We started as we were headed to the gate. We were challenged from within. When asked, we explained that we were escorting Ireena Kolyana, daughter of Burgomaster Ismark Kolyanovich of the Village of Barovia. She said she was seeking an audience with Baron Vargas Vallakovich. The gentlemen let her in but the rest of us had to submit to an inventory of our weapons. They didn’t confiscate them, but they wanted a list of what was here.

Once inside, they presented us with a list local rules along with the punishments should we break them. rules_of_vallaki This is going to be an interesting town. There were also many, many, mentioning’s of festivals. Apparently, that is a thing here. And you are required to attend. Joy and happiness must exist at all times.

Besides the oddities about the happiness and the festivals, the town is relatively normal. Plenty of people out doing their business. It was early evening, everyone seemed to be in relatively good spirits, sort of!

We begin making our way to the Burgomasters residence. As we are moving along, we come upon a large stockyard with several sheds along its periphery next to a warehouse. There is a sign above it with the name Arasek Stockyard. Parked at the south end of the stockyard is a sturdy carnival wagon. The paint is peeling off but the name painted on it is Rictavio's Carnival of Wonders. There is a heavy padlock on the door. This is also the general store. It’s a big shop. We noted it but opted to continue to the Burgomaster‘s residence.

We took the correct turns and came across a two story building with smoke issuing from the chimney and where several ravens were perched. The sign read the Blue Water Inn. There was activity inside. We also came across another of those posters. These posters talk of festivals coming up but it never says when they are going to happen.

We continued to our destination and eventually arrived there. The building does show it’s age and neglect with areas of plaster and stone that are scarred, windows that are covered with drapes. There were stacks of twigs in front of the house. There was another sign about the Festival of the Blazing Sun.

We walked up on the porch and knocked on the door. We are greeted by the maid, we let Irena introduce herself and the maid brought us in to a den. There are more twigs stacked by a fireplace.

When asked about it, the maid tells us that the twigs are for a giant sphere that will be built and burned for the Festival of the Blazing Sun. When asked about the Burgomaster, Ireena says that the family knows them but she’s not dealt with them before. She’s never heard anything bad about them. Baron Vargas Vallakovich enters the room and spots Ireena and welcomes her and then us. When asked, Ireena explains why she was sent here. Rinn and Misty move around the room looking at the pictures and artifacts while the Burgomaster talks.

Irena tells him of her father’s death and burial, of her brother sending her here with us to protect her from the Devil. During the conversation, a huge Mastiff dog comes into the room and sits next to the Baron. Misty seems a little leery of the dog when a second comes in and sits as well. Misty moves to the back of the room to put some distance between her and the dogs. She starts to disguise herself but doesn’t get very far along with it. He offers refreshments and Dain takes him up on it.

The Baron ask Ireena about us and she told him we had come from outside the area. Dain gives a little bit of a backstory of himself and that we all arrived in this area mysteriously at around the same time. We found out that the Festival of the Blazing sun will be in a few days. The Wolf’s Head Jamboree was held recently. He tells us that if we go down to the square, we can still see the wolf’s heads mounted on pikes. When asked about the festivals, he mentioned that there are many fine entertainers scattered about the area and people enjoying the festivities. It’s a joyous time. It helps fend off the Devil. They believe the wall and the joy keeps the Devil at bay. He says they have had no trouble form the Devil.

He invited us to be special guests at the next festival, to be introduced as the people that brought the Daughter of the Burgomaster of Barovia to here to be kept safe. That would further bolster the idea that Vallaki is a safe place to be. The question came up about where Ireena would stay, He said she could stay there or possibly the Church of St. Andral, as they have an even safer location. If Father Lucian Petrovich had a place for her, she might could stay there. St. Andral is the only person in the land to have successfully staved of the Devil. His church is consecrated ground where the Devil may not go.

As we were leaving to head back to the tavern, we each passed Vargas and as Misty came by him, he noticed her finally and was a little surprised. He asked her about her appearance and Misty explained she was Tabaxi and this is not a curse but a race. Ireena vouched for her. He questioned her some about where she was from which brought up a question from Rinn about the mist. What happens if you try to go back through the mist? Have people tried? Does he know anyone that has tried and come back? He said that people had tried but they came back, usually very ill and sometimes dragging their dead. He said that there is a rumor that the Devil’s servants can do it. He didn’t know anyone specific that had tried to leave.

