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Session 38 – 2021-10-02

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Session Summary

We started outside of the of the cave that we had tracked the wolves to. We each moved to favorable positions and began trying to draw the wolves out. It started with Haldar disguising himself as the Abbot and calling inside for the wolves to come out and assist him. He did his best to sound a little distressed as if his need was great. He implied that he needed more body parts. None of these things elicited a response from the occupants. Rinn and Dain started wondering if they were even in the cave. Haldar pointed out the tracks, yes, they are here. He then moved back behind the brush and under the cover of the brush let go of the disguise.

Zanfyr transformed into a dire wolf and moved to the opening and howled inside. He got back a response that he read as being a sort of challenge. He tried again but still only a distant response. Listening carefully, and looking inside, he could hear more noise in the distance and see some torch light scattered in the distance. Rinn sent Boo in while joined with him and saw that for the first 30 to 40 feet, it was a passage that led to a four way intersection. We finally decided that we’d have to go in.

Haldar started in and found himself in a small open area, about 25×45 feet, and after making it inside, he moved to douse two torches on either side of the area. After he finished with the second torch, he crossed the room again to a better vantage point but halfway there, fell into a pit that dropped him into a gelatinous cube. He took quite a bit of damage. Rinn, who was maintaining an open message spell with him, heard that he had fallen and announced it to the rest. Everyone moved quickly to get inside the cave and try to help. Dain made it in first and found nothing but two extinguished torches laying on the ground, and the path that lead to an intersection. He couldn’t see Haldar or any sort of trap. He called out to him lightly but received no response.

It was then that Haldar climbed out of the ground, covered in some sort of goo. Snoggly entered the passage and saw only the last bit of Haldar as he climbed out of something. It looked like the ground but it must have been an illusion that covered a pit. Everyone else entered and the group collected the two torches that Haldar had extinguished and used them to mark the boundaries of the pit. Meanwhile, Rinn used his Prestidigitation and Mending spells to clean up Haldar and to repair his clothing. Kyanna applied some healing as well.

Rinn took the lead then, checking for traps. He and Haldar moved to the intersection. Looking both ways, they saw two wolves, that upon seeing the two adventurers, attacked. The first one ran up to Rinn and though Rinn took some damage, Haldar and the rest of the range weapon wielding and spell throwing folk retaliated and put it down. Rinn was able to run back after that and get behind Dain who had moved up to be the primary target directly opposite the trap. When the second wolf ran into the chamber, the remaining adventurers opened up on it. They damaged it but really didn’t slow it down. It charged at Dain who had planted himself firmly against the wall with little room between he and the trap. As the wolf approached, Dain pushed forward, pivoted, and successfully bounced the wolf into the trap. He was not heard from again.

After Kyanna healed Rinn, he and Haldar moved forward again. Rinn saw another wolf down the path to the left and threw a Firebolt at it. He missed but got the wolves’ attention as he ran back behind Dain. The wolf rounded the corner and the whole party opened up on him. Yeah, that didn’t go well for him. Dain took the two corpses, now laying there, and threw them into the pit. Rinn and Haldar moved up again and this time didn’t see anything.

They started down the right path and headed down some stairs. Rinn moved to take down and extinguish the torch at the bottom and as he reached for it, he spied a werewolf and another wolf backed into the shadows of this section of the labyrinth. Before he could get out of there, the wolf attacked and managed to push him over. Haldar, seeing the werewolf, attacked it and killed it. Misty moved forward and attacked the wolf on Rinn. Another werewolf came from the straight path and attacked Haldar. He was hit by a couple of spells before Dain ran up and attacked him. While Dain was attacking this werewolf, another came from the left hallway and attacked Dain. He got hit but not too bad. Rinn got up and backstabbed the wolf on him, killing it. He then moved to a position with which to attack either remaining werewolf.

From the left side, a figure moved into view who cast a spell creating a bunch of daggers spinning and whirling around Rinn. The creature backed off after casting the spell and Misty cast silence in that area hoping to prevent any future spells from our uninvited guest. Dain turned and put down the other werewolf. Rinn took damage from the whirling daggers and then moved to attack the new attacker. It turned out to be neither wolf nor werewolf but something akin to the abominations at the Abby. The creatures that the Abbot has surrounded himself with. In any case, after Rinn’s attack, he retreated to a safe distance and waited on the rest of the party to engage it. Before they could, the creature ran off around the corner. Haldar gave chase but it disappeared. We all moved around that turn in the passage.

There was a room straight ahead and we moved down into it, searching it. There was a desk and a mat that someone appeared to use as a bed. We searched the desk and found paper with scribbling and crude drawings on them but otherwise not legible. There were a few items that looked like someone practicing their scroll craft. There were also some drawings on the wall. The artwork on the cave wall was a crude drawing of Krezk and the Abby, also a family, two adults, a little girl, and a dog. We debated the meaning of the drawings and how they fit in to what we knew of Barovia and of Krezk so far.

For now, that will have to do. We are off on that other grand adventure where we attempt to put up with real life. See you next week, same bat time, same bat channel.