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Session 40 – 2021-10-23

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Session Summary

The recording picks up at the discussion with Victor and the question of, what ever happened to Ireena Kolyana? He told us that there was a member of the guard, named Izec Strazni, who was infatuated with her. He was the captain of the guard appointed by Vargas. Vargas trusted Izec so he turned over custody of Ireena to him. He took her to St Andral’s church. She was kept there. They thought she would be safe there, with the bones. Snoggly pointed out that the bones had been removed, someone had dug them up and toted them off. He gave Snoggly an odd look and said, “That fact was not widely known.”. Then he eyed all of us suspiciously and asked, “Why are you here?”.

Dain asked, “Did he mean, why are we in Barovia, or why are we in this cave?”. He answered “Yes!”. Dain replied that Strahd brought us here against our will. Apparently he can do that. We didn’t know how he did that but apparently he steered us here and now that we are in, we cannot leave. Being stuck in this land, we are making the best of a bad situation and helping where we can. Snoggly pipes in telling him that we know about the bones because the priest tasked us with finding them. We followed the trail as far as we could but it went cold.

Victor explained to Dain that what he said explained things. He had not been completely truthful with us. He told us his last name is Vallakovich. Vargas was his father. He had not been there when we passed through with Ireena but his father told him of adventurers that had come through there bringing Ireena to him. He had heard about us helping the orphanage. We also told him of the return of the light to Argynvosthold. He then offered something else he thought might interest us. He’s been trying to break through the mists. He thinks he may have discovered a way to do just that. He also wants revenge on the Wachter family for what they did to his family.

His father and mother knew she had some association with Strahd and even she was open about it. Where the town shunned his name and thought of Strahd as some sort of evil dictator over the land, she softened that to something like, “He’s more like a negligent landlord! He’s not doing the best job but he’s not evil!”. She was always in favor of anything that would serve Lord Strahd here. Victor, as his family, father and grandfather, would do whatever it took to keep the vampire presence out of Vallaki. He suggested that if Fiona Wachter could be taken out, he would see Vallaki made safe and a decent place to live. He’s not a believer of the “All is well!” strategy.

Dain asked if the vampires are still there supporting Fiona. Victor replied that if the Lady Wachter is in power, the servants of Strahd are beside her. When asked if he knew how many were there, he wasn’t sure, but he knew at least seven had attacked the town square during the “Festival of the Blazing Sun”. He is reasonably sure that not one of those was slain. Dain announced that he’s willing to take her out, if for no other reason than to find out how she communicates with Strahd to ask for help. Snoggly suggested that he might be on the other end of the communication stone that we found. Snoggly proceeded to tell us what to call Strahd should we reach him using the stone.

Snoggly returned the conversation to how Victor thought we could get out of the mists. Victor asked if we’d heard of the mad mage of Mount Baratok. He proceeded to tell us about him. He came to the realms a little over a year ago. Out of the Village of Barovia, he put together a small army of about 40 youths, people around his age, good hearted folk, and trained them to storm the castle. He, himself, was a powerful mage, or so he claimed. They did go to the castle and his entire army was either slain, enslaved, or enthralled. The mage wound up in a battle near the Vistani encampment, not far outside the Village of Barovia, near Tser Pool, at the waterfalls above that. There was quite the epic battle at the waterfall and Strahd eventually won out, flinging the mage to his death.

Snoggly recognized the story and how the priest in the Village of Barovia, Father Donavich’s son had been a part of that army. He’d joined up with that group and it did not return, but he, later, did. The father kept him in the basement and fed him once in a while. Snoggly said, “That didn’t sit well with me!”. Victor ask what he was fed, we told him, “People to be drained!”. Victor understood then that his sun didn’t come back a thrall but a spawn. Returning to his point, Victor stated that even though he lost, the wizard was able to hold his own while going toe to toe against Strahd for a long time, that was very impressive.

Everyone thought he was dead. It turns out that over the course of several months, they started hearing tales of a mad man, near Lake Zarovich, shooting firebolts into the water to catch fish. Sometimes he is seen shape shifting into the form of animals of the region. Based on descriptions we’ve gotten of the individual, Victor has surmised that the person seen near the lake is actually the mage that fought Strahd. He must have survived, somehow. Snoggly asked if Victor thought that this mage would join up with us to take back Vallaki. He wasn’t sure but he was sure that this mage was able to travel the mists.

Tales he told in the Village of Barovia were that he has travelled to many planes, realms, and places, and could traverse the mists without trouble. Snoggly asked if they knew his name, but they didn’t. We agreed we would like to take on the vampires and the Lady Wachter. Victor ponders what’s been said and asks if we think the mage would be willing to help us with the Vallaki situation. We agreed that we should seek him out before we approached Vallaki to see if he would join in that battle. He mentioned that she’d had followers at the festival and even before the vampire attack, they’d been stirring up the people against the Burgomaster.

