CoS 2/Summary

This is the campaign summary of CoS 2.

Log

Start

(Session 1 - 2022-11-26 -Tobias) [Day -1]

The introduction starts near Waterdeep, the largest city on the Sword Coast and possibly the largest in the world (at least that you know of). Starting out as small fish in a big pond, you heed a call from Sir Isteval, a noted paladin of Amaunator (formerly Lathander) for adventurers and mercenaries to aid Daggerford in dealing with goblins, gnolls, and orcs who’ve been raiding the countryside, destroying homes and causing an influx of refugees to head to Daggerford.

A militia guards Dagggerford. Service is mandatory for all able-bodied adults, and lasts for twenty years. All citizens living within the town receive instruction from the duchess's own soldiers in the use of spears and other weapons, and must spend at least one day a month in defense of the town, standing sentry on its walls, or patrolling the nearby roads. Their training means that the common citizens of Daggerford aren't easily cowed by armed folk demanding goods, coin, or passage, and are slightly more likely to take up work as mercenaries, caravan guards, or adventurers. In this case, the troubles have been so large and such an influx of refugees that help is needed!

You heeded the call to arms coming from Waterdeep, but only came at the end of the crisis, assisting with a few minor erradications and to housing refugees, etc. Nevertheless, your help was greatly appreciated and you have been given a small reward of 25gp each and invited to dine in the Duchess Morwen's manor.

The largest and oldest building in Daggerford is the ducal castle, a three-level keep enclosed by a two-story wall that contains its own smithy, parad ground, and stabling. The dukes of Daggerford have always kept a well-stocked larder, capable of feeding the castle's inhabitants and any citizens that it might shelter inside during a siege.

The feast is lavish by any commoner's standard and is mostly attened by local militia, mercenaries and intrepid adventurers. The local nobility, including Duchess Morwen mingle among the common folk (some nobles seem to have been told to attend). (Passive society 14 informs you that though luxurious for commoners, this is a budget ordeal compared to a proper nobility feast, albeit accomodated for many times the amount of guests)

During the dinner you share stories with others and also have the luck to be seated fairly near Duchess Morwen and got some time to socialise in addition to regular mingling. She shows appreciation and while not heavy on the wine, not timid either. During the evening you convey regret you arrived too late to really make a difference defending Daggerford and Morwen politely acknowledges the sentiment and implies the time may yet come.

The cast of characters include: Terrance, the secluded sage seduced by celestial, Jormund the simply delightful wildman, Torbjoern, the shady half-elven outrider, Aelfric, the charismatic half-elven outrider.

Chapter 1: The Wolves at Mud Creek

(Session 1 - 2022-11-26 -Tobias) [Day 1]

Much of the dinner guests dissipates from Daggerford during the next day and many are allowed free housing either as guests at locals or at an inn while refugees are still catered for and repair work is in order. You spend time helping for free food and lodging and can do some downtime activity or simply help out with the work. Torbjoern couldn't handle the uneventful time and sought to visit the Constabulary and spoke to Sherlen Miller, Captain of the Constabulary, to get an actually rewarding job.

Mud Creek village council is having severe problems with wolves, possibly related to the goblin attacks, offering a 800gp reward to anyone who can wipe them out. The rest of the guard are too busy and if you elect to not go, there are others they can ask.

The travel to Mud Creek you traverse on foot and is uneventful for half a day's worth of travel. Nearing the town, a few miles up you see six wolves attacking two shepherds and a flock of sheep, seemingly herding the sheep into the woods with precision similar to a sheepdog. You intervene and though Jormung puts himself in harms way and is nearly injured, the wolves are killed or chased off and the shepherds and (most) sheep are saved, though Torbjoern manage to skewer one with an errant lonbow arrow. The party made a quick job of skinning the wolves, taking their pelts with them to town.

You get some odd stories from the shepherds in regards to the wolf attacks, and something is clearly amiss. Someone or thing is obviously controlling the wolves.

In town you're invited to a council meeting where they debade if it's worth the risk to continue to export foodstuff while the wolves attack (risking either starvation in the coming winter or a lack of money to re-stock in spring). It turns out the town guardian (and sorcerer) Alexi Merricksson, brother of the town priest, Father Merricksson, has been missing about three-four weeks and this is roughly coinciding with the troubles starting. There has been more disturbing reports like sheep stolen out of locked barns and when the village sent out a hunting party, several died and of the missing people only the halfling Willen Featherock turned up alive - but only barely.

Talking to Featherock who claims the wolves SPOKE and investigating Alexi's town house that seemed like he had not planned to leave for "one of his long trips", the party decided to rest for the night and use the slow spoken Corel of the Fleecers' Guild to aid them track the wolves from their last attack point into the forest. But first they would have a rest in the Shepherd's Crook inn. [Day 2]

Tracking the Wolves

The party was joined by Corel and he was assisted with the tracking. The first 1,5 hour was uneventful but the party noticed rustling in the bushes ahead and spotted a wounded and enraged owlbear.

(End of session)

(Session 2 - 2022-12-05) [Day 2]

Standing their ground, the party did its best to pile on the wounded owlbear, but not before it ferociously swiped and bit at Jormund, seriously wounding him. Before long he was downed and Torbjoern was in turn wounded as well. Fortunately, Torbjoern's cousin Aelfric had been tracking the party the last day or so and caught up with them in the nick of time so with his help and Terrence's holy powers the party employed some serious team work, tripping the owlbear and smashing its head in.

Taking a breather and then continuing on, Torbjoern spotted a lone wolf eating a rabbit near to the party but it was gone by the time they had discussed the matter to go look and see.

Eventually the party reached a clearing and a wolf den that was guarded by oddly behaving wolves, among other things they had dressed themselves in strips of cloth, had made a campfire and crude fencing. Apparently they also made noise traps as when the party were approaching the clearing, it was set off and all the wolves went to high alert. Torbjoern who accidentally had stepped on the tripwire moved to stand with the rest of the party.

(End of session)

(Session 3 - 2022-12-12) [Day 2]

As the wolves closed in, Torbjoern thwomped one of them and they assumed it was more hunters so they attacked. Shortly after, two huge wolves with fiery and electrical magic flowing about them came out of the wolf den. As the party seemed to lose hope on teh situation, the fiery wolf (Flame) halted the lupine attack and the two groups discussed the matter, though the electrical partner seemed to get more infuriated by the minute.

