Rahadin, Alestra, Wedding Invite
Curse of Strahd = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Session 51 – 2022-03-19
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Session Summary
We finished the battle inside the gate. Rinn is recovering but still dealing with the implications of being dead. Recognizing that he has now gone through something similar to Kyanna, he feels a sort of bond to her. He cleans himself up, helps to repair others damaged clothes and clean them up. As we look around the area, we see tracks, lightly filled in with snow, but none the less, tracks, leading into the building. Haldar moves to the building and Dain takes up a position close enough to lend support if needed. There are marking on the door of the Order of the Silver Dragon. They are very old symbols. The disturbance of the snow near the door indicates it may have been opened and closed within the last day or two. Haldar gives it a pull and opens it. As he looks inside, he see a woman, colorfully dressed, near the fire place, huddled and clearly seriously injured. She’s holding a crossbow pointed at the door. She’s working to stand up while keeping the crossbow pointed in his direction. She proclaims, “I’m not dead yet, beast!”. Haldar calls out to her, “Peace be with you, I’m Haldar! Remember me?”. When she recognizes him, her eyes roll back and she falls back to the floor, the crossbow drops beside her and fires as it does, sending the bolt harmlessly across the floor.
Haldar casts a healing spell, followed by other healers and return her strength. Her artificial legs was sitting across the floor damaged. Rinn picked that up and using a mending spell and prestidigitation spell, he repaired it and cleaned it up, returning to to her. He did the same to her torn clothing battered and cleaned her up as well. She started looking like her old self. Kyanna mass healed everyone that had been damaged. Snoggly offered her a little bit of the his energy drink which she accepted, noting that it still burn going down! She asked about Zuelika, to which we reported that she did not survive. She already knew this but I guess hoped that somehow she had managed to survive. She asked what we were doing there.
Snoggly started by explaining that we were sidetracked and never made it back for the Strahd meeting at the Abby. Rinn asked is a Raven had visited her. She hadn’t seen any. There was a brief discussion about the ravens, and how smart they are but we never revealed what we have discovered about the Ravens. Snoggly asked if she had found the Dr. She said she hadn’t. When we got back to the Vistani camp near Vallaki, one couple, the servant form the Wachter estate and a girl that was traveling back with him, went home. Zuelika and I went with them. When we arrived, we heard that things had changed around there and that the Wachter’s were in a much better position and doing very well.
We heard of a missing girl, Arabella. Zuelika and I did a little investigating in town to see if we could pickup information on Emil, when we heard the story about the missing child. We did some sleuthing and discovered some information about a brute named Bluto, the town drunkard. He was the town fisherman on Lake Zarovich, but had run into some bad luck. He had been struggling with low yields or even no yields with his latest outings. He made a deal with some sort of dark force, or maybe he just lost his mind, that if he sacrificed this child to the lake, that it would yield him a bountiful harvest of fish. They had tracked this guy to the lake and found he had pitched the girl into the water. Placed in a burlap bag, she was drowning. Zuelika and I saved her and killed him and brought her back to the Vistani camp. Turns out she is a gifted reader, as a distant relative to Madam Eva. In her blood flows the gift. She is of the bloodline, to be one of the greatest Vistani of all time, with great power. She was, even at her age, able to call on power which she was able to use on Bluto. Because of this, she bought enough time for us to be able to find her.
When we left there, they were celebrating her return, had been celebrating, and will be celebrating for some time to come. We wanted to get back on to the task of finding Emil. We were on the path to Tsolenka Pass from the information we had been able to gather. This journey has been rife with challenges … we made it past many dangers.. We managed to get this far with minimal confrontation. Winter wolve.. we fought winter wolves.. and we heard howls of demonic beasts in the distance. Not natural.. We came across some hunters in the foothills that told us of demons that lived in the regions above. They described a beast, the description familair to me, it is called a Hezrou. Rudolph taught me about them. A giant armored, almost amphibian beast, that has face with lots of teeth. And some sort of large wolf with a poisonous sting, a Tamil like a scorpion.. This I do not know. But if it dwells in the territory of a Hezrou, then it is probably of like kind.. We were fortunate to see neither.. but we heard their unnatural calls in the dark.
When we arrived here the gate was filled with green flame. We powered through the green flame, gods that hurt. I was injured greivously. But Zuelika was driven. She was certain Emil was here and could not bear to wait any longer. Her love made her reckless. We were set upon by demons and made our way to this tower. We heard cries from above and found him. Emil was caged in the tower platform, on the floor below him, all about were notes and charts about Werewolves. He was being studied I suppose. We set about to free him when, appearing from nowhere, a vampiress and a dozen dire wolves. She said her name was Volenta. I knew the name. One of the favored three of Strahd. She claimed that Emil was her property. A battle ensued. The wolves set upon us, but Zuelika transformed and was not to be denied. We slaughtered the wolves but Volenta finally snatched Emil and vanished with him.
