranger shut the door, making sure to remember which house to come back to later.
- She took the mastiff into the church when she got back.
- <what>
- the party realizes they left Ireena and Ismark with the mob and Lady Wachter. They hope they can meet up with them at the Festival of the Blazing Sun
- Paloma and Bogdan tell the rest of the party what happened in the basement of the Wachterhaus with the cult of The Four Quarters.
- They decide to look into that after the festival or maybe another day, since Ireena and Ismark are alone
- They go to the town square for the festival, rain turns into a full on thunderstorm for a while and then abets just before the festival starts
- At the festival, Lady Wachter leads. She lights a large wicker ball on fire, symbolizing the lights of Vallaki returning the sun to brightness. She several attendees each get a small featureless wicker doll, that they light on fire, and then toss “into the sun”. This is the act of Vallakians burning away the monsters with the light of the day and The Morninglord returning to strength.
- Urwin Martikov, innkeep of the Blue Water Inn, passes out free wine to the villagers in celebration of the Baron’s demise.
- Brume remembers hearing about Bluto the town drunk/fisherman, and seeks him out to talk about Lake Zarovich and the Mad Mage. Bluto thinks the lake is cursed, since he can’t get fish; and with no fish he can’t afford to live and buy wine. He stears clear of the Mad Mage, but he has seen him from a distance.
- Bluto says maybe there’s a monster in the bottom of the lake that needs a sacrifice or something. Brume questions him on it, and he laughs at the joke of a sacrifice, saying he doesn’t know what would break a curse anyways. But then he left weirdly and abruptly.
- After lots of drinks from everyone, depleting a large portion of the town’s wine, screams start happening
- a sabretooth tiger is chasing Nikolai and Karl Wachter through the streets as they flee, and behind the tiger runs Rictavio.
- The tiger gets held back by Brume’s Gust of Wind, but not before it catches the scent of Paloma.
- Rictavio says the tiger won’t hurt anyone if not attacked, and the party avoids it.
- Then Rictavio sees Paloma climbing a nearby building and swears, because the one type of people the tiger does hate is Vistani.
- After many tense moments, Brume’ Gust of Wind and Rictavio managed to calm the tiger down.
- Apparently the Wachter boys had freed it from Rictavio’s wagon accidentally. Rictavio claims he has it because it’s from his circus days. When asked why it hates Vistani, he looked at Paloma like he was nervous or afraid of her reaction, and said it was because another troupe of Vistani had mistreated it when he first arrived.

Treasure:

• 38g in Izek’s pouch
• Wedding Dress. It kinda makes Brume look fat, though.
• VIctor’s spellbook
• book on alchemy
• book of Vogon Poetry
• book entitled “Volo’s Guide to the Gods: All Gods Poop, Divinely”. Totally good for shits ‘n’ giggles.
• Baron’s breastplate