Terrence, in a bold move, invisibly went in to the wolves' den and saw pups there, just starting to learn how to talk. He decided to try to bluff being the "Lightbringer" and cast some minor cantrips to make him seem like a powerful Lightbringer. After some talk he managed to, with the aid of his compatriots, convince the wolves to move away to some other forest.

They came home and rested. [Day 3]

With the aid of both Corel and Father Merrickson they convinced the council the wolves had left. The council wanted more proof though and asked the adventurers either only take a fraction of the reward or stay three months to guard the town.

(End of session)

Double-Checking the Success

(Session 4 - 2023-01-23) [Day 3]

Torbjoern first negotiated the three month guard period down to 1 month but then Terrence suggested they could do the guarding for a week or so and go check the wolf den. In the meanwhile, the burly types (Torbjoern, Aelfric and Jormund) did the guarding, uneventfully, while Terrence had free reign of the sorcerer's house, trying to decipher his esoteric interests.

[Day 11]

• Went there - no wolves - followed to dreary forest, they are there with all the stuff. Talk a bit, will be ok. Back to the Mud Creek. Got money. Go to Daggerfall, arriving late at night.

(End of session)

Chapter 2: Barovia Calls Heroes

(Session 5 - 2023-01-28) [Day 11]

It seemed to not be any more immediate jobs in Daggerfall at first, but the party was interrupted in it's partying with its newfound gold when a colourfully clad man with a proud swagger entered the Happy Cow Tavern, striding right up to our heroes and proclaiming that they were destined to aid him and his people to lift the curse of his land's master and receiving near boundless amounts of riches in the process. He introduced himself as Arrigal and left a siezable bag of gold behind the bar, paying for everyone's drinks (including numerous destroyed ale cups, compliment of Jormund). A local dishonoured city guard also took to the party, interested in helping out following some unfortunate events of his own and a representative from the Ducal Manor handed over writs granting a few small-scale rewards for aiding Daggerford in this dire time.

Torbjoern took the opportunity to join Arrigal an his people, introduced as the Vistani; the travelling folk, and had a great time with song and dance and stories of this "cursed lord" in their home lands of Barovia. He laid out the plan to go south from Daggerfall and into the Misty Forest and there the Barovian valley could be found; not as large as a kingdom but more a small county but abound with riches.

Arrigal was in charge of the caravan safety but the caravan's elder, Stanimir supplied stories about his people's past and how they became associated with the cursed lord, some even call him "the Devil". Stanimir's son Ratka aided the bruisers of the party to keep watch and Damia had her own plans for the party's biggest guy; unrelentingly so. Before leaving, the party shopped around and used their writs to gain their grants of aid.

[Day 12]

After most of a day's travel, the party reached Liam's Hold which was a fort once occupied by priests of the death god but now long since taken over by a small human settlement. On the eastern side was a camp of the The Order of the Gauntlet, lead by Lanniver Strayl and a small number of knights. He talked to the party and informed them they should look out for werewolves. He said they attack villages and rather than just maim, they kidnap children! They then disappear as soon as they appeared and The Gauntlet believes they use some sort of portal, a few miles into the Misty Forest. He said if the party can find this portal and report back they would be handsomely rewarded but still adviced anyone from directly engaging the werewolves.

The party rested ([Day 13]) and then followed the road towards Misty Forest together with the rest of the Vistani, past Hilltop and then in to the forest. As they stopped for camp, it seemed ok, albeit a bit misty.

[Day 14]

The party was rudely awoken in the middle of the night by wolves attacking. Everyone got on their feet and quickly dispatched the majority in a few seconds. The howling on the wind indicated some larger beasts nearby, however.

(End of session)

(Session 6 - 2023-02-27) [Day 14]

A few moments of respite followed by

• A handfull of wolves
• Two dire wolves
• A couple of werewolves
• One werewolf not dead (sleep by Stanimir)
• Jormund took canines
• just a young man who wasn't in control :(
• Sent werewolf back with 2 vistani and one of the wagons
• dark mist sweeping over

(End of session)

Durst Manor of Mystery

(Session 7 - 2023-03-06) [Day 14]

• Continue up the road, take camp
• Wake up, someone has stolen all/most gear [Day 15]
• Walk shoeless
• One corpse with shoes - wolves howling
• Come across a milestone
  • Arrow on the larger road: "Barovia 11 miles"
  • Arrow up to the hamlet: "Soveja"
  • Durst family:
    • Thorne (7) and Rose (10) asks help to aid their parents who are fighting a monster (they think; screams at least)
  • Thorn is weeping and clutching a stuffed doll. Rose tries to sush him.
  • They were supposed to stay upstairs and care for their baby brother, but Thorne got scared by the monster’s cries and ran outside.
  • Rose ask the players to go make sure Walter is okay.
  • There are plenty of shiny things, weapons and armour inside the building
• Someone recently left dinner
• Some crossbows in "hunting room"
• Group focus on finding weapons and the basement
• No basement stairs on 1st or 2nd floors. Odd.
• Dumbwaiter leads only up.

(Session 8 - 2023-03-20) [Day 16]

Heading up to the third floor, sounds of bricks moving suddenly surrounded the party and the light sources dropped out, one by one. Trying to take the mace of a set of armor on the 3rd floor, Jormund activated an animated suit of armor that attacked and was subdued as a group effort (including being thrown down the stairs repeatedly).

The party found the remains or Rose and Thorne, who in turn regained lots of their memories and turned transparent and ghostly glowing. They found the nursemaid Margaret (who the father Gustav Durst clearly had an affair with, resulting in baby Walter), Margarets remains in a chest, killed with a knife in the back, and finally the hidden staircase leading to the cellar.

Death House Dungeons

It was a long and winding set of stairs leading to corridors deep in the ground with packed dirt walls and wooden beams for support. Meandering, Terrance aggravated a small carrion crawler which after being bashed in attempted to escape, leading Jormund to wake long-buried ghouls waiting for years to pounce on fresh meat. A hard fought battle later and the carrion crawler and all ghouls, bar one, were dead. The party let the last one slip and stopped to regroup.