There was the question of payment for the escort service. Vargas took care of the 50 gps per person.

We made our way back to the Blue Water Inn. We got dinner and then rooms. We saw someone enter the room with a lot of flare. We found out his name is Rictavio. He’s a story teller. Apparently fairly popular. A lady from the bar, Danika came over to see if we enjoyed our meal. She and her husband own the place. Started quizzing us a little about what we do. Told her we were adventurers. There were a couple of kids that she pointed out to us, they are her children, Brom and Bray. She returned to the bar. We turned in.

The next morning, we returned to the common area and got some breakfast. We saw the gentleman that we think may be the other owner, Urwin. We finally left and made our way west to the temple. We found another poster and yet another. We eventually came to a structure that was centuries old with a graveyard next to it. There is a light mist over the grounds. We head up to the door and into the church. This structure does look very much like the church in Barovia. There were fresh graves with grave stones. The graveyard is larger than Barovia’s graveyard. There didn’t appear to be anything out of the ordinary though.

The inside also mirrored the Barovia church. Church pews and an area with bunks and extra bedding. A priest was talking with a person in the area of the bunks. Kyana walked up to them and listened. The woman got assurances that she and her child could return that evening and would be safe. She left with her child steering wide of all of us. Lucian Petrovich introduced himself as a priest of the Morning Lord. Kyana introduced herself as also a priest of the Morning Lord. He recognized, by the tan, that we came from outside of Barovia.

Snoggly asked about the bastard on the hill which sparked a discussion between he and Kyana about Snoggly's status with the Morning Lord. It was decided that Kyana would keep working on Snoggly as far as that goes. Snoggly asked about attendance in the church. The Father said that attendance was pretty good in the evenings, about 20 or 30 or so, but they weren’t there to worship but more for the protection of Saint Andral. Snoggly asked if the Bastard on the hill ever came here. The father says he has never seen him here. It’s said that he hasn’t been here in well over a hundred years. When Kyana asked why they don’t seem to be troubled by the Devil. He said we have walls, and joy, apparently that’s enough to keep him out. None of us bought that. Rinn asked about this Saint Andral he mentioned earlier.

He told us the story of Saint Andral and that 400 years ago, when the devil went from being mortal to becoming the devil. Then he back tracked to explain that the creatures that are like him, have the ability to manipulate your mind, to force you to grant them what they wish, to feast upon you or to enter your residence, even to enter your sanctified location. It is here that Saint Andral, when no one else could withstand him, Saint Andral was able to resist his charms. Because of that, the devil was never able to enter this place.

When Saint Andral died, his bones were interred beneath the church. He pointed back to the pulpit area and said, as long as his bones are here, the devil may not enter. Apparently, Rinn asked, you have to invite him in before he is allowed to enter your home? Yes, but then again, he can simply force you through his will to invite him in anyway. Even if he gets into Vallaki, he cannot enter the church because of the bones of Saint Andral. It’s the only place in Barovia that he can’t enter as far as Father Lucian knows.

Kyana begins prayers. The Father asks if the rest of us are heathens! Dain explains that he follows Clangeddin, Lord of the Twin Axes. He also pointed out that there are probably no churches to the Father of Battle in this cursed land. As he understands it, there are so few dwarves here that he was looked upon as an oddity. Lucian told him that rumors have it that there were once dwarves in the mountains south of here called Ghakis. There were once dwarves there but if they are still there, no one has seen them for a long time. From here, it’s a couple of days south of Vallaki. A frozen area.

Lucian sees the Elves and says there aren’t many Elves here either, except the Dusk Elves (Grey Elves). They live among the servants of the devil. Snoggly asks if there is an Orphanage around here. Father Lucian points it out on a map. Snoggly asks if this is where they keep people that lose their minds. He said no, that’s for the children that have lost their parents. They don’t keep the psychiatric patients there. We don’t have those people here. Krezk has Saint Markovia, which has an area like that.

Vargas Vallakovich put in place the whole thing about being happy and joyfull. His father wasn’t like that. He was very strict where Vargas is…well..less strict. Vargas took over when his father died. Vargas was 20 at the time. Kyana asked how old he is now, Lucian told us that he is in his late 30’s. Rinn asked if the devil used to attack before Vargas took over and the father said again, that the Devil hasn’t been here for, at least, 100 years. Father Lucian says that he has seen no evidence of the devil visiting in his lifetime. He is 55 years old. Rinn asked if he believed that the “All will be well” festivals is keeping the devil away or is that just a coincidence. The Father replied, in a very upbeat voice, “Yes, the festivals and the walls are keeping him away. What else could it possibly be?”. As we hear him say that, it sounds a little sarcastic.

