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Journal: DM
Coffin makers
Journal: Thistle
On the second floor of Henrik van der Voort's workshop, we find ourselves surrounded by Scary-Looking Humanoids™. With the coffin maker cowering in the corner, we realize that he isn't in control of the monsters. We whip and blast and stab and flame as best we can, but being in such close quarters with grabby life-sapping vampire things wasn't going so great for us. Just as it looked like the end, Chalace yelled for us to run and filled the room with impenetrable fog. Some of us took some parting shots into the mist as we escaped. Thorrick remained to cook the bloodsuckers in moonlight while Chalace kept them busy with all his remaining strength. Those of us now on the first floor heard the crash of breaking glass and a loud thud as Henrik made it out through the second floor window. He made a great cushion for Glynda and Thistle as they escaped. Vampires spilled out after him, and Chalace behind them. Sancho jumped out the western window and met us on the north side, where we finished off all but one of our foes. Battered and weakened, we are now chasing down the one remaining vampire... Journal: Thistle
We set up camp outside the Bonegrinder. Before we settle in to sleep, Thorrick gathers all the teeth from the nearby megoliths and burns them to ash so they can return to the earth. Whip and Chalace volunteer for first watch. At some point during the night, Whip wanders off to relieve himself and returns unspeakably hot. Sancho and Thorrick take second watch while Thistle takes time to summon a familiar which, to her horror, ends up being a cat rather than a bat. Shortly after this Thorrick and Sancho hear something rustling in the forest, and the already anxious Thistle runs back to camp, screaming for the others to wake up. The source of the rustling turns out to be Victor Vallakovich, son of Burgomeister Vallakovich, who was searching the forest for his two cats. He soon located them and it was immediately obvious they were both very undead. Victor explains to us that he'd been dabbling in magic in search of a way to leave Barovia and his cats had been the subjects of his experimentation. Before he leaves he grumbles about his father and shows us a hidden path through the forest which will take a few miles off our return trip to Vallaki. We return to camp to find Glynda sleeping with her mouth open and drooling and what appears to be pastry crusts all around her. Chalace checks more closely and finds no pulse! He performs CPR on Hands and resuscitates her, but she's awakened into a bizarre mental state, apparently hallucinating darkness and a deafening amount of crickets. As we're about to set off for Vallaki with the head of Morgantha, we discover the dead body of Ismark Kolyana behind the Bonegrinder with bitemarks on his neck. Fearing for Ireena, we load the corpse onto Burrito and hurry back into town on the hidden path. Glynda and Thistle hang back and whisper to each other along the way. On the outskirts of town we run into the guards Phillips and Ratcliffe, who pretend they don't see our strange body-sized cargo and thank us for all we've done for the people of Vallaki. They also inform us that during the night they found Ireena sleepwalking away from the town, and out of the respect they have for the party they returned her to the inn rather than taking her to Vallakovich. Chalace gives Ratcliffe a swig of whatever's in his neverending booze flask, remembering after the fact that he has no idea what's inside. We make our way to the Blue Water Inn, barely avoiding the burgomeister and Izek, who were overseeing preparations for the upcoming Sun Festival. We sneak into the stable and relent over what to do with the body. Glynda, who was still behaving strangely until this point, suddenly exclaims "Ah! Got one!" with her hand clenched around something which she throws to the ground. It appears to be a cricket. Just as we're about to behead and bury poor Ismark, Thorrick notices a flap on his neck and pulls at it, revealing it to be a disguise. Who would want us to believe Ismark was dead? Whip, Glynda, Sancho, and Thistle set about dealing with the body while Chalace and Thorrick go inside to speak with Ireena, who no longer feels safe at the inn. Soon we all meet inside with Ricktavio and the Martikovs. Ricktavio agrees that Ireena isn't safe here and suggests the town of Krezk, mentioning that if we were to do something to benefit the town, the burgomeister would be obliged to welcome us inside. He tells us that he's leaving tomorrow, after Festival of the Blazing Sun, and that Ireena knows where to find him but the less we know the better. The Martikovs also agree that it's no longer safe here and suggest taking Ireena to the local church. They pass us a letter from a Lady Fiona Watcher, inviting us to her home for a dinner in our honor. We can come at any