Enraged Zuelika shrieked a challenge to Volenta, she challenged the elements, she challenged Strahd.. she challenged the morninglord, she even challenged the land itself. She then ran back down the stairs. I believe she would have run all the way to Castle Ravenloft in her rage. By the time I made it to the door of the tower she was fully engaged with the gate demons. I tried to help but they stunned her and ripped her body to pieces before my eyes. I fled back to the tower as they assailed me. Somehow I got back in and they stopped. I had one last healing potion. That saved my life.. but I was so weak and it is so cold. I lay back to rest and remember nothing else until you arrived.
Snoggly asked about the vampires disappearing, she told us that she vanished instantly, like maybe she teleported somehow. She asked why we were here. Kyanna told her we were on our way to the Amber Temple. We gave her the full rundown of everything we’ve been through up to this point. She seems intrigued and willing to join us. She spots Kasamir, whom she knows and greets him more like family that an acquaintance. They are good friends and have been for a long time. She finally asks why he is here, he tells her of his time speaking with his dead sister, who she can be saved if we can bring her back from the castle. She reminds him that he can’t bring Patrina back. Patrina was Kasamir’s sister. She was to become Strahd’s bride. To save her, Kasamir killed her. Rahadin took her body anyway though. He believes that if we return the body and reunite it with her soul, that somehow, we are saving her. It’s a sad story.
Some of us go upstairs and start searching through the lab. Looking through the paperwork trying to determine what Volenta was up to. After a while, it starts to appear that she was testing Emil’s regenerative ability by subjecting him to harsh environments that would kill anyone else. She was trying to see what it would take to kill him, or if it would even kill him. There were little vials of blood, fur, and vials of chemicals with different little bits floating in them. There is a ladder in the middle of the room going up to the roof. Misty meowed, yes, it’s on the recording, and then climbed the ladder and poked her head, carefully, out of the opening, looking around. Ten-foot-tall gold plated statues stand atop the battlements facing outward. Each one depicts a female human knight, holding a lance, wearing the emblem of the knights or Argynvosyhold. There are bones laying about, nails, lots of blood, at least 4 or 5 dead wolves that have a light dusting of snow on them like they haven’t been dead very long. On the shelf, you also see a cage that’s open. Misty closes the door and backs down the ladder.
She comes back down the stairs and tells everyone what she found. Snoggly suggested that Rinn go have a look around. It’s decided that Dain and Rinn will go up and see if they can glean anything that might assist Dain in removing this curse. Haldar went with them, to keep an eye on them. They search the lab, no traps, lots of paperwork. We find that the wall is open here on one side and Dain looks out to the path leaded away from the gate to see if he can see anything else up the path. We find some information about how to cure someone of lycanthropy. In reading through the steps, they are as follows,
• Slay the lycanthrope that attacked and cursed the victim • There is an atonement process (making restitution to anyone the victim may have harmed) • Ceremony to remove it(if it fails, the curse become permanent, you have to do this while in the beast form so it must be done during a full moon, and the victim must be thoroughly restrained because they cannot move during the process) • three spells have to be casts in succession (atonement spell, a ceremonial lesser restoration, and a remove curse)
The victim will slowly return to their proper form but for the process to succeed, the victim must remain motionless. If they succumb to the pain and move, the cure will fail. Rinn was still of the opinion that a greater restoration might just do the trick as well. The notes state that outside of this process, the only other thing that may work is a wish spell. The notes don’t mention the greater restoration spell and if it will work or not. Rinn looks for shackles that might have been used to hold Emil. There don’t seem to be any shackles at all. If he was wearing shackles, he most likely left with them.
