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Session Summary
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Session Details
We picked up in a battle with werewolves and dire wolves. All of the enemy are visible now and we’re just polishing of the last. We started killing the final two werewolf’s and then set about cleaning up the dire wolfs. Zanfyr’s moonbeam polished off one of the werewolf’s and he moved it to another. Dain removed one of the dire wolves from battle by pushing it into the pit that Misty made last week. Kyana sent her spiritual weapon into the pit to start killing off those in there. Once the remaining wolves above ground were killed, Snoggly and Rinn started throwing firebolts into the pit to finish off the last of the dire wolves.
We applied a little healing to Misty and divided up experience points. We quickly searched the bodies out here and found little. The older man has a flute but that was all we found. Rinn starts moving into the cave. There was a campfire on the western side with gnawed bones in a file near by it. There were some steps moving to a raised level. Rinn was hearing a child crying. We moved towards the sound, up onto the raised level.
From there we could see a little room along the western end of the northern wall, and a set of stairs going down and into another chamber in the northeast corner. In the room, we could see a bed and a chest but little else. From the chamber though, we could hear the child crying. Rinn moved towards that room. Misty moved up stairs and towards the room with the bed and chest. Dain moved up behind Rinn. Ezmerelda and Haldar move to the campfire area to search it. The others were staying near the entrance.
Misty finds a nice bed, a chest, and a curtain over part of the wall at the back of the room. Haldar finds a pouch with some gold in it and a fur covered tube. After some thinking, he, Ezmerelda, and Kyana ascertained that it probably held the flute at one time. Rinn moves further into the northeast chamber and spots cages, some small, some larger. As he steps into the room, he is looking toward an area he can’t see until he gets in there. From this area, he is set upon by a werewolf. Dain had moved to near the top of the stairs when it happened.
The werewolf attacks and misses. Rinn returns the attack and hits her, moves around to the opposite side to assist Dain in a flanking maneuver, and calls out, “Found one!”. Initiative dice were thrown and the fight continued on. From one of the cages, a female voice calls out, “No stop, don’t hurt her!”. Misty ran to the battle and came up behind the werewolf. She hit it. Rinn asked, “Why shouldn’t we kill it?”. Haldar moves closer but is not in a position to hit. Dain moes up and uses his shield to push her away from us. There is also a man in a cage and he is also yelling, “No…No!”. Rinn moves closer and holds his attack. He says, “Stop fighting us!”. Kyana begins moving towards the battle. Snoggly moves closer to the fight. The sound of crying is getting much louder. Zanfyr also moves closer as well. The werewolf does a backward leap as she moves away from us. The man calls out, “Zuleika, show them who you are! Stop it!”. Rinn says, “Everyone stop, lets calm down!”. Misty see that there are seven cages, five of them occupied. One with the man, one with the woman, and three smaller cages with two of them occupied with children and one of them has what appears to be a teenage male. He is standing at the edge of the cage looking out. There is also a standing wooden statue of a wolf headed woman draped in vines and night flowers with coins and gemstones piled around the base of it.
Misty asks, “Why shouldn’t we kill it, everyone else has attacked us?”. Ezmerelda moves to attack and Misty tried to grab her but was unable to. Ezmerelda did score a hit but not a bad one. Haldar moves on up and holds his action to see what happens and puts his hunters mark on her. Dain moves between Ezmerelda and the werewolf, quietly telling the werewolf, “If you attack me here, I will kill you!“. Ezmerelda in incensed by this yelling, “It’s a werewolf, are you mad!”. Dain tells her, “We are going to pause until we know why they think we shouldn’t kill her!”. Rinn moves up and asks, of the people in the cages, “Why shouldn’t we kill it?”. Kyana, begins looking at the children in the cages. Snoggly and Zanfyr move closer and hold their actions, waiting to see how this progresses.
The werewolf takes a couple of steps back and changes into a human woman. The woman in the cage behind her is emaciated and keeps saying, “No..no..no, don’t hurt Zuleika!”. The guy chimes in with, “She’s not like the others!”. Kyana asks, “What do you mean, she’s not like the others?”. He says, “She’s not blood thirsty like the other wolves!”. Kayana asks, “What do you mean? Has she been helping you out?”. They tell us that yes, she has been helping us. They then begin telling us what has been going on.