Snoggly stated that he thought it was a good plan. He then asked what skills Victor had. He told us that he is decent with a sword and knows a couple of spells. He’d trained with the guards at the facilities in Vallaki. When asked his best spell, he mentioned Misty Step. Snoggly suggested he talk to the Kitty”, as he pointed out Misty. He hadn’t really noticed her before. Now, taking it all in, his first question was a common one, have you been polymorphed. Questions and answers lead to explaining Misty’s appearance, to his satisfaction.

Snoggly asked him to join us while we finish cleaning out this place, then we will find this mage. He offers him some whiskey but he’s more of a winer than a whiskeyer. Rinn moved to where the steps start and as he does, the mysterious caster shows up and casts a spell, creating a loud ringing noise. Many of us take a little damage. Haldar marks the caster and moves back to fire on him. He missed two shots but hits with the third. As he looks more closely, he sees him more clearly, and the caster reminds him of those creatures at the Abby. Misty moves forward and then uses Misty Step to move to a spot near a small humanoid and a larger wolf. She attacks. Rinn gets in a good hit.

Victor puts away his sword and puts up a Web spell at the top of the steps to slow down the movement of anyone coming through that area. Kyanna brings up an Aura of Vitality and heals herself. Additional werewolves move up from the stairs that were in front of us running into the Web. The little odd caster turns invisible and seems to be fleeing. Haldar can still track him with his Hunters Mark. Snoggly stupefies several with a Hypnotic Pattern. Haldar gives chase to his prey. We finish off the three on the stairs while Haldar and Dain move to capture or kill the caster. Haldar finally catches up to him and kills him on the first shot.

Kyanna did some serious healing and got everyone close to fully recovered. Not long after that, we were set upon by another group of werewolves. We heard them coming and were able to prepare for the incoming assault. Victor had let go of his Web spell by then. Snoggly put up another Web to slow the attackers. Two made it through with little affect but were met by a blade and bow. Dain moved to between the two opponents and attacked Kiril with two strikes channeling a divine smite into both. Rinn heard the battle going on and moved towards to sound of battle. When he could finally see it, he fired a shot at Kiril. Misty shadowed stepped closer to the action. Zanfyr moved closer as well.

It took a few minutes, but we finally took he and his partners down. We gathered heads of werewolves and fashioned a makeshift bag out of the old clothes we found lying about. We used that to carry the heads in. We debated whether or not we were infected by the curse and even used the Krezk dagger test to try and determine that. It indicated that Dain was not infected. We’re not really sure how long it takes to become infected. We searched everyone and they were seriously lacking in stuff. We decided to take a short rest before continuing on. We figured that we must be close to the end.

We moved down the southern path looking for the room where the werewolves worship their God. It winds around until we reach a spot where we can see a lit room ahead of us. Haldar moves forward, using the shadows, and looks into the room. From here, he can tell there are more wolves in the room but is not sure how many others might be in there. He also sees an area of standing water in the back of the room and a statue of Fenrir, a god of the werewolves. The plan is to try to bring the wolves to us and then introduce ourselves with a fireball. Dain would stand as the shield to protect the group. We all got into place and executed the plan. We were going to use Misty to meow and attract them. It turns out it wasn’t necessary. A couple of the wolves started heading our way, sniffing the air, trying to find us.

Rinn got off a first attack with a bow and then everyone exploded into action. He got one more shot in and Haldar moved to fire several shots. Misty moved to a spot, hid, and held her action waiting on them to move to close. Kyana brought forth sunlight from her amulet. Zanfyr bow shot the next in line and hit it. The wolves we were dealing with were dire wolves. Dain took a couple of hits and got knocked down. Snoggly fired some magic missiles. The battle continued on until we wiped out the rest of the dire wolves.

We moved up and into the cave. As we enter the room with the amulet of sunlight, we investigate the statue and the pool of water. The statue was made of wood. Around the base of it were jewels and gold. We discussed taking it but remembered what happened to Misty with the jewels we took from the last werewolf god statue. Kyanna checked for anything magical finding 25 magical +1 arrows. We split those, 8 to Rinn, 8 to Kyanna, and 9 to Zanfyr. Boots missed us and meowed to say hello. Plus, there must be poop stuck to him as he smelled and was attempting to crawl around Chris’s shoulders. He smelled bad, according to those stuck in the same room with him. We received experience and looked in the pool of water. It was clear and deep, We decided to stop here and inspect the pool next session.