Haldar asked Rinn to tell him about his sister. Rinn replied, “You mean Alestra?”. He exclaims that the last time he saw her was back home. He didn’t know how or why she would end up here, but then again, we didn’t do anything to wind up here ourselves. I assume Strahd would have had to bring her here but I’m not sure why, or even how he knew of her. Haldar asked, how I knew she was here. Rinn explained that then Misty and Rinn were in the place where Mordenkainens door sent them, we were in a room outside a bedchamber where Gertruda was. Misty peeked through the door and saw her, before she could back away from the door and close it, Gertruda saw her, came to the door and when she saw us, called for help. At that po9int, Rahadin showed up. Rahadin told us that Alestra was there. Haldar ask, “You mean Strahd has her?”. Rinn replied, “I assume so, though I have no physical proof that she is here. At the time, we were playing it off as though our presence and the fact that Alestra was there were all perfectly normal and expected. We didn’t get into an in-depth discussion with him on this. I wasn’t expecting that we might just pop out of there again. I thought there would be time to explore. Before long though, we did pop back to the platform from which we left. I still don’t know if she is here. I was hoping a seer such as Madam Eva could tell me if she was here. But we haven’t had time to go there. If we can get the Sun Sword, then we can go to Castle Ravenloft and challenge Strahd and if she is there, we can possibly save her. For all we know though, she has been brought here to be a bride, I don’t know. At any case, I will have to, at some time, focus my energies on determining if she is there, and then waging an assault to free her.”. Haldar suggests, “It sounds like all our paths lead together.”
Haldar then suggests that we rest up overnight and head out again in the morning. It’s agreed that we should rest and go out in the morning. Rinn suggest that Halda, since the darkness if coming and he moves around hidden in the darkness so well, that maybe he scout the path ahead a little and see what we might be running into next. Dain remained upstairs reading some more for a while. We go back downstairs. Rinn asks Kassamir if he can tell us what’s coming up. What should we expect when we start out again in the morning? He tells us that in another 100-200 feet, there will be a bridge about 1,000 feet above the river. There will be tower on either end of the bridge. Then we’ll begin the journey up into the mountains. The path will go back to being like what we have been traveling so far, with a precipice on one side and a steep cliff on the other side. It stays that way for quite a while, perhaps 3 or 4 miles, then is gets a little broader. The main thing is that it is a steady climb and it’s going to get much, much colder. Rinn suggest that if Strahd put the green flames here as a defensive measure, then we might expect to see that or something even worse as we approach the bridge. It’s another choke point where we will be vulnerable. It would be good to know that before we start out.
Dain searches the lab for any paperwork that might be useful, putting those into his bag. He goes back downstairs with the rest and moves to an area away from the others to offer prayers to Clangeddin. And Rinn find himself near Kyanna and says to her, ‘We share something now, you and I.”. He asks her if she remembers anything from her time, deceased. She says that she had some strange dreams but isn’t sure they had anything to do with her time deceased. Thinking back, Kyanna remembers a strange affect that happened to her after that. She could, at times, become somewhat ethereal and even put her hand through solid rock or into the ground, and pull it out again. The affect only lasts for a few minutes. She remembers having a feeling of her soul being kind of spread thin like too little butter spread across toast. She felt kind of vaporish, Dain was able to detect undead in her, not that she was undead but that there was a part of her that seemed to radiate undeath. She remembers that with this information we told the Abbot about it and he sensed it and did something that removed it. She hasn’t felt like that again, since. Kyanna asks if Rinn feels weird? Rinn explains that he feels colder than normal but other than that, he feels fine. Rinn asks Dain to check him to see if he can detect anything odd in him. Dain casts it but doesn’t detect anything specific from Rinn. Though, in this cursed land, the spell seems to be clouded a little. He is not sure how accurate it is.
We set up our watches and turn in. Dain spends a little time reading the Tomb of Strahd. Snoggly brought the hut up in the building. Misty took first watch. Dain reads some, and slowly finds himself sort of transcending reality and goes into this cloudy mist and finds himself in the dining hall.
Three enormous crystal chandeliers brilliantly illuminate a magnificent feast hall. Pillars of stone stand against dull white marble walls supporting the ceiling. At the center of the far west wall, between floor-to-ceiling mirrors, brass pipes climb the stone like grape vines. They extend upward from the wooden base of an expansive pipe organ. The grand fireplace set into the southern wall blankets the room in a homey warmth.
You are seated in the center of the room at a chestnut refectory table draped with a white satin tablecloth. The table is laden with an assortment of delectable foods: roasted beast basted in a savory sauce, roots and herbs from distant lands, and sweet fruits and fresh vegetables of all sizes and colors. Places are set for each of you and six other guests with delicate porcelain and silver. At each plate is a crystal goblet filled with an amber liquid emanating a delicate, tantalizing fragrance. You see yourself, you see Zanfyr, you see Kyanna, and you see Haldar. You also see Rahadin, and people you don’t really know but in this dream state, you seem to recognize. You see Strahd von-Zarovich, you see Kassamir’s sister, Patrina, you see you see Sergei, you see Ireena Kolyana but in this dream, she is Tatyana Federovna, and you see Rahadin.