Kiril is the leader of this pack. He likes to go out, capture travelers, especially children if he can find them! He likes to torture them. He introduces himself as Haliq of House Wachter. He says that like we should know who he, or the house, is. We try to explain that we are new here and have little knowledge of the people and the politics. He says Vallaki, which elicits a burst of disgust from a boy in a neighboring cage as he repeats the name Vallaki with contempts on his lips and then spits at the man. He then says the name Fiona Wachter as if we should know it. We didn’t remember her name at the time.
Dain remembers the name, Wachter, is all through the tome of Strahd but no mention of Fiona. The name was a prominent name in the region from when Strahd came to conquer this area. Misty remembers meeting a couple of guys in the Blue Water Inn, that were drinking and having a good time, who’s last names were Wachter! They also seemed surprised that she didn’t know their name! Haliq tells us that Fiona Wachter is very influential and wealthy and would reward us well if we released him, but you also must release her. When Kyana asked who she was, Haliq told us Annaka. They stretch out to reach each other.
Kyana asks who the children are. The teen we are told is Laslo and the mechanical thing, they don’t know anything about, and the younger child is Kellin, who Zuleika was able to calm down. Annaka tell us that Zuleika was charged with guarding us. Kiril had Zuleiak starve her. Kiril was starving her as part of an experiment. When asked, about the experiment, Annaka turned into a werewolf. Dain’s first thought was that Kiril had turned them but Haliq set him straight, Annaka was born this way. She changes back. She tells us that the experiment was to find out if a werewolf could starve to death. Zuleika has been feeding her, just enough to not give it away that she is feeding her. When asked what she ate, Goat meat, not people meat.
Kiril like purity! When Haliq and Annaka fell in love, Kiril could stand it. Annak is not alloed to associate with humans and when they found out about Haliq, he captured him and stuck him in here as well. Haliq is human. Snoggly asks what the difference is between the natural werewolf and those that have been turned. We are told the natural can control their change where those that were turned cannot. Dain, untrusting soul that he is, tests Haliq wby pricking his hand. Haliq does bleed. Dain moves on to Laslo. As he approaches, Laslo asks if we’ve seen a Vistani girl in any of these chambers. Dain replies that we haven’t yet. He pricks Laslo and he does bleed.
He moves on to the other boy, and discovers that he isn’t a boy. He is a 4-foot tall, mechanical figure, that looks something like a court Jester. He has the hat with bells on it and the puffy suit. The face is kind of mechanical with a stretched skin over it. It has eyes with this soot around it to make the eyes stand out. He has the shoes with the curly toes on them. We begin to wonder if it is something that came from the Abby. As Dain approaches it, it begins to mime. It apparently can’t talk. He does a little dance in the cage.
Misty approaches Haldar during all of this and tells him of the curtain in the other chamber. With the mentioning of the missing girl, they decide to go investigate. The curtain was crafter of skin. Misty moves to the curtain and listens and Haldar moves to the other side. They don’t hear anything. Haldar uses a dagger to pull back the curtain and they find a passage that moves up some stairs. It’s totally dark. They start up the stairs and move about 30 feet, it rises steadily and they guess they’ve gone up about 30 feet as well. It makes a turn and continues upward maybe another 30-40 feet. It appears the path is well travelled.
Back to Dain, Kyana and the weird little mechanical boy. They try to get information out of it but it doesn’t speak. When Dain asks if anyone else knows anything about this creature, Zuleika tells us that he comes from the castle. That gets a few raised eyebrows. Kiril caught him in the forest and brought him here. When asked about which castle he comes from , Zuleika looks at him as if he should know and replies, “His!”. Ezmerelda moves over to look at it and after examining it, says, “Piddlewick?”. It continues to mime agreement with the name.