time, but she asks we arrive before the festival begins. As we sit around and discuss what to do next, Glynda sends a telepathic message to Urwin about the body we just hid in his stable. We leave the inn to take Youri to Blinsky's before we decide where to go with Ireena. On our way we again run into the burgomeister. His mood has completely turned around from the last time we saw him. He thanks us for all we've done for Vallaki and tells us to forget about the hags: he considers us welcome in his town. When we inform him that we've already killed one hag and scared off the others he is overjoyed and tells Izek to hand (ha) his personal house key over to us, which he does resentfully. Next we arrive at the toy shop and meet Blinsky himself. Youri is in heaven. Blinsky sends his pet monkey, Piccolo, to find a toy for the child. It returns with a doll that looks exactly like Ireena, clothes and all. We confront the flabbergasted toymaker about these dolls that keep appearing, but he refuses to tell us who he's making them for until Thorrick pays him 20 gold and swears secrecy. It's Izek, of course. Thorrick burned the dolls most recent doll that Izek commissioned with fire. Thoroughly creeped out yet not too surprised, we decide to take Ireena to the church. The doors are locked when we arrive, and after some persistent knocking we get Father Lucian to open the door. He's looking as morose as he was when we passed by a day earlier. We ask him for sanctuary for Ireena, but he tells us that the relic bones once enshrined here have gone missing and the church is no longer sacred ground. The only other person who could have accessed the bones is the gravedigger, Millivoj Reeves. We find him outside and play Good Constable Bad Constable until he confesses he sold the bones to the coffin maker, Henrik van der Voort We leave Ireena and Youri at the church and head to the coffin maker's. We're short with him and demand he return the bones, and discover his distaste for nosy adventurers and his crippling fear toward 2 foot tall mice. He leads us upstairs, where we soon find ourselves surrounded by Scary-Looking Humanoids™ that have emerged from the crates scattered about the workshop... Day 7 10:15pm to Day 8 11:30am
We started the action watching as the man (presumably Strahd) mounted on a Nightmare was galloping toward us from a quarter mile (1 hex) away. We adjusted our positioning and got ready to attack as soon as it was practical. When Strahd got close enough, we saw that he was using the Nightmare as cover and Chalace's Firebolt splashed off of it ineffectually. We did soon land a couple of hits on the Nightmare and Strahd himself, who let go of the reins in mid-air and fell like a ragdoll into the dark below. At that point, the Nightmare flew away and 4 Swarms of bats appeared. We made pretty quick work of them, but almost immediately the gargoyle statue-ornaments at the ends of the bridge came to life as well! Chalace ran to defend Thistle and Glynda on the west side of the bridge while Whip, Sancho and Thorrick took out the gargoyle statues to the east. Strahd was nowhere to be seen. Some byplay during the ambush: Thorrick searched Morgantha's Dream Pie cart and was struck by some darts when he opened the trapped compartment. He threw the cash on the ground before shoving the cart over the side of the bridge. Glynda managed to salvage a couple of pies and the cash, but was noticed by everyone while she did so, to her chagrin. Thorrick grunted something unintelligible at her but it was clearly unfriendly. We took some time to dispose of Morgantha's body then head towards the Old Mill to take out the other two hags. When we neared the Mill, we were informed by some of the Martikoff were-ravens that the remaining 2 Night Hags had run off into the woods and disappeared without a trace, despite the skilled trackers on their trail. We discussed a couple of options like seeing if Whip could track the two Hags down and even seeing if the Heartstone that Glynda had stolen from Morgantha could provide any guidance or clues. That proved to be a dead end. Some of us searched the Old Mill for treasure, kidnapped children and/or clues while Thorrick, Glynda and Chalace stood watch outside. Thorrick confronted Glynda about her use of the Dream Pastries. After some arguing back and forth, Glynda agreed to share the pies and the gold she had collected that night, but not if he tried to take them by force. Thorrick seemed to think that destroying the pies would somehow allow the children's spirits to rest. Glynda saw the conversation as an attempt by Thorrick to take away access to happy memories of her missing husband, Hammond. Thorrick revealed that he had lost someone too, but under less-happy circumstances. Glynda had picked up three pies on the bridge and given one of them to Whip. She gave Thorrick one of her two remaining pies, as well as a sixth of the treasure she had picked