As dinner winds down, Sergei excuses himself and Tatyana because he must return her to the village down the hill. Strahd insists she remain in the castle as a guest. Tatyana initially refuses but eventually stays. You can see that Patrina is not very happy with Tatyana staying, Sergei’s not very happy with Tatyana staying, but respects his brother enough to go.
“It was as if the sun that had favored me had been all along hidden by a cloud. Its brilliant glory now shone in full upon him… and him alone.”
You are whisked away to the castle courtyard where Strahd walks alongside Tatyana in the soft dusk light. He asks her how she finds her new quarters here and of her satisfaction with the amenities of castle life. ‘Everything is wonderful, Old One.’ Strahd’s eyes momentarily grow wide as if a knife has suddenly pierced his chest. The sound of a gentle harp strums over the quiet courtyard, and the mists blind you.
Tatyana giggles behind you, but you are no longer behind the castle. She sits on a stool in a grandiose, paneled music room. Her hair has grown several inches, and her homely vestments have been replaced by a simple but beautiful summer dress. Stunning harp music drifts through the air, and you see Strahd plucking at the instrument's strings, entirely at peace, and enraptured by Tatyana’s joy. Almost frozen in time, the two begin to sing. Until a door clicks and Sergei enters. She stands, bows to him, and he hurries toward her, hugging her so tightly that she rises from the ground, and he spins her around and around the fading room.
You can tell that she is quite confused but doesn’t seem uneasy with this. Tatyana continues to spin, and her already stunning dress morphs into a blossoming red gown with a large petticoat. She now dances in a ball room, the same room where you sat for dinner, now cleared for a crowd. She rolls to the tune of a now lively pipe organ and a small band. Her outstretched hand clasps Sergei’s as he forms from the mists. There intwined, twirling and floating, through a crowd of nobility who are all doing the same, all but Lord Stradh von-Zarovich, who sits starkley below a deathly still portrait of his own likeness. He calls for a toast to the people of Barovia, and his incredible guests, staring deeply into Tatyana’s eyes. He steps forward and presents Tatyana and Sergei with goblets.
“One would think the ritual for casting a love-spell or creating a love-philter would be more common, but my books were bereft of such things, except for a single short treatise on the subject. The writer's conclusion that love was a force that could not be successfully reproduced by magical methods struck me as being inanely smug.”
Dain then drifts off to sleep for the rest of the night.
The first half of the night passes without event. Rinn, on second watch, early in the morning around 4 or 5 am, out of the eastern most window, he sees a quick moving orange light at about eye level, moving across the sky to the north and is visible for about 3 seconds. He makes note of it. Haldar, and Misty left out earlier, about midnight and scoped out the area, further north. Though Misty can’t see Haldar, she can smell his scent and track him that way. He scouts up to a gatehouse this side of a bridge, and he hears water rushing far below. Haldar moves up to the gatehouse. The bridge is fairly damaged, though intact! There is snow falling. Mist was concerned about leaving tracks, but Haldar thought they would be okay not to worry about it. They returned to the hut. It’s quiet the rest of the night.
When they wake, Rinn tells everyone about the orange light he saw only a few hours ago. Misty offers some dried fish for everyone to eat. Ezmerelda was happy to eat something that was rations. She traded some of that with Misty for the fish. We ate and prepared to make our way north. Rinn cracks open the door and looks around. There are no guardians outside and nothing has changed. Rinn moved around so see if he draws any attackers. Nothing attacks! He waves everyone out and we start down the road. As we get to the gatehouse, we see it’s a 30 foot arch on this side and the other side. It’s windy and the bridge creaks a little in the wind. We can hear the water flowing far below. Rinn checks for traps along the front edge of the bridge, finding none, he checks the rooms on both sides of this end, they both appear empty.
Rinn starts moving across the bridge, slowly, looking for traps. Haldar moves up behind him. Seeing that is seems strong enough to support them, he continues to move across. A little over halfway across, Rinn spies movement ahead.
“Emerging from the mist at the far end of the bridge a figure steps into view. An elf, he is tall with pale, dusky skin not unlike Kasimir. His pointed ears stab out from beneath long lank hair. His cold eyes peering beneath an ugly scar across the length of his forehead.
As he approaches your mind is assailed with the howling screams of the thousands of men and women. The throes of their deaths are not only heard, but their agony invades your senses..
“And here you are… did you think your little team of invaders could enter the master’s home and get away so easily? The taint of his magic was clear. We have known of Khazan’s little hideout on Baratok for some time. Though he is quite mad now, believing himself to be great wizards of other worlds. A pity really. He has great power but his mind is irreverisibly broken I’m afraid. You were foolish to seek him out. Perhaps more so to use his power to sneak into the castle like common robbers. Are you not better than that?