(End of session)

(Session 9 - 2023-03-27) [Day 15]

The party followed the fleeing ghoul into some sort of quarters area of the dungeons with beds and chests as well as a well. A smelly, ghoulish figure grappled Jormund down into the well and a lethal fight broke out, just barely a success. After all this the party contemplated whether or not to have a long rest.

(End of session)

(Session 10 - 2023-04-03) [Day 15]

Following a short rest ([Day 15]), the party continued through the dungeon, finding Elizabeth durst as a horrid ghoul herself. She didn't want visitors but she did respond when spoken to and the party convinced her they were making a sacrifice so she gave them the magical key to the lowest part of the dungeon and they headed down.

Going down they faced thirteen of alcoves with weird fetishes in each and an almost deafening chanting "He is the Ancient, He is the Land," coming from the nearby room. Looking down the floor was full of water with a dais in the middle. Entering the room and stepping on the dais, suddenly thirteen ghosts appeared all around the edges and the changed the chanting to "One must Die," over and over again. A few moments later what had looked liek a waste pile in the far side of the corner started moving and a wendigo appeared just as the roof eerily started producing snow flakes. A little girl's voice echoed from the beast.

The battle was harsh as the monster crawled up the roof and quickly was obscured by snow and managed to down Terrence but after a few decisive blows, it was defeated. The ghosts returned to their old chanting of "He is the Ancient, He is the Land," and the door unlocked. Inside the monster, the corpse of a baby boy, presumably Walter, the illegitimate son of Gustav Durst and the maid Margaret, whom the party already had found murdered in the attic.

The portcullis of the flooded sacrificial chamber was not overly hard to lift and the party is back in the fetish room.

(End of session)

(Session 11 - 2023-05-29) [Day 15]

As the very foundation of Durst Manor began to groan, the party hurried to look around for anything of value, snatching a gold ring from a man no longer in need of it and the contents of Elizabeth's footlocker and then headed up and out. On the way, she noticed them and started to give chase, calling on her trusted Sophaxis as well.

Before running up, Jormund wedged the portcullis towards the stairs to his best ability. In the attic he also threw a heavy oak table down the narrow stairs, significantly halting the devil dog and the retched wench. The house itself seemed to want to kill them, turning each door into a swirling set of sharp wooden stakes, cutting people trying to get through.

Torbjoern and others of the first party members up did what they could to disable the deathly portals and everyone rushed to the bottom floor and started crashing the exterior door.

Elizabeth and Sophaxis was catching up and it took the whole party's effort to distract her to let Jormund crash through the door and get everyone out safely.

The minute everyone got out, Elizabeth screamed in anger but seemed like the outside air hurt her, so she rushed back in. A sound of bricks scraping on one another was heard and the party could see the windows of the house un-brick themselves, the door repair then close itself and lights turning back on in the rooms, one by one. It appeared like it was trying to look welcoming again in the pre-dawn hours of the morning.

As they turned back towards the road down the hill, a wicker basket with a red-and-white quilt on top stood before them. Torbjoern looked inside to see a simple card, a bottle of "Champagne du le Stomp", several types of cheese, grapes, pears and shortbread crackers from Daggerfall.

Walking up from the side of the house was two small somewhat transparent and glowing figures.

(End of session)

Welcome to Barovia Village

(Session 12 - 2023-06-08) [Day 15]

• Figures were Rose & Thorne who were a little dismayed but had full udnerstanding party doesn't want to go back in
• Headed to town
• Saw some people boarding up a house - "zombies"
• Go to Blood of the Vine tavern with a surly barkeep
• Man from the boarding comes, Ismark, turns out is the Burgomaster's son (Burgomaster now dead) and he wants help getting his sister to safety
• Torbjoern tries to get Ismark to accept his father's quest but he doesn't recognise the handwriting and the message is all weird
• Ismark provides the party with shoes and blankets and offer to put them up for the evening

(End of session)

(Session 13 - 2023-06-22 -Terrence) [Day 15]

The party speaks with Ismark and his sister Ireena, and discuss getting their father Kolyan properly buried in the church up on the hill by the village. It has almost not been in use since the Mad Mage came and pulled a bunch of able-bodied young men up to the Ravenloft Castle to take on the Devil, Strahd von Sarovich but the local priest should be able to do a decent ceremony regardless. The people talk a lot in the house and is having a rewlatively nice time. Ismark is also happy to provide the party with whatever arms he has in the house, including swords and armor.

Ismark and Ireena expect there to be another "wolf attack" on the house and everyone prepares with sleeping in shifts, however, other than some wolf-like sounds in the night, the morning comes without interruptions. [Day 16]

In the morning they start heading towards the church but at the top of the road they see people shuffling aimlessly and at closer inspection it is clear it's zombies! :O

(End of session)

(Session 14 - 2023-06-26 -Terrence +Izzat*) [Day 16]

Letter from Strahd to Ireena

"My Dearest Ireena,

I wish to bestow upon you my deepest condoleancesfor the loss of your father, my most humble servant. Despite his many shortcomings, he most certainly succeeded in raising a strong, beautiful young daughter.

Please accept this rose: a token of my affection. And know that, should you ever need a shoulder to lean on during these trying times, my castle gates are always open to you.

Eternally Yours,

Strahd von Sarovich"

The zombies are despatched and the ruckus has led Izzat to the scene, another adventurer that arrived a couple of weeks ago and has stayed safe with a family in the town. They all discuss their situation a bit and resume carrying the remains of Kolyan Indrovice (Ismark & Ireena's father) to the church on the hill.

Take me to Church

(continued)

The church showed lights on the inside but father Donovich was reluctant to open. The party eventually tired of his ramblings and let Jormund brake the door in. As they convinced him to perform the ceremony for Kolyan, a voice from under the floor boards echoed out saying "Father, please, I am starving". The party, focused on getting the ceremony done, ignored that and went out to the graveyard to the Burgomaster's crypt and laid Kolyan to rest.

Interrupted half way, a man with gray skin, pointed ears and a large scar across his forehead appeared. He wore some well worn armor and had swords on his hips, but the most prominent feature of the man was screams of horror and pain surrounded him. He seemed unaware of them but faint echoes could be heard quite far away from him. Ismark noted it's Rahadin, the right-hand man of Strahd von Sarovich, the man called "The Devil".