- Rictavio apologies for the way his Sabretooth tiger, Shearah (sheer-rah), went after the party. She was accidentally freed by the Wachter kids, Nikolai and Karl.
- Rictavio calms Shearah down. He admits that she really doesn’t like Vistani. A troupe that lives outside of Vallaki in a camp called Tsernovna had treated the tiger badly, and she associated that mistreatment with the smell and sights of all Vistani.
- Paloma is tired of waiting on the roof with Santa Muerte, and asks if he can do anything to help her.
- Rictavio says yes. He quickly grabs Brume’s hand and places it on the tiger’s head, saying ‘Here hold this’.
- The cleric awkwardly and fearfully pets the tiger a little and it doesn’t seem to mind.
- Rictavio runs back, holding a bottle of liquid. He tosses it up to Paloma and tells her to pour it on her.
- Brume guesses correctly that it’s tiger urine, and helpfully calls out “It’s topical! Don’t drink it”
- Paloma upends in on herself, gagging a touch, and climbs down to join the rest of the party
- They go with Rictavio back near Arasek Stockyard, where his wagon awaits
- The half-elf bard has Brume feed the tiger for him with some raw wolf steaks. The tiger devours them and then starts purring around Brume.
- Paloma wrestles with desires for a big cute fluffy kitty, and not wanting to be eaten. Not wanting to be eaten wins … this time and heads back towards the inn to take a bath.
- After several minutes of conversation, the rest of the party also head towards the Inn, with Rictavio saying he wants to make sure his wagon is secure. He’ll meet them there in a short while
- Lots of villagers are about and scared, having dashed away from the festival and town square earlier. They ask about the tiger. The party becomes more of a hero in their eyes, as they’ve taken care of the evil Baron as well as now “saved them” from a tiger.
- Once back at Blue Water Inn, Urwin Martikov and his wife Danika come up to congratulate the party. He says he’d give them a drink on the house, but after supplying this latest festival his wine stores are extremely low
- Brume asks Urwin how he’d feel about being the new Burgomaster. Confused, the innkeep says he thought Lady Fiona Wachter was taking that over.
- The party explained that she basically decided that herself, but that they never really backed her. They ask – not entirely subtly – if Urwin has ever noticed anything odd about Lady Wacther or odd things around the Wachterhaus.
- Urwin answers that he has heard about some cloaked people coming and going. It’s not odd in and of itself, but that they often wore cloaks even when it wasn’t raining, and always seemed to go there in handfuls at at time
- The party asks about Vasili von Holtz. They had found his name on a delivery receipt; the delivery was for the crates that held the vampire spawn they found in Henrik van der Voort‘s coffin shop.
- Urwin says Vasili is a bit of a shut-in. Or, rather, he’s just not around out-and-about in town often. He’s a minor noble that’s family is much poorer than they used to be and he lives further north of The Wactherhaus.
- About this time, a short, dark complected man walks in. Rather, it’s an elf, and his skin is so dusky as to be a dark purple. He says his name is Rahadin. He hands a letter to Bogdan and tells the party they are invited to his Castle Ravenloft to enjoy dinner with his master. When asked who his master is, he replies “Count Strahd, of course”.
- << my notes are illegible here. My handwriting sucks. I think Brume smarts off? >>
- Rahadin, feeling the party has disrespected Strahd too much already, administers some swift punishment. Most of the party starts feeling pain in their heads, as if the death wails of thousand of people were to originate from within their skulls. Adding to this pain and confusion, Rahadin was a whirlwhind of speed, lashing out time and again with his scimitar. The party got a couple of hits in, but within seconds everyone is downed and unconscious … or dying.
- Paloma, having heard the ruckus, came dashing downstairs only mostly dressed and still wet. Rahadin, with a few smears of the parties blood on him, looks at her to see what her reaction is. Paloma does not attack first, realizing the dusk elf is a deadly foe. Rahadin reaches down, grabs the now bloodstained letter from Bogdan’s body, and hands it to Paloma. He tells her “Please do not test or disrespect my master again. I would need to revisit you, otherwise.”
- Paloma manages to heal Bogdan, and between them they revive Brume, Kheldar, and Zack
- The letter reads:

My friends,

Know that it is I who have brought you to this land, my home, and know that I alone can release you from it. I bid you dine at my castle so that we can meet in civilized surroundings. Your passage here will be a safe one. I await your arrival.