Ezmerelda examines some more and says, no, you can’t be Piddlewick! She says, “Piddlewick has been dead for years!”. The creature continues to mime ithat it is in fact Piddlewick. Ezmerelda tells us that Piddlewick was not a construct. Dain suggest that someone has made a construct and put Piddlewicks spirit or essence inside of it. The contruct points to Dain nodding his head and whole heartedly agreeing with him. We asked if he knew the Abbot, thinking that maybe this is some bizarre new oddity that came from there but he indicates that he doesn’t know the Abbot. While trying to figure out who made him we Ezmerelda offered the name Von Weerg as a possibility as is was a famous toy maker to the king and Piddlewick does appear to be a toy. Piddlewick nods enthusiastically at the name!
Piddlewick shakes the door indicating he wants to be let out. Dain says he doesn’t see any reason that we can’t let him out. Snoggly offers him whiskey and piddlewick seems excited to try some. Snoggly pours a little in a shot glass which Piddlewick drinks quickly. It goes in and comes out on the floor beneath him. He mimes satisfaction at the taste. Rinn proceeds to pick the lock and it was very easy. After the fact, Zuleika then hands him the key. Piddlewick does a couple of cartwheels across the floor. Not to be shown up, Kyana does one as well.
Ezmerelda watches this and tells us that Piddlewick was a small sort of person that was the jester at the castle and favored of Tatyana, she really loved him. Somewhere along the way, Piddlewick died in an accident and Tatyana was very upset of it. We quizzed him and he answered through mime that he was brought here after being captured by the werewolves while he was in the woods. He was hiding in the woods from the wolves. Rinn proceeds to let the rest out of the cages.
Zuleika indicates that though we have killed all of the werewolves here now, we have not killed them all. Kiril and about 12 others are out hunting. She suggests that we leave before they come back. She turns to Kellin, the 10 year old and says, “Show them!”. He transforms into a child sized werewolf and then transforms back. Zuleika says she needs to tell us more but that we need to leave this place first. Dain suggest that maybe we should pick a place here to defend. She tells us that Kiril and his second in command are much stronger and much larger than what we have faced so far.
Meanwhile, Misty and Haldar make their way up and eventually come to and end. There is a door there, not necessarily concealed, anyone can see it but it’s natural and blends in with the surrounding rock. As Haldar opens the door, you can see that it opens onto a ledge on the side of a cliff. From here, you can see the path we took to get here and can even see the tower, shrouded in mists. There is a ring of stone, about a 20-foot radius. Around the ring at stones that look like places to sit. Haldar speculates that it is a meeting area for the pack.
Out near the edge, Haldar looks down and though there is no path, he figures he could climb his way up here or down if necessary. He’s not sure about the reason for the circle but it looks like it could be where the council meets. Misty notes discoloration which they attribute to being blood. Not blood from a sacrifice but from something that rested here for a time. They turn back and as they pass back through the chamber before the curtain, Misty moves to open the chest in that room. She find a potion, 50 gold pieces, a shrunken head, a wolf tooth and a plush toy that looks like a werewolf. There is a tag on the toy that reads, “Is no fun, is no Blinksy!”. They return to the rest of the party and tell us what we they found.
Zuleinka tells us that at one time, it was the council chamber. Kiril bastardized it. She explains that Emille believed in a natural process to grow their clan. Believe it or not, people do seek us out and try to become one of us. She tells us that generally, this clan don’t attack people, except those coming through the mist. They mostly live off farm animals, livestock, and animals like that. Kiril believed in a more aggressive approach. He would take people up to the ring, pair them off, and have death matches. He believed that would give him a strong stock with which to infect with Lycanthropy therefore insuring their survival as a pack.
Emille, who should have been pack leader, believed in growing by birth of natural werewolves, like Kellin, or through those that sought us out. They sought out the heightened senses and the naturally longer life. Annaka was a test to see how long we would live without food. They had starved Annaka for about 3 months. Zuleinka said that she couldn’t stand it and had to intervene. Kiril is ruthless, merciless, and powerful. They select their pack leader through ritual combat. Kiril defeated Emille. They had their political differences in how the tribe was supposed to work, and then one day, Emille was disappeared, to a little too much of Kiril’s delight. She also tells us that Emille is her husband and that she would like our help finding him.