Ireena was furious and asked him to leave, even rushing up to hit him, accusing him or his master to cause their father's death. As she came up, he handed over a rose and a letter that she threw aside. He momentarily seemed to concentrate, causing Ireena to fall over and then he left with apologies if he may have interrupted. When she arose she had a trickle of blood coming out of her nose. Someone other than Ireena picked up the letter (to the right). A few moments after he left, a carriage was heard leaving from the front of the church.

The group turns on Donavich who asks the group to leave. They found numerous new graves despite no ceremonies and they eventually strongarm him into explaining the sounds of a voice from under the planks. His son, Doru, was one of the unfortunate that went up to oppose Strahd as they were inspired by the Mad Mage that came about a year ago. Doru was the only one to come back, and he had changed. He could mostly contain himself but after a while his hunger for blood overcame him and Donavich started feeding him off of himself whikle praying to the Morning Lord for salvation to his son. At some point Donavich had started bringing Doru members of the town itself as sustenance for Doru, but ensuring they didn't perish by the drain as that would have turned them also into these vampiric spawns.

(End of session; summer break)

(Session 15 - 2023-10-11 -Terrence* -Jormund) [Day 16]

• Terrence may return off and on

It's still before lunch time as father Donavich's horrendous deeds are uncovered and the party wants to let Ismark be the judge of it all. They decide to take the priest to be held at the burgomaster's mansion until they can call together the village for a town meeting and pass judgement. Then they turned to the issue at hand, the monster in the basement. Doru, Dovanich's son, was one of the "survivors" after the Mad Mage rallied young men from the village to take down Strahd a year ago and is now a vampire, somewhat weakend from not drinking any blood for a long time but still powerful and potentially deadly. Izzat just wanted to burn the whole church down but besides practical issues or if there are valuables (or value for the town) in the church there's also the risk of the fire above not really hurting the vampire, letting it escape back to Castle Ravenloft.

In the end they all decided to try sto surprise it and try to damage it into submission, putting a stake through its heart, hoping its coffin is in the basement so it all can be burned - hopefully without having to burn the church down.

Torbjoern carefully unlocked the chains with the keys given to them by Donavich, threw down a torch to be able to see in the dark and rushing down, pummeling Doru, who was hiding behind a pillar near a stone coffin. Whacked by everyone, including Sol's holy fire, Doru attemped to feed on the intruders but still got more and more hurt, became desperate and tried to flee with the party hot on his heels, trying to surround him.

(End of session)

(Session 16 - 2023-10-18 -Jormund +Vargas*) [Day 16]

Doru raced on the walls and cieling, the party hot on his heels, thrashing the remains of the young vampire, seemingly killing him. They quickly punched a piece of wood fromn a pew into his heart and then debated what to do, maybe burning the whole church down?

Taking a last look at things, the party noticed two chests in the basement. One very large and one near identical but very small. The big one was locked but not with a too complex of a lock and inside were a set of felt bags, each containing the stolen gear from each adventurer. Everyone was very happy and they continued to open the smaller chest - which turned out to be a hungry baby mimic!

With all their gear recovered, the baby mimic dead, and Doru's coffin identified, Izzat pushed for the entire church to be burned down. The timber was a little wet but it didn't take a whole lot of effort with the right gear and magic in order to fire up the entire building.

The party started going door to door to gather everyone for a town meeting.

(End of session)

Hangings & Heroes

(Session 17 - 2023-11-01 -Izzat) [Day 16]

A town meeting was held were Father donavich's crimes were laid bare. Reactions were mixed but the result was a decision to hang him.

A new, separate, adventurer showed up as well, looking to save children from werewolves. She introduiced herself as Vàrgas and she got introduced to much of the situation (stuck in these forgotten dark lands, a "Dark Lord" ruling over them, probably he stole their stuff and tormented them on the way).

After more discussion on what to do, and Ismark's insistance to get Ireena to safety in the neighbouring Vallaki, the party decided to stay the night, rest and leave early morning. Meanwhile, since it was only mid-day, Ismark asked for aid in clearing out the houses where families had gotten ill and turned into living dead. The work was slow and meticulous and took hours but was rewarding and helped the town immensely. A sense of safety (or at least less of a sense of danger) started to spread before nightfall.

The party joined up for a nice bean stew made by Ismark and Ireena.

(End of session.)

Chapter 3: On the Way to Prophecy

(Session 18 - 2023-11-16 -Izzat) [Day 17]

The group was awoken by bad dreams but also bacon. Some more harrowed than others, they all joined Ismark and Ireena in the kitchen to have some dry-ish bread with bacon and some lef-over stew accompanied by green tea. A small amount of beer was also made available to those so inclined.

Starting out early they all left but was briefly interrupted by Mad Mary who was wailing. They had heard her before but not seen her before now. She implored Ismark on her bare knees to find her daughter Gertruda which "disappeared yesterday". Ismark informed everyone that poor Gertruda had been missing for many weeks, at least six, and Mary had been asking every day about "missing since yesterday", implying Mary had been called "Mad Mary" since before Gertruda disappeared. He also said that, though horrible and sad, people and especially children disappear all the time and rarely reappear, even as a corpse.

Torbjoern promised Mary that they would look for Gertruda, and Mary said that Strahd had taken her (with no particular reasoning). Everyone nodded and Mary stopped screaming for once. The town was entirely empty except for one wooden hand-wagon coming past them. The old lady asked if they wanted to buy any pies and Ismark politely said "no thanks, Granny, hope you're doing well."

And that was that. Twenty minutes later they reached the Ivlis River and the bridge crossing it, observing a large murder of ravens flying straight across above them, disappearing to the south-east which they felt was odd but didn't want to venture into the woods to investigate.

Almost an hour later they came to the weirdly named "Ivlis Crossroads" (weirdly because it's nowhere near Ivlis River) and were met by a very old gallows and a small graveyard. A single raven came down to sit on Aelfric's shoulder but partly due to his poor condition he didn't even notice until Torbjoern saw it. Slightly perturbed he tried to talk to it, but it didn't seem to understand anything before sol talked about "eating" and "food", both words it immediately reacted to. As Sol fed the bird, it gingerly instead jumped over to his shoulder instead and seemed quite content.