up on the bridge (10gp and 6 sp was the total, she gave Thorrick 1gp and 1sp, but we can retcon the amount to whatever makes sense) We decided to take a long rest starting at 3:30am. We'll pick up the action at the end of the long rest, 11:30am on Day 8. And we reached level 6! Congrats all! Note from Russ: As always, details are missing and I'll welcome any and all edits that others would like to make! Please! Starting off waking up on the Wizard of Wines Winery's 2nd Floor, we met up for breakfast. It was revealed that some party members, Chalace, Sancho, and Thorrick had nightmares and Chalace says he gave his Amulet to Strahd in return for a safe passage out of the Windmill. Glynda gave a certain dwarven druid a new name, Snorrick, for obvious reasons. We made plans with Davian to kill the Hags:
Master Plan: -Ambush Morgantha (or other solo Hag) at Tser Falls Bridge -Pass through Vallaki to drop off the wine and Youri's gift -Were-Ravens will scout for us. The number of ravens who contact us will be the number of Hags seen in the Windmill -Allan or someone else can try to pickpocket the Heart Stone to prevent ethereal We headed back to Vallaki with the wine and a couple of Davian's sons. Thorrick and Chalace check on Ireena, who's freaked out because she saw Izek at Blinsky's holding a doll that looked like her. (Izek has now passed from Weirdo Stalker into Creepy As Fuck territory) Glynda told Urwin and Danika Martikoff about the Winery and passed on the info that they needed to know. We left for the Bridge and set up an ambush for Morgantha. Whip and Edgar distracted Morgantha and made it easy for Allan to fly in and steal her Heartstone (the item which she needed in her possession to go ethereal). With the Heartstone in our possession, our melees moved in - Ape Thorrick grappled and shoved Morgantha prone and we (brutally) beat her to death. Thorrick then threw her wagon off the bridge and some of us noticed a figure in the distance whose silhouette matched Strahd's. Knowing it was an impossible shot, Whip vented some anger by taking a potshot anyway, and the figure appeared to charge at us. As the session ended, the figure was still hundreds of feet away (1000 feet was the distance given, I think.) We started the session in the middle of a fast-paced combat. We had split the party to battle Berserkers and Druids at Yester Hill. As Round 10 started, a huge tree monster called Winter Splinter (aka Mama Blight?) appeared out of the wreckage of the wicker statue of Strahd at the hill's crest.
It headed north/northeast in the direction of the vineyard. We took it down handily. Our old friend Whip was somehow resurrected (even though last time we saw him he had been decapitated) and was placed inside Winter Splinter. We freed him from the wreckage of its corpse and he promptly fainted. We then headed towards the tree where the druids were chanting. Thorrick recognized as the tree from his vision. He wanted to de-corrupt it but realized that goal was impossible. And that the tree would regenerate eventually unless it was uprooted entirely. We approached the tree threateningly enough to trigger the large group of Blights that were guarding it. Thankfully, Whip woke up and helped us out during the fight. After destroying the Blight guardians, we started working on the tree itself, making plans to uproot it using draft horses and Burrito, as well as burning the thing. We were eventually successful and, having collected the gem and removed the threat, went back to the vineyard. We rested there, and Sancho (somewhat foolishly, in Glynda's opinion) returned the green gem to Davian Martikov. Davian gave us a wand that summons a were-raven helper (cool item!) and revealed a lot of useful information. It turns out we had found one of three missing gems, each of which allows the Winery to grow a different type of grapes in this horrible place. The remaining two gems are still missing, but he's fairly sure that one of them ended up in the hands of a powerful witch called Baba Lisaga/Lysaga/Lasagna. Davian also confirmed that the Dream Pastries are made of the ground up bones of children and that it was fairly common practice for addicts to "legally" sell their children to settle their Dream Pastry debts with Morgantha and her daughters. Chalace's adopted son Youri was one such child. We spent some time filling Whip in on our adventures so far. (Glynda and Chalace secretly examined him for signs of Undeath, but it looks like he's been legitimately resurrected) We decided to go after Morgantha and her daughters the very next day. Our tentative plan is to scout out to see if one of them will return to their normally scheduled deliveries and set up an ambush on the road while she's solo. Now that we know the hags can become Ethereal, it'll be tough to prevent them from escaping or to know if they're secretly following the solo one from nearby on the Ethereal Plane. Scouting will be key. We started on Day 6 after killing the druids and blights that were poisoning the Wizard of Wines Winery, but we haven't yet spoken with Davian Martikov
