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====== Flaming Skulls ======

==== Curse of Strahd ====

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Session 36 – 2021-09-19

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Session Summary

We start this session in a room, with a chalice or pitcher in Rinn’s mage hand, lifted slightly above the pedestal it had been resting on, in a room with animal bone piles along the outer wall all around the room. Three flaming skulls rose around the room, floating there, as guardians of the artifact it appeared, preparing to strike the would-be thieves. The fight starts with Rinn casting a long strider spell on Dain to grant him additional movement. Then he moves to a location where he can hide and strike from. Then came the fireballs, three in total, the first of which caught the party clustered still and all were caught in it. Haldar moved away from the group and struck at the skull in the back corner with multiple shots, Snoggly threw out magic missiles hitting all three of them, and Zanfyr transformed into an Elk and charged to the skull that sent the first fireball. 

The second fireball hit and that’s when Kyanna broke away from the group. She cast a spell that allowed her to use her bonus action the apply some healing to anyone within 30 feet of her. She promptly healed herself of some of the damage she had taken. The third fireball went off then, taking down Snoggly, Adrian, and Rinn. Misty moved to attack the one in the back corner of the room and finished it off. Dain moved to the one no one had struck yet but was unable to strike, having had to move so far to get to him. Haldar took out the first skull and then fired on the skull Dain moved to. Misty moved to that one as well and attacked. It went down. Everyone moved back to the fallen to administer healing. All were revived, and Kyanna used her spell to administer healing every round for a while.

Rinn, still holding the chalice, had everyone leave the room in case his moving it again causes more of the skulls to attack. It didn’t and he moved it to himself. It had a top and a spout and was full of a liquid. In testing it, he found it to contain water. Snoggly identified it as a decanter of endless water. It could present regular water or salt water. It had multiple modes of dispersion. Zanfyr is holding that now. We left this room and made our way back to the main room where Misty noticed something we had missed. She moved to investigate and found a doll of an elk with it’s intestines hanging out. It also bore the inscription, “Is no Blentski, Is no fun!”. That person made some really sick toys. Misty searched it for anything hidden inside and found nothing. No one wanted to keep it so we left it.

We made our way out! From the top of the hill, Rinn sent Boo out on a scouting mission around the hilltop covering each of lower levels. He was to look for humanoids patrolling and found no one. We made our way back to the Winery and let Davian and the rest know about what happened. We spent a little time and got in a full rest. The party has a nice breakfast and heads to Krezk.

When they get about 4 miles past the bridge and still a good way towards the city, we set up in our tiny hut and rest again. Before the rest, Dain took out the Tome of Strahd and read some more on it. After a couple of hours, he turned in as well. That night, he had one of his, very vivid dreams.

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This is the sequence that Dain envisioned..
 
Opening voice:
At my advisors’ behest, I called for my remaining family, long unseated from their ancient thrones, and brought them here to settle in the castle I built for them. From this plea came a younger brother of mine, Sergei, nearly grown. I had never known him."
 
Dain stands on the side of a high-back, wooden throne atop a marble dais. Strahd beside you, donning a scarlet red tunic with glimmering gold clasps and a black cape flowing over his shoulders. A hall extends thirty feet ahead. Various guards and well-adorned nobility form an aisle, and the crowd is abuzz with hushed voices, and the attending crowd is illuminated by a towering, stained-glass window in the far corner depicting a cerulean and gold sunrise.
 
The murmurs of the hall are quieted by the groan of heavy wooden doors parting. A procession of marching footsteps and the fanfare of trumpets precede a beautiful man with wavy black hair, kind eyes, and a warming smile leading a group of a dozen people into the chamber. He approaches boldly, confidently, draped in the familiar robes of the Morninglord. A gilded, radiant sword rests at his hip. The hilt of the weapon is so finely crafted that you would not be faulted for believing it was made of pure light. He drops to a knee before the throne.
 
Announcement:
Welcome Sergei von Zarovich, second son of King Barov and Queen Ravenovia, Awakened son of the Morninglord, to our Castle Ravenloft. The keep’s splendors and comforts are yours.’ Sergei rises to his feet. Strahd rises in turn and steps down the marble stairs, standing half a foot taller than his younger brother. He reaches to shake his guest’s hand, but as their forearms meet, Sergei pulls his brother in for a hug. Strahd steps back and pronounces, loud enough for the room to hear: ‘It is good to have you, brother. Come, let us celebrate.’
 
 
The Chapel Garden:
You feel a gentle breeze brush your cheek. The earthy smell of fresh grass brings spring and summer warmth to your soul. The embrace of the sun wraps around you, but your serene focus is broken by raucous cheering. Three sets of tiered benches have been constructed around a ring of dirt, and two guests currently stand at its center in studded armor and with their weapons drawn. Forty feet ahead of you are two wrought iron gates that lead to an overlook. Even from this distance, you can see the snowcaps of far off mountain ranges to the east.
 