They discussed the next part of the route a bit and weighed the options again. As they did, the raven on Sol's shoulder looked around and took off in the Nort-West direction (shorter but potentially more dangerous), the direction they originally had planned to go.

As the party left, Torbjoern had chills going up his spine and as he turned around, the earlier empty noose on the gallows now had a dead body hanging in it. The body swayed in the wind and as it turned towards him, it started staring at Torbjoern, revealing its face to be a dead version face of Torbjoern! It then slowly started raising its arm to lift him out of the noose. After a few seconds of hectic talk, the party decided to run away rather than risking a dangerous battle, especially considering their physical state. After running a short while and the gallows no longer visible through the mist, it was clear the monstrosity wasn't able to keep up so they slowed to a more comfortable pace. After a little while, Sol's raven also returned.

Almost another hour later they reached the Vistani camp and were surprisingly warmly greeted. People offered drinks and food and asked about where they were from and the party also asked them if they know Stanimir, Arrigal and the Vistani that the original party had encountered. Among tidbits, Stanimir is an "Elder" but that doesn't mean authority, just that he's a wise man (or guy) and if he did coerce anyone in to Barovia it may have been because he was forced.

A woman called Eliza had a magpie and had even more questions (and a funny accidental exchange when she asked if Sol was a mage but he more or less said "just because I have a raven doesn't mean I am a mage - after the raven had left) but primarily a request to take 25 of her gold to buy her niece Arabelle a toy from Blinsky's Toys in Vallaki and deliver it to her father Luvash in the slightly larger Vistani camp there.

Curious, Torbjoern headed up to the "leader's tent" and was ushered in by one Madam Eva who clearly worked as a fortune-teller and after some talk offered to and did a reading of the party's destiny. After having received it the party convened and discussed it's meaning with one takeaway being that Ireena may be the key to a lot. Sol was then asked in alone.

It's now about 10:30.

(End of session.)

Madam Eva's Tarokka Reading

Knowledge

• "This card tells of history. Knowledge of the ancient will help you better understand your enemy."
• The 7 of Stars — The Illusionist
• "A man is not what he seems. He comes here in a carnival wagon. Therein lies what you seek."

Force for Good and Protection

• "This card tells of a powerful force for good and protection, a holy symbol of great hope."
• The 7 of Coins — The Thief
• "What you seek lies at the crossroads of life and death, among the buried dead."

A Weapon of Vengeance

• "This is a card of power and strength. It tells of a weapon of vengeance: a sword of sunlight."
• The 3 of Stars — The Enchanter
• "I see a kneeling woman - a rose of great beauty plucked too soon. The master of the marsh knows of whom I speak."

The Destined Ally

• "This card sheds light on one who will help you greatly in the battle against darkness."
• The Raven
• "Find the leader of the feathered ones who live among the vines. Though old, he has one more fight left in him."

A Final Battle

• "Your enemy is a creature of darkness, whose powers are beyond mortality. This card will lead you to him!"
• The Innocent
• "He dwells with the one whose blood sealed his doom, a brother of light snuffed out too soon."

Tser Falls Bridge

(Session 19 - 2023-11-22 -Izzat -Sol) [Day 17]

The party spent another hour or so at the Tser Pool encampment with the Vistani, enjoying a brief period of time away from apparent danger and the hollowing feeling from their night terrors started to alleviate slightly. As they were leaving, especially the children did their best "aaw"s and asked for them to stay "you're just going to die anyway, better to just relax!".

On the way they kept their pace calm and their eyes open and almost half-way to the Tser Falls Bridge Aelfric noticed an eerie yellow glow coming from inside the forest to their left. After observing it while walking the path past it, they decided to just leave it be and continue. Another quarter of an hour or so later they saw an odd shaped stump on the river side of the forest and investigated, finding what looked like a long-forgotten shrine with candles and incense even getting covered by moss. The engraving on the stone had all but eroded but the silhouette of a stag with a large crown could be seen in the middle. Rather than dwell too much the party took note of it and carried on.

The path came next to the river, revealing a quite striking view with a bridge suspended a thousand feet up, and in the distance a massive waterfall. "Tser Falls," Ireena said in awe, never having seen it before but heard about it on many occasions. Winding next to the river, the way started to rise steeply all those one thousand feet up, rounded under the bridge and up to join the "safe road" that it carried. Numerous eerily realistic gargoyles decorated the bridge's entrance and mid points as well as many small statues of corvid birds.

Scouting for dangers, a sound was carried on the wind from the north. A mechanical grind and the sound of horses rushing at a gallop. They spread out and hid next to the bridge, ready for anything. At full gallop came indeed a wagon! Drawn by two horses, driven by a seasoned soldier captain with a noble passenger and two guards at the rear, appearing to flail their spears against something chasing it. With a jolt throwing the nobleman off the wagon and unto the hard stone floor, the wagon stopped as a grey, hairy shape the size of two horses apparently had grabbed the wagon and holding it still. The nobleman had survived and the horses seemed to have been hurt by the abrupt stop, but over the bridge also came a pack of wolves!

Without delay, the party rushed into action and started killing off the wolves from a distance with arrows, crossbow bolts, javelins and spells. As they downed the starved wolves, the second half of the pack arrived over the bridge,

It's about 13:30

(End of session.)

(Session 20 - 2023-12-13 ) [Day 17]

Loot from Baron Vasili von Holtz

Loot. Choose 3 (all magical, all enchantment, I assume):

The Antithesis

• +1 plate, very rare (requires attunement)
• Painted red with golden details akin to eagle's feathers, including a few protruding ones on the sabatons
• Has: 4 charges
• 1 charge to cast True Strike as a bonus action
• 2 charges to cast misty step as a bonus action
• 2 charges to use a bonus action or reaction so that the next damage you receive until the start of your next turn is halved
• Regain 1d4-2 charges at dawn.