A little boy enters the room, about 10 years old, looks like he is maybe an alter boy or something. The boy asks if there is anything else the Father needs him to do and Lucian told him no, that he can go play for a while. As the boy trotted off, he stopped and turned to ask if the Father had asked us about it. He told the boy, no, we are new to the town. He tells the boy to move along. Rinn says, if there is something you need of us please ask. He suggests that he a Kyana speak alone. It was at this time that the Elf needed to pee. I think it’s the first time in D&D that a character has actually gone to the bathroom, or chamber pot as it turns out.

He and Kyana moved off to talk outside, behind the church. The little boy is out there playing off in the distance. The Father told her that the bones have been stolen. He hasn’t told anyone for fear of starting a panic. He is afraid that without the bones, that they may be vulnerable now. He suggested that we looked like we are a pretty sturdy band of travelers, and if she is truly a priestess of the Morning Lord, that perhaps we could help him locate them.

Kyana asks when they went missing. He told her they disappeared about 5 days ago. He does have a bit of a lead in Yeska, the young boy. When the bones disappeared, very few people knew where they were. All knew they were in the church but they were hidden and no one knew where. Yeska knew where the bones were because the Father made the mistake of telling him once. As far as he knew, Yeska was the only other person who knew where the bones were.

Lucian asked Yeska about it and as he cried, knowing he had done something wrong, he said he had told Milivoj, a young man from the orphanage. He is about 18 or 19 years old and serves as the grave digger. Lucian went to see Milivoj as he hadn’t seen him for a couple of days, they had their last burial about 4 days ago. That was the last time he had seen Milivoj here. When next he saw him, he was bedridden and doesn’t speak as if in some sort of coma. He seems oblivious to everything around him and doesn’t eat. Basically, he is dying. He may be the only person to where the bones may be.

Kyana asked about seeing the location where the bones had been, but the area has been repaired and though they could tear it up again, there really isn’t anything there. The boards that were pried up were burned but he did note that they had been pried up with something flat, like a shovel, like that which would be used by a grave digger. That points even more to Milivoj.

He asked if she thought we would be interested in helping him. He didn’t have much to offer in payment. He suggested that maybe he could pay us through services, like healing and such. Kyana said she would take it up with the group. She told us in private about this explaining what he had told her.

This is when we tempted fate with Covid by talking about it. I even said I wasn’t worried about it. The next day we came in contact with it and all got it. Stupid Dave! Stupid Murphy’s Law.

We decided to help. She told the Father that we were going to look into it. He asked us to be discreate about it. He gave us a letter to introduce us to miss Belasco and asking her to let us see Milivoj. If we find the bones, we don’t have to bring them back, just find them and he’ll gather them and bring them back.

Rinn suggested that possibly the grave digger may have buried them in one of the recent graves. Outside of the church making it vulnerable but not toting them around anywhere making it much harder to find them. Kyana suggested that he may have taken them to the orphanage to protect it. Snoggly suggested that if we can heal him and wake him that we can ask him if he took them and what he did with them.

We made our way to the orphanage with our letter to Claudia Belasco. The letter stated that we were to investigate Milivoj’s condition and he would like us to have full access to the orphanage. If we need to, allow us access to the residents there and allow us access to their rooms if we need to search them. We have his blessing to do so. If she has any concerns, she can contact him.

There were some kids playing out front when we arrived at the orphanage. We passed through the gate and knocked on the front door. I child opened the door. And said, “Hey”. Kyana talked to him. The child seemed to have a problem with the name Kyana so he renamed her Mrs. K. He closed the door and she knocked again. The same child answered with the familiar, “Hey”. Miss Belasco, a.k.a. Miss Witch, came up behind him asking who was at the door. A scary woman for sure.

Kyana introduced herself and presented the letter. She explained that we were sent to help with the Milivoj. Apparently, his condition hadn’t changed. She also let us know there was a death over night, Sedric. Seemingly an accident from falling down the stairs, broken neck. The authorities were there most of the evening. She hadn’t told Father Lucian yet. The Body was stored in the shed out back until she could get with Father Lucian.