Zanfyr remembered the were wolf sighted in Krezk, White Claw, and mentioned that to her. She knew of White Claw, part of his muzzle was bitten off. White Claw was a particularly vicious werewolf that only ate human flesh. As a result, he was tossed out of his clan and formed a new tribe of his own. They operate around Krezk. She tells us that they keep an eye on him. Zuleika reminds us that Kiril and his party will return when they are done hunting which could be anytime. We debate it and decide that the tower is our next best bet for a place to defend. Piddlewick comes up to Rinn and indicates that he needs a weapon, or two. Snoggly gives him the silver dagger and Rinn gives him a regular dagger edged in silver. He danced around simulating sticking and jabbing.
Laslo moved up to Ezmerelda and ask if she was Vistani. She indicate that she was once, but no longer. He tells her about Arabelle and how they were captured. He asked if Ezmerelda knew of a way to find her. He tells her that Kiril sold her. We remembered that in Vallaki, the Baron doesn’t allow Vistani into the city, he hates them and believe they are all in league with Strahd. Arabelle would, sometimes, sneak into the city and they had become good friends. One night, they were caught by the guard and taken to the Baron who had them taken to the reformation house. He explained it as a place where peoples attitudes were adjusted with negative reinforcement, or better yet, a re-education camp. If you defied the guard, you ended up in the stocks, dead, or in the reformation house.
They were told to dispose of Arabelle and take me to the reformation house. They took us both to the reformation house and the next night, they came and got us. We exited the town, and around only about a mile or so outside the city, they had arranged to meet this Kiril. We were sold to him for 10 pieces of silver. When Kiril discovered who she was, he did not want a Vistania. Vistania were not suitable for the pack and they were imbued with powers and he didn’t want to risk drawing the ire of the Vistani. He in turned sold her to a dunken lout. Snoggly assured us it was not him! Laslo described the purchaser as big, fat, bearded man with a bald head. He paid 50 gold pieces for her, gave her something to drink, put her in a bag, and threw her into the back of a cart and rode off into the night.
We tried to determine if that might have been the person in Vallaki that we heard, picked up the bones of Saint Andral. That guy was skinny and didn’t really fit the description of this man. We thought some more and named some possible people but decided it didn’t match the Abboty, or the Burgormaster in Krezk. Ezmerelda asked where this happened and then asked if it was near the Vistani camp. He wasn’t supposed to know about that Vistani camp but she assured him that it would be okay to tell her. He said, “Yes, near the Vistani camp!”. Now we know there is a second Vistani camp that we didn’t know about before.
As we discuss this, we realize that we need to go. Ezmerelda and Haldar take off. Rinn stays somewhere between them and the main party keeping a message spell open to Haldar. Misty went back to pilfer the items around the statue. When she reaches for them, she gets a sensation of, don’t touch these. She just can’t give up on the idea of taking these. She used her staff to swish around the coins and push some out. Then she picked it up, without any problems. After that, she went for all 300 or so pieces of gold. Piddlewick danced around simulating stabbing air. He seems to be pretty quiet. Ezmerelda asks Haldar if he wouldn’t like to stay and kill them. He felt we should be moving on. We started off and make it to the edge of the area.
Zuleika tells us that when they hunt, they like to take separate paths and step on stones where they can, in order to hide their passing. She suggested that we try to do the same but Rinn says, that will likely slow us down quite a bit and maybe speed would be more helpful here. We decided to go with speed but Misty has a trick up her sleeve. She has everyone gather within 30 feet of her and casts Pass without a trace using the last of her Ki points. For the next hour, we moved at normal pace leaving behind no trace of our passing and made good time. Annaka, Zuleika, and the child transformed into the wolf form, not the were wolf form, and were able to move very quietly.