The Chimera

• +1 chain shirt/scale mail, very rare (requires attunement)
• Chain shirt comes with detachable scale protections for torso and upper arms (+1 AC, +25 lbs, disadvantage on stealth, takes 10 min to attach with help or yourself while not wearing the armor)
• Painted red with golden streaks; left side has a shoulder pad in the shape of a eagle's beak while the right one is missing or wasn't part of the ensemble.
• Each scale in the attachments are red and having a golden edge at the lower part of the scale
• Has 4 charges:
• 1 charge to cast True Strike as a bonus action
• 2 charges to cast misty step as a bonus action
• 2 charges to use a bonus action or reaction so that the next damage you receive until the start of your next turn is halved
• Regain 1d4-2 charges at dawn.

Moonlight Shortsword

• Shortsword, very rare (requires attunement)
• This silver shortsword glimmers softly with moonlight. You gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this weapon. This bonus increases to +2 while under the light of a moon, and increases to +3 while under the light of a full moon.
• This sword has 4 charges. While holding it, you can expend charges and use an action to cast one of the following spells from the sword: guiding bolt (1 charge; spell attack bonus +7), healing word (1 charge;60ft, 1d4+4 healing), moonbeam (2 charges; spell save DC 15, you are immune to its damage). The sword regains 1d4 charges each night at midnight. It regains all charges on the midnight of a full moon.

Shortsword +1

• +1 shortsword, rare (requires attunement)
• This +1 weapon that has a dim blue light is visible. It lights up 10 ft radius if it's in darker than dim light.

Shortsword +1

• +1 shortsword, rare (requires attunement)
• This +1 weapon that has a dim blue light is visible. It lights up 10 ft radius if it's in darker than dim light.

Cloak of Protection

• http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/wondrous-items:cloak-of-protection
• (+1 AC & saves)

ALSO

• Scroll of Hold Person
• 4x Potion of Healing

The party keeps cutting through the wolf pack like a hot knife through butter until multiple bolts are sunk into one particular runt, weemingly impervious to pain or damage. Aelfric identified it as a werewolf and everyone brought out their silver. Still, the wolves killed the two regular guards and severely injured the captain who had been bitten by the wolf believed to be a werewolf.

With the right tools for the job, the werewolf was sure to go down within seconds and the few wolves left seemed unsure if it was worth staying. As they also went down it was clear the two remaining ones were both werewolves. The undamaged one made a faint, drawing the ire of the party, allowing the damaged one to flee. Dashing off at high speed it almost seemed this was the end of the fight and they would get away but Vargas zoomed in on the wounded one, and hailed the power of Tymora, forming a golden bolt of lightning at it, totally consuming it in holy flames, shrieking in pain as it died in front of them and turned into a rather scorched human form.

With an inner hatred for werewolves, Vargas just ran at the last remaining one that was fleeing into the forest. Torbjoern and Aelfric had already begun the rush, telling Jormund to secure the site and wagon, and they cooperated to find the last werewolf. Vargas with her keen eyes saw its movement and Aelfric secured its track in case they lost it momentarily while Torbjoern just ran through the underbrush.

A full minte in, having lungs nearly burning from intense panting, the three felt about to lose the wolf ahead and sent of a volley of shots at its likely location. None of the projectiles appeared to meet its mark and they halted get to a breather. The mists in the forest seemed to creep in and on the mist came faint echoes of other wolf howling in three different directions from where they were stood. The sounds slowly increased in intensity and seemed to decrease in distance. In unison they decided to head back as fast as they could without harming themselves rather than risking another pack of wolves while injured and running out of resources.

Back at the wagon, a seemingly stressed out noble person repeatedly told Jormund and the rest there how happy he was they had come. Ismark noted that this was Vasili von Holtz, a noble man he knows of and apparently had met as a kid, but didn't recall himself). Vasili travells almost weekly on these roads and intermittently is attacked by wolves, even dire wolves, but has so far never been attacked by werewolves. He had assumed 3 guards would have been an overly safe bet for the trip.

Part of his trade were some very valuable items and he said he was so immensely grateful the party came that he could afford to give away three of them that they could choose.

That's where we rounded off.

(End of session.)

On the Road Again

(Session 21 - 2024-01-03 ) [Day 17]

The party exchanged a few further pleasantries with Vasili, who also offered to guide them around town in Vallaki when he gets back from Barovia township. Torbjoern managed to charm Vasili to part with two of the swords for a total of about 500 gold (for Aelfric and Izzat(?)) and they picked the splendid chain/scale mail (for Vargas), the moonblade (Torbjoern) and the cloak of protection (Jormund) for their actual reward. As part of the charm, Izzat and sol agreed to escort Vasili and the guard captain part of the way to ensure their safety and the duo would then double back when it seemed safe.

The partly dark and partly desolate road twisted and turned further up into the mountains. There were hints of dangers a horizon or two away but nothing further disrupted the travels until they reached the junction towards Castle Ravenloft where a familiar Black Carriage was stood driverless with two horses. The doors slowly swung open and another familiar figure stepped out and then crossed his arms over his chest - Rahadin. As they came closer a further 6 skeletal knights were stood perfectly still a little bit further up the road from the Black Carriage. A few words were exchanged but Rahadin did not show any open hostility and almost seemed bored to be there.

After a rather unsettling experience, as the choir of a thousand screaming souls surrounding Rahadin was heard passing the carriage, the party headed towards the Western Gate of the Barovia township province. Rahadin stared blankly at their backs until the mist has surrounded them enough to make them impossible to separate from the white and the sounds of a carriage moving was heard on the mist.

The Western Gate was eerily similar to the Eastern Gate and likewise automatically opened the barred gates with a screeching sound. Vargas wondered if the gates open for everyone, then what is their point but Ismark had no specific answer. He said he suspects if there are actual enemies of Strahd, they wouldn't open but he had never heard of the gates failing to open.

The journey took the party further through the mountains with heavier or lighter foliage. They stopped briefly at Rado Ranch to enquire for news and mainly just got what they already knew with Vasili going past and they gave Franz the sad news that two of the guards had perished. Franz very much tried to ask the party to stay over ("for the very cheap price of 1 gold per night") but they elected not to. He did offer them some of Grannies pies, however. He said they started making them fairly recently and he used to just drink himself into a stupor to avoid the nightmares of Barovia but the pies essentially grants the imbiber a good night's sleep, which he previously never had experienced. He explained that he didn't think Granny used magic for them but maybe had found some magic cooking utensils or found a specific combination of herbs to do the trick. Him and his wife were close to cracking the riddle and when they do they will make their own "dream pies".