Most of the group meets up outside where Sancho killed the last one. The last druid gasps out "Winter Splinter" as he dies. The 4 swarms of ravens head towards the woods we came from. Thistle checks the rooms, finds a shipping manifest. Glynda and Thorrick work together to check the bodies, collecting a sample of the poison the druids were using. Davian Martikov and his family lets us choose where to send the wine (which will make us popular in whichever town we choose). We take a short rest. During that time, Thistle copies Find Familiar into her spellbook. Davian tells the party to tell his son Urwin Martikov (at the Blue Water Inn in Vallaki) that he is forgiven (for what we don't know) and that Davian would like to be on speaking terms with his son again. At noon, we arrive at Yester Hill. It starts raining (of course). We see a circular stone wall at the top of the hill with lots of stone cairns arranged in concentric circles around the hill at intervals of 60ish feet. Thorrick feels called towards a particular cairn on the north end of the hill. Lightning strikes at random times, but always on random stone cairns. After some work and magic detection, Thorrick obtains a spear (see the Blood Spear handout in roll20) and a message: "Long have I waited,” it says, “for one who is worthy. My spear hungers for blood. Retrieve it, and rule these mountains in my stead, just like the mighty warriors from the early days of the Whispering Wall.” -Kavan We ascend to the top of the hill, finding a massive, 50-foot wicker and soil statue of a fanged man. Chalace starts to deface it. Strahd appears in the sky, riding a Nightmare (fiery flying horse). Glynda gauges the distance to Strahd while Chalace looks like he'll try to shoot, but is unable to reach him. As Strahd reaches cloud cover, Chalace and Thorrick continue to destroy the statue. Thorrick is especially effective with his Call Lightning spell. Glynda finds she's somehow unable to hurt the statue with an Eldritch Blast. We are attacked by crazy men wearing only leave and battleaxes. One of them has an especially nice-looking axe. Using a Fog Cloud and Call Lightning, Chalace and Thorrick hold off 4 Berserkers, making it look easy in the process. Sancho rushes to protect Burrito. Thistle and Glynda rush to protect Sancho. Sancho and the two warlocks annihilate the 2 Berserkers on the north end and begin to hurry south. Chalace and Thorrick have that situation pretty much under control, though. The Berserker with the nice axe gets past Chalace and into the encircled hilltop. A green glimmering object drops from the destroyed statue. Glynda passes up a chance to pick up the gem. Mr. Nice Axe picks it up instead. A massive tree monster bursts from the burning statue and eats the Berserker. Glynda stares in horror as the tree monster looks at her from barely 50 feet away. Session 13, 12/6/2017
Glynda:Day 6, 9:30 - 10am We start off in the forest outside the Wizard of Wines Winery, in the middle of conversation with Davian Martikov (father of Urwin Martivkov, the proprietor of the Blue Water Inn in Vallaki) Davian has explained that the Winery was overrun by evil Druids and Blights from a place called Yester Hill. Allan had scouted out the place and saw no enemies outdoors. (Of course he was wrong! Again!) We decide to stealthily but directly approach the winery. On the way, we catch creepy vibes/glimpses of things moving. When we get close, we see (zombie bush/people), about a dozen of them, lurching slowly towards us. We hurry towards the nearest building, a stable. Thistle climbs into a wagon there and sees a druid talking and brandishing a staff. She hurries out. Thorrick goes ape shape and tries to grapple, fails. Combat starts. Thorrick knocks the staff out of the druid's hands as the party tries to maneuver into position. After being attacked a few times, the druid runs and we leave initiative. Thorrick knows he needs a little time to learn more about this obviously magical staff. The shrubs shambling around outside seem to lose their sense of direction and move towards us even more slowly. We move further into the building, discovering a shaggy druid lady attempting to poison the fermentation vats with a thick syrupy/honey-like substance. Glynda murmurs to Chalace that she'll take care of this and sneaks up and shoots the dirty druidess in the back. Swarms of ravens in the room seem to not like the druidess. We kill her quickly and try to give Thorrick some time to attune to the staff. Glynda tries to Inspire her friends. Chalace, Thistle and Sancho work on securing the room while Glynda "supervises". After some time passes, Chalace and Thistle begin taking potshots at the approaching bushes. Sancho and Glynda check on Thorrick. Seeing that Thorrick seems