After about an hour, the pel wears off and she is unable to extend it any further. We keep going and do pretty well, and soon come to the lake. The tower is in plain site now. We continue on with Rinn and Dain taking the rear. Miss Debbie is not happy with the toy, Piddlewick latching on to Kyana! He is still playing with a dagger and she gets him to put it away. We continue on to the causeway. As we move onto the causeway, the rest of us slow down while Kyana moves up to open the door. Dain and Rinn keep everyone busy looking behind us to make sure no one is sneaking up behind us. Rinn maintains a message spell with her so she can let us know when to move up. Once the door is open, she alerts him and the rest move forward to go in.
Kyana, Haldar, and Rinn go upstairs to get the suite of armor to bring down to the first floor for additional defense. Haldar clears some of the arrow slits/windows so we can look out for the coming attack. Everyone else is getting ready downstairs. Archers move to the fourth floor. Melee fighters wait on the first floor. Kyana has the armor statue stand in front of the door and guard it. The werewolves stay outside, the tower seems to scare them. We try to convince them to come inside to be better protected within. The place exudes evil and they are too scared to come in. They opt to move behind the tower and stay outside. She seems to think they will avoid the tower. We’ll rest.
Piddlewick goes up to the fourth floor by climbing the chains. Once there, a box is pushed up to window and he is given a light crossbow to fire. As we ready ourselves, Ezmerelda assures us that they don’t hunt in the daytime. We opt to rest to make sure we are prepared. Misty and Rinn split the watches.
Dain, during his rest, the book opens before him to a blank page and the mist begins to pour from the spine. He feels lightheaded and the man in black cloak and the regal red tunic look at me with a stern face and piecing eyes. He steps toward me again, with the grace of a king. He says, “I was the warrior, I was good and just, and I thundered across the land like the wrath of a just God! The mist coalesces again into the dusk elf he saw in the previous chapter, not aged a day.
The chatter of voices and the clanking of metal sing from outside the walls of an enormous tent. The tents primary occupant is a colossal rectangular table top in which is carve and intricate scale map of Barovia. The Maul Mountains climb to nearly 5 feet in the air and it’s valleys sink deep into the table top. A voice directly to my right orders, “Commander Gwilym, the table is yours!”. The order was delivered by a man in his early thirties, with well-manicured, jet black, hair. His determined face is familiar to him. He does not appear dissimilar to that of a young boy that you met, at his home, one summer afternoon. Yet now he stands clad in scarlet armor, adorned with angelic feathers, etched into gold leaf.
The tent is about 20 feet around and about 12 feet tall. This vision feels so real! When I look over next to me, there is Kyana. She is looking at me as if to say confused, looking to Dain as if he had the answer as to what is going on, He does not! Neither speaks to the other. If Snoggly were here, he’d probably say something like, “See, that’s what happens when you get killed!”. Gwilym appears to be mapping out an assault. We here Strahd refer to an area as Zmei! On the map, we see a castle that sits on a cliff overlooking a valley. We hear Gwilym say, “The order of the silver dragon is proud and plans to fight rather than be starved out of their castle! As you see, the castles sits upon a cliff, overlooking the valley! The knights have nowhere to go but downward towards the village.”. He looks at Strahd and says, “The people of Zmei are commoners who will not stand in the way!”. Strahd says, “and will they be harmed!”. Gwilym replies, “We will do what we can to protect them!”. Strahd replies, “Good!”.
Gwilym says, “Commander Rahadin!”! The elf steps forward. Gwilym continues, “You will hold the base of the hill, and monitor the tree line to make sure we are not routed! I, will ride up the hill to challenge the remaining forces directly. Strahd will have command centers set up in the town!”. Rahadin looks back at Dain and Kyana. To Dain he says, “You, ide with me!”. He looks to Kyana and says, “You, Lieutenant, you ride with Gwilym! Is that understood!”. Both Kyana and Dain answer yes! Rahadin states, “Very good!”.
The Conversational chatter of the amp, as they go outside, builds to a roar, and in the blink of an eye, Dain and Kyana find themselves standing in the midst of a quant farming village! Many of its buildings now wreathed in flame. Dozens of soldiers adorned with Ravens, are locked in combat with knights in silver and blue armor. Strahd, sits atop a stocky black mare and points his blade forward and shouts, “Advance!”. As he does so, a javelin strikes his side, and he is knocked to the ground!