Rinn explains that we were escaping a bigger battle and the gateway provided leaded to the Castlke, we didn’t specifically go there. Although it was enlightening to talk with you there as you mentioned my sister. How is Alestra doing? Rahadin asks if I would like to see her. He calls out
Alestra come see your brother.. (from behind Rahadin a woman approaches from the mist, heavily cloaked in furs and garments to stay warm. you can see very little. She moves near Rahadin her head downward. Her voice speaks weakly) “Rinn?” she pulls back the hood and though she looks undernourished it is undeniably Alestra, your sister. “Rinn I don’t know how I came to be here but all is well. Why are you here? Rinn replies, “I was brought here by the same person that brought you here, but all is not well.”. Alestra continues, “They have been kind to me. Lord Strahd, Rahadin, Cyrus have made me feel like a princess.”
Rahadin interrupts, That is enough for now sweet Alestra. You may go. With a wave of his hand Alestra turns and leaps from the bridge into the mist. Rinn tried to reach for her but was unable to reach her before she disappeared. After a moment, he turned back to Rahadin. “Was that really her, or some sort of illusion or bit of trickery?”. Rahadin asked, “What does your heart tell you?”. Rinn says, “You said we would meet again, and if she really jumped off here, there won’t be anyone left to meet. Unless you’ve altered this somehow.”. Rahadin said, “She’ll be fine.”. “There is a celebration coming soon, the Count is to be married to his beloved Tatyana. The land will rejoice, joy will fill the people, you must come. You are on the master’s invitation lists, guests of some honor! For see, you once protected the Master’s bride on some perilous journey. That earns you a special place in the Lords heart.”
With that, he pulls a pouch from inside his vestments. “Ten days hence, the Lord Strahd is to be married. These are your invitations and a small gift.” He casts it on the ground. While guests of the castle, you’ll swear an oath of hospitality, a mutual assurance of protection between guests and host. So long as you obey guests rights, spill no blood, unsheathe no sword or bring weapon to bear, respect our host and obey Strahd’s laws, you need not worry about being harmed. I think you’ll find your imagined “Devil” to be a gracious king. Oh, and regardless of all that, I know where you are going and what you intend. Your attentions are noble but the reality for you is quite grave. For it is not death that awaits there, no. It is eternal living damnation. Did Kazzan fail to mention that? Madam Eva, quiet of the subject, were they? They usually are, for they seek power also and sending pawns to do their dirty work, in hopes that a group such as you may succeed, is repeated frequently. I dare say that were you to continue, you will see evidence of your predecessors on your journey. You are not the first to attempt such folly. Kassamir, my kin, you know…you know there is no redemption there. Patrina is gone, you murdered her!”.
As he finishes his statement, “I’ll ask you one more time, to turn back.”. He snaps his fingers, and a moment later, an eerie phantom horse like creature with skin of inky blackness becomes visible in the mists. Fire, orange red fire spurts from his hair, it’s nostrils, and it’s hooves. On his back is Alestra, clinging to it’s mane. It flies up, under the bridge, next to him, and he steps on the bridge and jumps onto the horse as well.
Snoggly speaks up and has a question for him, Rahadin replies, “Ah, the drunkard!”. Snoggly accepts the statement meant as an insult and plays it off as nothing. He asks, “At this event you’re going to be throwin, are you going to have some good whiskey there lad, or no?”. Rahadin replies, “Be assured that everything there will be the finest, and if it’s whiskey you desire, then whiskey you shall have!”. Snoggly says, “I might show up there then!”. Rahadin, not to let Snoggly have the last word, says, “You would do well to do so!”. Rahadin tells us again to turn back, or face the consequences. Snoggly speaks up again, “Watch out for birds! Have a good flight!”. They begin to move off but fad out instead.
Dain asks Rinn, if that was really his sister, Rinn didn’t know for sure. It looked like her and it sounded like her. He didn’t know what to think at this point. As he is thinking about it, we start to hear sounds. Haldar suggests that we get off this bridge, but before anyone could respond or begin to move, undead things begin appearing. Initiative is rolled and the battle is joined. Arrows flew, spells are casts, two religious figures turn, shadows are stepped, druids become hell hounds, and the undead begin to flee or fall. As they turn to run, we continue to drop them. In the end, they either escape, or they are return to the realm of the dead. We suffer a little damage, but nothing too serious.
With the ones fighting us down and the others retreating, we move off the north end of the bridge. This session ends here.