to be in the grip of a negative vision (players know it but not the other characters), Glynda attempts to give him a Dream Pastry. Sancho blocks her hand, but that causes the pastry to smash into Thorrick's face, waking him up. Thorrick, now awake, attempts to use the staff to make the bushes stand down, with limited success. Chalace moves upstairs and runs into a couple of druids, putting us in combat again. The druids attempt to entangle the party while the party fights them in the stairwell. Glynda, seeing no way forward, covers the back, sees a bunch of plant monsters below, and Shatters them, destroying a couple of vats of wine and making a huge mess in the process. Thorrick, restrained by vines, holds the staff for Sancho to hit. It breaks, destroying all the plant monsters. The druids, still alive, run away. Our heroes chase them. Glynda and Thorrick take down one of them who's still inside, while Chalace jumps out a window (so cool!) and nearly takes out the final druid. Sancho names his sword Blight Stinger right before following Chalace and finishing off the druid. Everyone had their moments today, but Thorrick and Sancho get Glynda's vote for MVP. We level up to 5! SanchoSession 13, 12/6/2017 Day 6, 9:30 - 10am Sancho's additional notes: When they first decide to help Davian, Glynda asks if they should ask for a reward. Sancho states they should wait to help him first, and then ask for some wine (boy, is he going to be disappointed!) After Thistle reports back - Sancho asks if she saw any Circle Druids or as he refers to them "Circle Jerks" As the wineyard creatures begin to shamble towards them, Sancho is concerned about the draft horses and frees them, but also calms them down - so they can escape if the twig creatures get too close. Within the large room, Sancho stands guard from the vineyard creatures outside but one of them climbs out of the vats next to him, He is able to slay it easily - remarking "Fighting grapes is easier than fighting hags" He then does very fine work "securing" the door (he thinks he secured it by leaving it cracked open), before running upstairs to guard Thorrick. Sancho is surprised that Glynda is trying to feed a people pastry to Thorrick and successfully stops her, but he's starting to wonder if she is more like a hag than he knows. Upon hearing Thorrick remarking that the staff needs to be destroyed, Sancho takes a swing at it successfully! The ensuing death of the blights inspires him: He holds up the silvered shortsword and declares "Now I will give you a name and I shall call you Blight Stinger" He then follows Chalace as he hunts down a druid and decides to follow him by jumping out a window! He miraculously sticks the landing and slays the druid with a goading attack - remarking "You're just dirt to me."(edited) - Richtavio said he'd help find Eva's Items AND would give a list/map of (suspected) Ley Lines
- Richtavio's wagon was in Arasek's Stockyard. "Rictavio's Carnival of Wonders" "I bring you from Shadow into Light" - Wizard of Wines: on the way from Vallaki to Krezek - Going into the B-meister's mansion, the guards are assholes. Thorrick casts Detect Magic and passes it off as speaking Dwarven (That was well done, Nick!) - Lydia Petrovna, the Baroness of Vallaki, is talking to a servant as we walk in She's very polite and seems sweet and awkward. She talks to Chalace about the Light, is nice to Thistle and Sancho. - Izzek escorts us to the den. Glynda asks about the bundles of twigs, Ireena isn't sure but Izek proudly explains there'll be a wicker sun built for the festival of the blazing sun. We open the window and bring in Edgar. - Burgomaster Vargas Vallakovich: doesn't like ravens, offers us a deal; we can stay in town for 3 more days and have to "represent the town" during the festival, as well as remove the threat of the hags. Also makes Edgar leave - Izzek tries to make Ireena stay, Thorrick and Chalace object (belligerently), Baroness Lydia steps in and talks Izzek down - We go back to the inn, guard obviously follows us, but seems indifferent. - We made plans to go to the Wizard of Wines vineyard. Ireena decided to stay at the Blue Water Inn when we leave. Vineyard is 2.5 miles west(ish) - Walk directly to the Vineyard. - Davian Martikov (Urwin's dad) greets us and beckons us towards the treeline outside the Vineyard. There you meet members of his family: *Davian Adrian, his eldest son Elvir, his youngest son Stefania, his adult daughter Dag Tomescu, Stefania’s husband* They say there's a bunch of evil druids that have taken over the vineyard using plants that move and attack. - Scarecrows, Bush Blights, and Druids arrived, drove off Davian and his people and poisoning the vats. Not sure how many attackers there were. Davian guessed they were a circle of druids from a place called Yester Hill. Davian & Co. tried to counterattack but were driven off. |
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