 
The exhibition match:
Sergei’s sword flies down, nearly chopping Strahd in half from the crown, but the Lord raises his sword in time to leave an inch’s gap between steel and skull. Sergei dips back, narrowly evading his brother’s red, black, and gold parrying dagger. He props up, tossing his own parrying dagger into a reverse grip and tilting his short sword not like a noble in a duel but a teenager in a street brawl. Strahd’s eyes survey Sergei’s sloppy stance, and in a flurry of black cloth, he dives to an opening on his left before feigning right with the ritual dagger. The young von Zarovich stumbles but manages to catch his brother’s arm batting the dagger away just as the point scratches his armor. Back on his feet, Sergei brings his blade around in broad sweep across his body and spins frantically toward his target. Strahd parries the obvious attack with ease, but the Dervish twirls mask the dagger that nearly finds the elder’s throat. Strahd moves into the whirling blades like a dancer twirling in tandem with a partner, pulling his neck back enough to avoid the fine steel edge, and forcing his brother to overstep. He stands swiftly upright, his blade held straight, the point pressed gently to the base of Sergei’s skull. They lower their weapons and bow. The crowd erupts. They look out over the people. Sergei waves enthusiastically, an enormous smile is plastered on his exuberant face, and hardly a drop of sweat breaks on his forehead. Strahd, drenched in sweat, blots his face with a black kerchief, and waves out of obligation. His penetrating eyes snap briefly in his brother’s direction, cutting more harshly than his longsword ever could.
 
Closing Voice
"He was handsome and youthful. I hated him for both."

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The next morning, Dain found he had gained the ability to cast Mage Armor as a ritual! They started off towards town again. The guards at the gate were not any that our party had encountered before and were reluctant to let us in. We finally got them to fetch the Baron Dimitri Krezkov who welcomed us in, after passing the werewolf test of course. We went to his house and caught him up on everything that had happened, about Argynvosthold, Baba Lysaga, getting the skull returned to the tower at the keep, and the light re-activating. That sparked interest as they could see the light from there and it lifted the spirits of the people around there. He hadn’t known it was us that got it going until now. Dain did ask if he, his town of Krezk, could aid in the reconstruction of the keep. He would never commit to anything except to say, we could hire some people to go down and work on the project.

The Baron explains that Krezk is having its own issues. People are missing and believed to have been taken by White Claw. They are experiencing a food shortage. He tells us where some of the attacks have taken place. The missing include Merric, a Blacksmith in training, who went missing 3 nights ago. When the town searched his house, they found signs of a struggle which included claw marks and blood. They followed tracks of his that went north along the wall until the went over the wall. That was the second attack. The first attack happened near the shrine which is a lake area on the North side of town. There we had Harkuss and Lavinia Antinova. Lavinia was slain and outright devoured. Harkuss is missing. Tracks lead to the north wall and the disappear.  

We agree to go after White Claw as-soon-as we finish checking in on the Abbott. When we asked him about the Abbott, he hadn’t seen him in a while and didn’t know the status at the Abby. We took off for the Abby and when we got there, we were greeted my Otto and Zygfrek. They were reluctant to let us in but we entered anyway and bullied them into letting the Abbott know we are here. They do finally go tell the Abbott we are here and he has them send us in. He greeted us and we talked for a bit. Vasilka, the woman the Abbott made for Strahd was still there and when we asked about how the meeting went. We found out that Strahd didn’t come but sent Commander Rahadin in his place. Rahadin told the Abbott that there was still work to be done before she would be ready for Strahd. The face was still mostly missing. 

The Abbott had a dream, and in his vision, he saw a beautiful woman whose face would be perfect. He did not know anything about her except that her name was Ireena. A couple of us failed to hide our recognition of the name and then tried to lie our way out of it. We successfully stalled him and then Snoggly changed the subject. After a while, the conversation came back to Ireena but by then we were comfortable in our deception, and he never caught on to us again.

The Abbott wanted to show us something and had us follow him out of the temple and pointed South East to the bright light that shown. He started exclaiming how to the Morning Lord shown his light on he land. We explained that the light is from the Skull of Argynvost that had ben restored to the tower in his home. He was astonished and asked how we knew to do that. We explained that Argynvosts essence was still in his home and with his last power, he appeared to us and explained that we needed to return his skull to his home, to the tower specifically. He didn’t know where his skull was but while we were out, and in the general direction of the swamps, we ran into Baba Lysaga and she was riding in the skull. Once we defeated her and returned the skull to Argynvosthold, it rose to it’s rightful home and became the great light that he sees now. 

We asked if Rahadin came before or after the light came back on, he said that Strahds commander was here and gone before the light began to shine.