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Session 44 – 2022-01-08

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Session Summary

Session 44 – Urik Is Hungry

We started in the dinning room. Seeing nothing else in here, we turned and headed out of the door to the door north of it. When Rinn opened it and we found the room to contain two more of these almost spectral beings working at preparing a meal without anyone present. There was a pot on the stove by no heat source. Misty tried to look into the pot and found nothing in it. Snoggly wanted to try an experiment by putting something on the work table, for them to chop up. Kyanna pulled out something and placed it next to the creature and it reached for if it was picking it up and continued chopping. It failed to actually pick it up though, as it’s hand just passed through it. We decided to leave these creatures alone.

Moving back out into the hallway, we went west to the turn in the hallway and then proceeded south to the door at the end. Rinn checked it thoroughly and then opened it. It was a storage room of sorts, with a wall lined with barrels. Most of the barrels were in very bad shape with the wood rotting and the metal rings rusting. There was one barrel that seemed to be unaffected. Rinn and Dain moved to it. Rinn checked it carefully and could find no traps. He turned it over to Dain to open it. Dain worked the lid until it finally gave up its grip and opened. With that, came a loud screech or scream from within. It echoed out through the halls of the building. That’s all that came out. When the lid was moved out of the way, there was nothing in the barrel. We surmised that it was either an alarm to let someone know that intruders were here or that we had released some being that had been trapped there and that we couldn’t see, but only hear. Unsure what, Dain moved the barrel, and we searched the area for any secret passages or secret compartments and found none. Dain continued breaking up the barrels and afterword, we left that room and moved back to the main hall.

Once we reached the hallway, we turned out attention to the walled up opening on the north wall. Wwe couldn’t see anything past the stones until Dain broke out a hammer and started taking down the stone wall. It took a moment, but he was finally able to remove the stones which were blocking a door. Rinn checked the door and then opened it. It opened to an eight-sided room with bookshelves lining the walls and a stand in the middle of the room with a book open on it. Above each bookcase was a rune. The runes indicated schools of magic, Evocation, Transmutation, Illusion, Divination, Conjuration, Enchantment, Abjuration, Necromancy.

When Snoggly checked the book on the stand, it read, “I know the Necromancer's minions are everywhere. They chatter in the walls of this Illusion. The Necromancer can Conjure them at his will. He upsets the balance of the realms, and I shall seal myself in the safety of this place until my powers are restored.”. As we searched the bookshelves, we found books that interested us, at least they were titled interestingly. They were actually blank within. Snoggly tried a few tricks of the trade to see if he could reveal the hidden writing, assuming there are writings within. Rinn assisted where he could, but nothing revealed itself. While searching his bookshelf, Rinn found a book with only little dust on it and after he pointed it out to Snoggly, Snoggly pulled on it. It transported him to another room on that level. The rest of us just saw him disappear but Snoggly found himself standing in the dining room. Each bookshelf was searched, and a similar book found that transported the person that pulled it, to another part of the structure on the same level. I guess it could have been worse, when pulled, the books could just make a foul sound and emit a noxious odor.

There was a second level to this room and Misty explored it. There was a door leading out of the room, positioned just about the door we entered through. There was nothing else of interest there so rather than attempt to enter the second floor though this door, we opted to return to the staircase in the tower in the lower southwestern corner and began making our way up. Rinn was very careful not to trigger any traps and when we got to the second floor, checked, and then opened the door. It opened to a room that seemed like a sort of lab or workshop. In searching this room, we found two beholder like creatures that Zanfyr identified as a “Gauth”. but much smaller and less deadly. It only took a moment to dispatch them and then we searched the room. We found a piece of paper sticking out of a book with the following written on it.

“As a traveler of the planes, I was not completely taken by surprise when the strange mists enveloped me and returned me here. A homecoming I suppose. The mists themselves drain the hope and happiness out of the people here. The mists of the ancients. No, His mists. The locals are frustratingly closed and ignorant about their own situation. None seem to know why the mists surround them nor do they seem to care, only remarking that it has always been as such. They are a dismal, subdued people who are content with their lot in life for they have known no other, and they are too fearful of the presence of “The Devil Strahd”. He is their ruler and dwells in the Castle “Ravenloft” high in the mountains that loom over the village.“.

They also find a creature in a cage, a cat with leathery wings. The animal Is called a Treesym. Snoggly lets it out and gives it some food while it attempts subdue Snoggly with purring a rubbing. Rinn checks out the Crystal Ball. It’s determined to be magical and gives the person the ability to cast Scrying. It has a tag on it with the word “Urik”. Snoggly asks if its name is Urik. It seems to respond to that name. Zanfyr casts a speak with animals so he can talk to Urik. The pages of the books are blank again. Trying to determine who the master of Urik is or was, Snoggly aasks him if his master was Exlthanter. Urik gave him a look as if he understood the question but only followed up with a quick single meow. Once Zanfyr was finished casting his spell, he asked Urik about who his master was and Urik responded, “I am Urik. I have no master! I was brought here by the wizard Kazan.”. Zanfyr asks where Kazan is. Urik seems mostly interested in food. He is apparently hungry.

According to Urik, Kazan is very unpredictable. He brought Urik here about a week ago and put him in that cage. The books are title, “A history of the circle of the eight”. Another is titled, “Tomb of foes”. “Mages of Oreth”. Rinn gathered those books and put them in his bag. Urik tells us that the last time he saw Kazan was a day ago when he went out the door to the north. Rinn checked that door and when he felt sure it was safe, he opened it. It opened to a hallway extending east and west with a door at the east end of the hallway and another going north. Rinn checked the door to the north, and again, when he felt it was safe, he opened it.

This room is a bedroom, it’s dusty and there is a large mirror leaning against the wall as if waiting to be hung on the wall. The mirror had a crack running through the center of it. Rinn looked at the mirror from a side angle and could see the rest of the room through it. He moved by the mirror, deliberately averting his eyes from the mirror, so as not to look into it. When he got to the other side, he turned around and look at the mirror from the side again and could see the reflection of the door where the others were standing. He searches the bed. It’s very dusty as if it hasn’t been used in a while. Nothing! He searches under the bed and sees nothing. He searches around the mirror checking behind it and around it but not looking directly from the front. Haldar moves in front of the mirror and look directly into it.

While looking into the mirror, he see’s two scenes unfold on the surface. On the left half, he sees a bald aged man with a well-trimmed goatee fighting a red winged humanoid with dragon like features, elongated limbs and a long tail. The man has a smug smirk on his face, as he waylays the creature with powerful magic. On the right half of the mirror, that same man is shown with long unkempt black hair, wearing torn gray robes, as he battles against a fare skinned gentleman, with long black hair, on a precipice overlooking a high waterfall. The nobleman matches the wizards arcane master, spell for spell. The nobleman then flies through the air, at the wizard, grabs him by the throat, and lifts him off the ground. The wizard looks at him as shock the look of shock crosses his face. The nobleman sneers at him and with very little effort, throws him out, over the waterfall, and watches in satisfaction as the wizard drops into the darkness below.

As he watches it, the scene replays a couple of times before it shifts to display scenes from our pasts. For instance, Haldar saw, on the left side, his moment of greatest triumph and on the right side, his moment of his greatest failure to date. Rinn tries to get Urik to look into the mirror to see if he can identify the wizard in the two scenes. Was this person Kazan? It took a while but ew finally got out answer. That wizard is Kazan. Now we know what he looks like. Snoggly watched the mirror some more and saw his moment of greatest triumph, When eh acquired and began to drink a very rare and particularly good Scotch and the moment of his greatest failure was when he ran out.