Your host,

Strahd von Zarovich

- The rest of the inn is also hurt. The party help out where they can, bandaging people and bringing some sense of order. A couple of the villages actually died in the onslaught from whatever psychic effect Rahadin was bringing to bear.
- Rictavio arrives and helps as well. He asks what the hell happened, he was only 20 or so minutes behind them!
- Seeing the shape they are in, Rictavio thinks maybe they need help, or at least a way to disapear for a while from the limelight of Vallaki. He says he knows about Ezmerelda d’Avenir, a famous Vistani monster huntress. Paloma reveres Ezmerelda. RIctavio says he’s heard rumors that Ezmerelda is out west, somewhere around Lake Baratok, and would make a great ally (and perhaps know of a good place to hide from Strahd).
- Rictavio also talks about Ireena … but I didn’t write down what about.
- After discussing their options, the party decides to take the chance to go explore the basement of the Wachterhaus again, to see if they can prove (or disprove) Lady Wachter’s knowlege of The Four Quarters cult that was in her basement.
- They sneak around and get to the house just as night fully falls. When they enter the basement, a single skeleton raises from the dirt. Its wearing the same clothes as the cultists were the last time they were here.
- On the beds nearby they find three more corpses that don’t seem to be rotting, also wearing the clothes of the cultists from before. There were four cultists before …
- Bogdan doesn’t want to take chances, and goes around and pokes MORE holes in all of the corpses just to be safe. Staff-sized holes.
- Brume casts a spell to detect evil, and finds out the pentagram is NOT desecrated … but perhaps more interestingly that there is a fiend upstairs.
- They traverse the house with stealth (and a nice stealthy assist from Bogdan’s Pass Without A Trace) and arrive upstairs.
- They check an empty bedroom that appears to be the two sons, pass another door that has the sounds of a cat (sorta), and finally approach Lady Wachter’s room.
- They hear Lady Wacther’s voice inside. She says “Majesto, I do so wish Nikolai were hear with me more than this.”
- They try to pick the lock and fail a few times, alerting whoever is inside.
- Inside, the bed is rumpled with blankets bundled up on it, and behind it is Lady Wachter. She casts spells as the party tried to dodge behind the door.
- Something invisble swarms at Bogdan, and Brume’s senses realize it’s the fiend. He yells in “fiendish” (e.g., Infernal) for the beast to be gone, but it only laughs at him. Whatever it is, it’s tiny and crawls down Bogdan’s shirt, tearing into the monk with poisonous bites or claws or something.
- Lady Wacher is feeling the heat and tries to retreat, but there’s not really anywhere to go with Khedlar dominating her bedroom. She casts Sanctuary and calmly leaves the parties reach, opens the window, and starts climbing downward. The thing on Bogdan reveals itself to be a shapechanging imp, and it flies to be with its Master/Mistress.
- Bogdan jumps out the window, crashing into Lady Wacther, and they both slam on the ground outside. Lady Wacher is dying but Brume managers to heal her so he can question her later.

- outside of the Wachterhaus, Brume gags and binds Lady Wachter. He also takes her amulet away since he recognized the insignia of The Four Quarters cult on it. After taking off the amulet, she visibly ages and becomes more ugly/frail looking.
- Upstairs, Kheldar notices that the blankets are oddly piled on one side of the bed. After pulling them down, he and Paloma quickly realize they are looking at the corpse of Nikolai Wachter, the several-years dead husband of Lady Wachter. However the corpse is well-maintained and looks freshly dead, with zero signs of decay. His eyes are covered with coins as if in a funeral rite.
- they find a chest on a high shelf in the closet, solid iron and heavy. Kheldar tries to pry it open with a chisel from his smith’s tools but is unable to do so.
- at this point Bogdan and Brume come back upstairs with Lady Wachter and deposit her on the bed, still tied but conscious.
- Searching the room, Brume finds a set of keys hidden on a hook in the fireplace. Tossing it to Kheldar, they open the chest
- they find out the key disabled a poison dart trap that would have went off had the chest been forced open. Inside the chest is a thin lining of lead, and then a neatly stacked pile of human bones; an entire skeleton’s worth.
- Brume places the bones (just the skull?) in his bag with an attempt to use Speak With The Dead later.
- Brume wants to investigate Stella Wachter’s room as they heard her making cat-like sounds before. He finds the door locked and unable to get in, but Bogdan is able to help out and picks the lock open for him.
- Stella is clearly insane. She’s dirty and skinny, thinking she is a cat.
- Brume gets down low and tries to be gentle. He offers some trail tack biscuits and jerky to Stella. She starts to gnaw on the jerky but throws the biscuit aside.
- He tries to study her, and comes to the conclusion that there’s no physical malaise present and it’s instead simply magical. Using his powers to their fullest, he casts Lesser Restoration and manages to cure Stella.
- Stella starts screaming, freaking out due to seeing a strange man in her room and confusion in general. Brume decides he’s out of his wheelhouse and asks Paloma to come speak to Stella, woman-to-woman
- Paloma has to try and explain things to Stella, while artfully dodging answers like “we may have ever-so-slightly and accidentally bound-and-gagged your mom. But we’re her allies. Sorta.”
- Stella doesn’t remember what happened. Her memories seem to stop the day or maybe just hours before her meeting wtih Victor Vallakovich.
- After coming with Paloma into hero mother’s room, the sight of even more strangers (especially Kheldar) and her mom bound and older looking, causes Stella to pass out in shock
- meanwhile, Bogdan, Zack, and Kheldar explore the rest of the house. They unlock the door to the library and see a bunch of hostile cats.
- Kheldar and Zack figure out that one bookshelf is a fake door, and open it. Inside is another chest. Looking around for a key, they see it hanging around the neck of one of the mean cats.
- Bogdan rushes over to shut the door while Kheldar and Zack get kitty-claws to the face for their trouble. Eventually they managed to cut the collar off the cat and get the key.
- Inside they find a bunch of things, listed below in the treasure section.
- Brume leaves the room for a moment to check on the others, leaving Paloma alone with Stella and Lady Wachter.
- while she’s alone, she sees a folded paper float in through the open window. It’s floating while perfectly flat, not flying around in the wind. It turns out to be a simple handwritten note that says “Meet at the stockyards at lunchtime. – V”
- Paloma finally has her hawk stop playing with the dead imp and bags it up to take with as proof of Lady Wacther’s crimes. (This was Paloma?)
- they leave, with Brume carrying Stella and Zack holding the rope tied to Lady Wachter.