The party decided to get a few pies to try, knowing they could fairly easily come back here or to the windmill where Granny lives if they are as good as advertised.

Even further travels ensued, they skipped visiting the windmill, and headed straight for Vallaki, takign the safe route and being careful. They found themselves, after the winding road, approaching Vallaki. It's about 17:00.

(End of session.)

Chapter 4: Welcome to Vallaki

(Session 22 - 2024-01-10 -Tata -Yurii) [Day 17]

The guards seemed antagonistic at the foreigners until Ismark and Ireena spoke to them and everyone were let in after a brief registration and asked to not be "maliciously unhappy" or to "speak ill of the Baron". They all went directly to the Blue Water Inn where they were warmly greeted by Urwin Martikov, seemingly delighted in seeing Ismark again and enthusiastic about having foreginers in his establishment. The wolf hunters in the corner were less impressed, however.

A lot of small talk included some hints of the philosophy of the Baron, that constant festivals keeps "The Devil" at bay and it had worked for over 200 years. The past festival was one of wolf heads carried on pikes and soon they would have "The Blazing Sun Festival" in a few days where "Attendance and children required. Rain or Shine". The concept of "malicious unhappiness" could also land you in the stocks or ... worse. However: "All will be well", according to the Baron.

The party was told of the main power dynamic of Baron Vargas (yes, same name as Vàrgas, though purely a coincidence) Vallakovich, whose ancient ancestors had founded Vallaki, and the main commercial family the Wachters, headed by Fiona Wachter. Vasoli von Holtz was mentioned as well, though more like the kind of guy who tries to rub shoulders and stay on good footing with everyone. A bachelor of rank and accountant or luxery goods curator to others. Further rich noble families exist but either stay out of politics or lean towards Vallakovich or Wachter.

After a well derseved dinner at the Blue Water Inn, the party headed to the Church of St Andrals to speak to Father Lucien. Being pressed on protecting Ireena, Lucien admitted to Vàrgas, whom he recognised as a pious warrior of faith (albeit disappointed it was not for the Morning Lord) that the church no longer was concecrated because someone had stolen the relics of St Andral. He suspected Milivoj, the grave digger he had taken in from the orphanage and he also suspected Yesek the altar boy had seen him do it.

The party managed to get Yesek to speak, which lead them to the St Andral Orphanage where they found Milivoj unconscious in feverish dreams in his bed, as he had been for about two days. Headmistress Claudia Belasco at first just wanted the visitors out but was convinced to help. Vàrgas tried to heal the poor boy but just felt the holy power of her healing spell being sucked into Milivoj somehow without healing him and got a feeling this was a magical disease that would be hard or impossible to heal (but graciously wasn't contageous). It's possible the source of the illness isn't from within Milivoj.

Meanwhile, Jormund lifted the spirits of just about every child in the house by retelling of gory stories and eventually chasing them around the house.

(Vàrgas also very quickly surveyed the top floor of the children's beds but found nothing of particular note at first glance.)

It's about 20:00.

(End of session.)

St Andral's Orphanage

(Session 23 - 2024-01-17 ) [Day 17 20:00]

• Not entirely welcome at this time
• After some talk, find Milivoj being comatose in bed, having been progressively worse over the past few weeks
• Jormund having a whale of a time playing with the children
• Talk to Headmistress Claudia Belasco
• Two children ran away a couple of weeks ago
• One child (Cedrik) had recently died falling out of a window
• Find random bruises on children's arms, legs and necks
• Find infernal runes on all beds but Felix ("Dark Dreams")
• Vàrgas gets Father Lucien
• After some further investigation, decide to go to the attic
• Felix sat by window making a wooden toy soldier with a kitchen knife
• Some questioning until provoked, rush to mid of room and a dark pulsating smokey shape emerges, ready to strike

(Session 24 - 2024-01-24 ) [Day 17 23:00]

• Torbjoern two-shots the demonic shape that came out of Felix
• Felix "wakes up", crying uncontrollably having been sidelined in his own mind, the demon among other things killed his parents and Cedrik
• Milivoj wakes up, they find out he was asked to get the bones by Bluto Korgarov, the fisherman and paid "a lot for some useless bones"
• Milivoj is ashamed and asks for forgiveness
• Vàrgas goes back with Lucien (they and Ireena sleeps in the church, the rest in the orphanage)

Following the Bones

• [Day 18 08:00] Long rest brought nightmares, again, Vàrgas later apologised for talking down to the men about it
• Outside the door awaits a "salesman" (Ernst Larnak) who says his current employer Fiona Wachter (rival to the Burgomaster Vargas Vallakovich) is very keen on meeting the foreigners and invite them for tea after lunch
• Reconvene with Vàrgas and strategise - head towards Bluto's cabin
• At the cabin Aelfric finds near invisible fresh foot prints indicate he's left for the lake in the past hour or so
• At the lake they find two boats, slightly water clogged, and one boat out on the misty lake

(Session 25 - 2024-02-07 ) [Day 18 09:30]

• A high pitched scream is heard
• They rush rowing out to the boat, the person in the boat clearly noticing
• As Torbjoern arrive, Bluto is throwing a lumpy bag over board, weighted with rocks
• Torbjoern jumps in to retrieve the bag (or at least contents) while the rest of the party assaults Bluto
• Bluto jumps over board and tries to swim ashore
• Torbjoern sees a large snake under water as he cuts the bag open to reveal a young woman
• Aelfric smacks Bluto over the head with an ore, rendering him unconscious
• Vàrgas brings the girl to life who is a little perterbed that "you're late" and seems to confuse tempus both forwards and backwards in time
• Bluto is kept tied up in his cabin with Ismark and Ireena