Ahead of Dain and Kyana, Rahadin and Alek begin galloping to their post, and they call to Dain, “Come! Advance!”. Gwilym and Kyana’s team head up the hillside. Dain’s team begins to disperse itself along the base of the hill. Above them is this castle! Dain, looking around, seeing that Strahd is down but a 100 feet or so from him, checking his weapons to see that he is armed, begins running toward Strahd.
As allies look at Dain, to throw them off, Dain shouts, “Oh my lord!”, feigning concern for his fallen leader! Kyana advances up the hill with her group. As Dain’s group is advancing and realizing that Dain is not with them, he hears voices behind him shouting, “This way lieutenant! Where are you going? This way!”. Dain shouts, “My lord has fallen! I must help!” as he keeps running toward Strahd.
While running toward him, Dain sees infantry men wearing silver armor and one priest coming the other way! They see Dain and some of his group and they rush to attack. The paladins wearing the Silver armor with a dragon crest on it, move forward on Dain. Dain keeps trying to fight his way past, and calls to a few of the enemy, “Come, we can end this now! Come!”. They seem blinded with their hatred calling out “Defiler! You burned our village!”. They continue coming at Dain and the cleric is casting spells!
Kyana’s group charges up the hill, and at the top, the commander of her group, Alek Gwilym, points and commands, “Slay that one first!”. He points to another guy that appears to be the leader of the group on top of the hill. Kyana sees them lining up large boulders and begin rolling them down the hill towards the advancing army coming up the hill. The commander on the hill calls down to the one who has called for his death and shouts, “Do not make me slay you my brother!”. Alek calls back, “Slay you, I must!”.
The battle continues in slow motion at this point! Dain keeps moving forward shouting, “Help me defeat the commander, he is down, Strahd is down!” as he tries to get these guys to react and to work with him, to see the possible end to the battle laying on the ground, just ahead. He feels the blades striking him, getting under his armor. He finally has to turn and take a couple of swipes just to get them off of him. Finally a few compatriots show up and join in the battle. As that battle escalates, Dain see some Vistani rush up to the fallen Strahd.
As Kyana gets further up the hill, her view of the situation seems to slow down as well. She has never fought in a war and there is not a battle raging around her. People are falling up the hills from her. These boulders are coming down and crushing people. She’s not really oriented to , these are the good guys and those are the bad guys so much. She just sees the rocks coming down and crushing people. She does her best to avoid the rocks. She sees Alek Gwilym charging up the hill. She makes it to the front line and starts to meet the resistance more directly and are locked blade to blade.
The battle continues, in slow motion, and Dain sees the Vistani begin to carry Strahd away. Strahd is clearly severely injured, the javelin sticking out of his chest. Suddenly, both Dain and Kyana look down and see the same vision. A river of blood, flowing down the enemies silver sword, lying idly in the mud. A divine cacophony of thunderous booms beat in their ear drums followed by a cold shiver that runs the length of their spines. The cold seems to emanate from the mansion high upon the hill. They hear a blood curdling roar through the air, silencing the battlefield. Everyone just stops as the ground vibrates from the sound of this thing. Their attention is drawn southward, the sun above reflects harshly off of the silver scales and claws as they crest the turrets of the castle. They gaze now, in full view, Argynvost, the Silver Dragon.
The mists envelope them again as they hear the voice of Strahd saying, “But the war years, and the killing years, wore down my soul, as the wind wears stone into sand!”. They both bolt awake stunned at what they just participated in. Kyana is on the fourth floor while Dain is on the first floor. They are unable, yet, to acknowledge that they each participated in a shared experience in reality. It all feels very real to them.
Dain gained the ability to cast unseen servant, as a ritual spell, once per dusk. Dain moves to the elevator and says, “Fourth floor!”. The elevator moves upward slowly.
Misty has bad dreams, so disturbing that in interrupts her rest. More about that next week.