We asked to see him and Milivoj, but Claudia was reluctant to do so until she got word to Father Lucian. We agreed to wait. About 30 minutes later he arrived not knowing what to expect. She told Lucian about the death. He asked why she thought it might not have been an accident. Claudia took us to her office and retrieved an item from her desk and set it out for us to see.

It’s a circular locket with an “X” scratched into the lid. She told us, “It is a dark thing, I’m sure of it!”. Lucian’s response was, “Well, it’s ugly!” and turns to Kyana and asks, “What do you think?”. Kyana looked at it, it probably used to be pretty but now it’s worn out and scarred. Kyana checked the back of it and there was another “X” on it. She opened it and found writing. It wasn’t anything she knew how to read but Father Lucian was able to read it. He said it’s Celestial it reads, “Let darkness hide from the gaze of light!”.

There was a bunch of noise from the kids outside and Claudia went out there to quiet them down. Dain used his divine sense to detect if there were any celestial, fiend, or undead near. The whole area reeks of undead, and negative energy. He senses a force within the locket and from within the house. Dain says, we need to see this child, this locket is evil.

Kyana asked Claudia if she had ever seen this locket before to which she answered, “No, I’ve not seen it before!”. She said she found it next to the body. Snoggly offered to identify the locket. When he cast the spell, the background music got very intense. The locket itself is not magical but does resonate with weird combination of negative energy and abjuration magic.

Dain felt we needed to see Milivoj now to see if he is the source of what he senses. We were taken there. There is dirt on the floor and a shovel lies on the ground. The boy was sweating from fever with blood mixed bile on his lips and his skin had a yellow ting and and he was deathly pale.

Again, Dain used his divine sense to see if the boy is the source of the evil he was sensing. He sensed evil from the necklace which someone is carrying with them and Milivoj. He also feel the energy, a little more loosely, from somewhere else in the house. Kyana checked the boy’s neck for signs of the “Devil”.

Dain felt the evil he was sensing was upstairs and began quickly moving that way. He moved to the foot of the stairs and lost the feeling. He moved to the top of the stairs and surprised two girls playing in the hallway. He tried to calm them but they screamed and ran anyway. Snoggly and the others started asking about where Dain ran off to in such a hurry. Dain fired off the spell again and sensed the evil from above him. He didn't see anyway to go higher from in the hallway.

Rinn messaged Dain to see what was going on. Haldar began to go after Dain. Kyana didn’t see anything on the child’s neck. Kyana looks for an extra blanket and sends Father Lucian with the blanket to get it wet. She wanted to use it to help cool the child.

Dain was standing in a forty foot long 15 foot wide hallway. There was a door in front of him as well as doors to either side and doors to either side of the hallway behind him and a window behind looking outside, 5 doors total and a broom and a dustpan in one of the corners. Haldar arrived and asked Dain what he was doing. Dain explained he sensed something dark, much like that which emanated from the boy and the necklace. It’s coming from above him. The two girls had run to the room straight ahead of him.

Dain started trying to find a way up to the next floor or attic. They moved to the end of the hallway and Dain suggested that Haldar open the door, because the two girls were in there. Maybe he can calm them. Haldar opened the door. The two girls came out with sticks, fighting and screaming and carrying on. There were babies in the room and a ladder going up. Kyana had Rinn message Dain who replied letting him know what was happening.

Miss Belasco was heading that way to see what the screaming was about. She calmed down the girls and they said they thought we were here to hurt them like Sedric. Haldar asks them if they know who hurt Sedric. They told him Felix, who they say was weird. We asked where he was and they said up there, pointing to the ladder.

When Haldar asked Miss Belasco about Felix, she said he was a bad case, had been here for about 3 weeks. He is a boy around 10 years old. When asked why he was upstairs, Miss Belasco told them his parents had been brutally murdered. He’s been difficult to manage. He broods and lashes out. A lot of times he just stays upstairs and colors. One of the girls said that he had a crush on Tessa who piped up and told her to, “Shut up!”. The other girl said thats why he did it, because he liked Tessa but Tessa liked Sedric. She said that Sedric took that thing of his. “Did you mean the locket?”, asked Haldar. She told him yes. She said it belonged to Felix and Sedric took it. Felix was mad about it.

Rinn had already suggested that the rest go upstairs. Meanwhile Lucian returned with wet blankets to try to cool Milivoj and break his fever. The rest begin to head upstairs leaving Lucian to care for Milivoj.