- Maybe 100’ from the Wachterhaus they cross a small brook and see a band of zombies shambling around in the dark. The zombies notice the party
- combat ensues. The zombies slash and bite their way through the group, but fall to pieces with a decent hit. Limbs fly. The party looks like it might be overrun until Brume Turns Undead, and that turns (heh heh heh) the tide of the battle in the parties favor. They spend the next several seconds slicing limbs and heads off zombies and pounding them into mush.
- Feeling tired after such a long day, they decide to adventure no more and head towards Saint Andral’s Church.

Questions:

• Does Paloma tell anyone about the note?

Treasure

• silk bag of 180 electrum pieces (1/2 gold each), each coin stamped with Strahd von Zarovich’s visage
• leather bag of 110 gold
• a very nice mahogany wood pipe
• five scrolls. notarized deeds for parcels of land given to the Wachter Family by Strahd nearly four centuries ago
• a supple leather case containing a manuscript by Lady Wachter called “The Devil You Know”, saying that devil-worship can lead to more happiness than the Baron’s festivals
• The Grimoire of the Four Quarters , which turned out to be fake
• a letter from Vasili von Holtz to one Lovina Wachter. The letter thanks Lovina for her “hospitality, loyalty, friendship over the years”. The letter is clearly very old. Looking through the tax records in the other part of the library, it turns out that Lovina was an ancestor of the current Wachters several generations back.