Vallaki Tribulations

• Party goes to Vistani camp where Arabelle lives
• Sees a man whipped by camp leader Luvash, father of Arabelle
• First suspicious, then overtly happy about the party saving his daughter
• Offers drinks as well as a reward (they eventually picked a wooden chest with 1200 electrum pieces)
• Asked to speak to the dusk elf leader Kasimir Velikov - looks like Rahadin but they are more like enemies
• Frail man with wounds and bruises - his healing involves taking on the wounds of others to heal them
• Don't like Strahd who among other things has killed his sister (Patrina Velikovna) and holds her body in his dungeons
• Kasimir asks party to, when he's feeling better, escort him up Mount Ghakis (southern mountain) to an ancient temple to find the means to resurrect Patrina, then go to Castle Ravenloft to get her corpse
• On the way back to Bluto's cabin they stop by Blinsky's Toys as they promised to buy a toy for Arabelle by her aunt in Tser Pool encampment a couple of days ago
• In Blinsky's shop they find a doll that is a near copy of Ireena and after some talk convince Blinsky to make a copy that they can show/give to Ireena
• Bluto's story is rather sad with wife and children perished and even his profession drying up leading to him drowning his sorrows in wine, which is also running out
• Woken up he admits to being asked by the fairly antisocial coffin maker Henrik van der Voor to get Milivoj to steal the bones
• Lunch at Blue Water in, some talks with Danika Dorakova (other attendants include two fancy clad young men and, in the corner, the two wolf hunters)
• At some point Ernst Larnak shows up again to remind them about the tea with Fiona Wachter

(Session 26 - 2024-02-21 ) [Day 18 13:30]

• Blinsky "Ireena dolls" bought by Izek
• Made a new doll for 25g
• Bought spare dolls in a sack
• Coffin maker - vampire spawns in boxes
• Relics in wardrobe - to Lucien in the church
• Henrik Van der Voorr - Jormund guarding
• Wachterhouse tea - politics + Izek

(Session 27 - 2024-02-28 ) [Day 18 16:00]

• Check w Lucien
• Ask Burgomaster for help by using Henrik as scapegoat
• Henrik in stocks
• Izek comes to kill "zombies" - admit vampires - bring 20+ guards
• Confirm it's vampires - put whole house on fire
• Insta-kill first one, 2 more rounds of combat after
• End mid-combat
• 18:00

(Session 28 - 2024-03-20 ) [Day 18 18:00]

• A dark-skinned woman in white cast a Fireball at the entire combat fray, harming the vampires and killing all regular guards
• Remaining guards, Catalin and Izek together with the adventurers slaughtered the remaining vampires in short order
• Izek brought the adventurers to Vargas Vallakovich, who was very grateful
• Vàrgas researched the cat-curse
  • Hard to remove, maybe Greater Restoration can do it, otherwise a Wish spell is required; some references to a temple of magical powers at the top of a mountain
• Join Vargas Vallakovich doing a speech saying guards, Izek and the party prevented a vampire conspiracy and the Blazing sun Festival will be essential to seal the opportunity for vampires to enter Vallaki
• Party heads towards Blue Water Inn to sleep
• 20:15

Vàrgas's notes:

Mina anteckningar (som är mycket blandade mellan svenska och engelska:

I början av striden mot vampyrerna ser någon av killarna en kvinna i fönstret på övervåningen, uppmärksammar oss på henne; hon känns igen som ”Lady of Strahd”? Mörk hy.

Hon kastar en fireball som dödar merparten av vakterna.

Lite senare ser vi ett grönaktigt ljus från fönstret. Vi vet inte vad som händer med henne.

Vi följer Isaq till the burgermaster. Min känsla är att han är korkad men också farlig för han tror bara vad han vill tro – och då måste alla tro samma sak: han har makten.

Som tack för våra insatser för vi en belöning i guld och jag får tillgång till biblioteket.

Curses är svårare att häva ju länge de varit på en person (lite givet) och det behövs kraftfull magi (*** restoration eller witch-spell).

Vistanis namn dyker regelbundet upp samt hänvisning till ett tempel i bergen.

Torbjoern minns att någon vill ha vår hjälp att ta sig dit (hinner vi det på vår ”lediga” dag?); vi skall träffa burgermaster om två dagar för ceremonin – och jag tror inte vi vågar att inte vara där.

Vi deltar i en liten ceremoni där borgmästaren talar om det ”lilla” problem som varit och hur förnämligt det löstes av oss och hans stadsvakter (”som villig offrade sig”).

Ceremonin hölls efter utegångsförbudet vilket gjorde många tveksamma och nervösa.

Ett antal barn och vuxna satt i stocken med tillverkade åsnehuvuden på sig. Jag frågade en vakt om det var där för att de inte varit glada eller för att de inte deltagit i någon festival; han såg skrämd ut och drog sig undan från mig.

När vi gick till värdshuset såg vi hur de befriades men de verkade mycket medtagna.

När jag spelar Vàrgas så försöker jag ta fasta lite på det här så grodor och klumpigheter får hoppa ur munnen:

”Jag är här snäll men lite tafatt och vet inte alltid rätt sak att säga”

An Invitation

(Session 29 - 2024-03-27 ) [Day 18 20:30]

• Party reconvenes at Blue Water Inn and talks a little with

Rahadin appears on a black horse with flaming mane and hooves outside Blue Water Inn and hands over an invitation for tomorrow night

• The party rented two horses and a wagon, Aelfric negotiated the price down to 16G, the names of the horses are Thunder and Resound

A quest for pies

(Session 30 - 2024-04-10 ) [Day 19 morning(?)]

• Using the rented wagon, the party drove to the windmill to buy more of the magical pies that somehow prevents/lightens the nightmares to occur during the night.
• The raven, that the party has come across earlier, was sitting by the door of the house. Aelfric spoke to it, and it was not happy about the pies being baked with raven meat, and other animal meat either for that matter. It said that they baked the pies with many kinds of meat, wolf, and possibly werewolf meat too.
• 24 pies were purchased. Vargas paid for Jormund's 6 pies.
• The party agreed to give a rating of the pies (taste and effectiveness) next time they come by.
• The baker would like to have the cloths back, that were used to package the pies.
• On the way back to town they drove past a group of people, some of them armed with spears and swords. They exchanged greetings but didn't interact more than to greet them.
• Back the the Blue Water Inn the innkeeper, during the food and beverage order conversation, showed great interest in the pies. Vargas excahnged one of the pies with the innkeeper, in exchange for one night's free lodging for the entire party and the food and wine the party ordered for their lunch meal.
• The session ended in the afternoon, the next time someone wanted to talk with them, before they start heading to the castle, in the evening.
• Afternoon

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