- at Saint Andral’s Church, the party takes a short rest
- Brume and Kheldar experiment with Lady Wachter’s amulet. It has the appearance of the The Four Quarters emblem on it. The apparent age of the wearer is lessened, so the wearer appears several years younger. It’s affects seem variable based on the age of the wearer. It’s illusion only, as when the amulet is removed so is the seeming.
- the party asks Father Lucian Petrovich if he has ideas on where to keep Lady Wachter. He doesn’t want his church turned into a prison and suggests they use the manacles that held Udo Lukovich back at the Burgomaster’s mansion.
- Stella Wachter wakes up, and has reverted back to meowing like a cat. Her state of lucidity she exhibited before after Brume cast Lesser Restoration on has vanished.
- Brume is unhappy that Stella has reverted. He’s starting to feel like his best efforts keep being wasted in Barovia. After talking about her with Father Lucian, he suggests a possible solution. He’s heard rumors that the waters at the Shrine of the White Sun (at Krezk) are especially holy and have very strong healing powers. Perhaps they could help.
- the party heads to the former burgomaster’s house. There they lock up Lady Wachter, still gagged, to keep her out of trouble. They talked about going to the Blue Water Inn, but didn’t want Nikolai and Karl Wachter to see her tied up as she is.
- Victor Vallakovich is not back at the mansion
- They party decides they need to inform Urwin Martikov (as prospective Burgomaster) of their actions with Lady Wacther. Bogdan tries to pay the servants to go, but they refuse to leave for any amount of money at night time. “No point in being rich if I’ll be dead, dearie!”
- Deciding someone needs to watch Lady Wacher, the party splits. Zack, Brume, and Kheldar stay behind to guard Lady Wachter while Paloma and Bogdan head to the Inn to meet up with Urwin.
- On the way there, Paloma spots something reflecting the light of Bogdan’s torch. She examines it and finds a brass-looking spyglass. Oddly, when viewing the Inn through it (the only thing with enough light to see), it appeared as if it were raining even though it wasn’t.
- Talking to Urwin, they explain what happened with Lady Wachter.
- Urwin says he’ll speak more with his wife Danika but thinks he’ll accept the role of Burgomaster. He says it would go more smoothly if the party could convince Victor to back him, as Victor is next in line for the role based on traditional inheritance.
- When asked what he would do with Lady Wacher, Urwin suggests banishment for her. Send her with a fortnight’s worth of supplies into the wild blindfolder so she didn’t know where she was, and tell her she was exiled from the town. He suggested the wolf hunters, Szoldar Szoldarovich and Yevgeni Krushkin would handle her for payment.
- The party asks the two, and they agree to guard her for 10g each per day (double their normal scouting/guide fees since Lady Wachter is presumably dangerous).
- Bogdan and Paloma realize they haven’t heard from Ireena and Ismark, and ask Urwin about them.
- The innkeep tells the two that their friends went looking for them, accompanied by Vaz.
- The two return to the burgomaster’s mansion, explaining what they learned to the rest of the party.
- They take turns guarding Lady Wachter
- Brume catches her trying to unlock her manacles with a hairpin and gives her a stink eye, warning her not to try again
- Brume has another dream. Brume sees a young priest standing in a bright sun beam. The priest wears an amulet of the Morninglord, but it flashes white with its own inner light as well of that of the sun reflecting off of it. The young priest blesses a family of peasants around him, but each person he lays his blessing upon becomes sick, writhing in pain as their limbs deform. The sunlight stops shining down on the young priest but he doesn’t seem to notice. He keeps blessing family member after family member, moving from the older generations to the new, even as darkness falls around him, never realizing that those he bless come to harm, until finally the sun no longer shines on him at all.
- The next morning the servants have made a wolf-bacon breakfast for the party. They explain that they worked here for the Vallakovichs, but with them gone they hope the party will pay for their services. Bogdan gives them a silver for the breakfast.
- The party goes back to the Blue Water Inn, and there’s a full crowd there. Rictavio, the two wolf hunters Yegeni and Szoldar, Urwin, Danica, and their boys Brom and Bray.
- Rictavio helps the party out and manages to cast Detect Magic on Lady Wachter’s amulet. He tells them it only has magical auras of illusion, and is not a casting focus
- The two wolf hunters head to the burgomaster’s place to guard Lady Wachter
- The party heads toward Saint Andral’s Church, and along the way run into Ireena, Ismark, and Vaz.
- Those three went looking for the main party. They went to the Lady Wachter’s and saw no one there, and then stayed the night before coming back to the Church this morning
- Vaz and Ireena are flirting quite a bit. Vas has a couple of daggers and is super excited about becoming an adventurer finally. He gets disarmed by Bogdan easily, but manages to snag the dagger right back, slightly impressing the monk.
- Back at the Church, Lydia Petrovna, the former Baroness, is helping Father Lucian tend to Stella as well as just general maintenance and cleaning of the church.
- Paloma and the party talk to Lydia about Victor. She doesn’t think her son was ever engaged to Stella, or at least wasn’t to her knowledge. Stella had been around a few times but Victor never really showed any interest in her. This doesn’t seem to jive with the story Lady Wachter told of her daughter.
- Father Lucian says that for his penance in causing so much chaos, Brume should attempt to restore some order. He sets him the task of putting a burgomaster over Little Barovia, as no one has really stepped up with Ismark and Ireena gone from town and Kolyan Indirovich dead.
- The party visit’s Vasili von Holtz’s house, but he is not home. The maid acts like he is almost never home. There is a small toy dog named Hanz that attacts Paloma’s attention.
- The party, after exploring a bit while talking tot he maid, write a letter in Vasilli’s study and leave it for him, saying they wish to talk to him about the crates they found at Henrik van der Voort’s coffin shop.
- They head towards the Arasek Stockyard to meet with Victor for his lunchtime meeting with Paloma.
- On the way, two ravens are behaving oddly. Paloma uses Speak With Animals and finds out the two birds are squabbling like kids, and don’t realize that the ranger can talk to them until it’s too late after they’ve been “talking” to themselves for a while. They flee in surprise.