Session 65: A New Day

Morning, Ulanra 17th

(another placeholder)




Experience: 642 xp each (30, 271 total)
Isabella's Ashes, 3500
Rightful Rulers, 500
Rising of the Sunsword, 500
Magic, Money, Loot: n/a

Completed Quests:

1. Isabella's Ashes (3/3 complete; group): The group successfully attuned Izzy's ashes to the three Barovian fanes, and the countess resurrected her.
   
2. Rightful Rulers (Diana, group): The group helped restore Ireena to her former power, and displaced Mara and Sir Konrad.
3. Rising of the Sunsword (Kaylan, Kaern, group): Kaylan successfully reignited the Sunsword, and the group returned day to Barovia.

Map of Barovia

Here's a larger map of Barovia with more accurate mileage, a full mapping of all the towns, lakes, forests and mountains, and glimpses of the neighboring countries.

Session 64: Darkest Before the Dawn

Afternoon - Evening, Ulanra 16th

Famine Mist
Famine Mist threatened to consume the party's reason and twist them into crazed devourers, as illustrated by the gorging Rogar. Fire and light proved its bane, driving away the immediate tendrils, but still the greater phenomenon persisted. As Kaylan called down a holy ring of consecrated day, the yellow vapor regrouped, becoming a vague, giant head. It swooped with silent yawns, looking to swallow them whole, yet Kalinda's barrier proved utterly impenetrable and it was forced to circle as they very slowly forged ahead.

Rogar managed to regain his sense of self, and Thamior stumbled back into their numbers thanks to a divine amount of luck. When the cleric's protection finally flickered and vanished after a five minute duration, the Famine Mist swooped one more time, form growing larger, mouth stretching wider. It took a combined onslaught of fire and radiance, summoned by nearly every party member, to utterly destroy it.

Barrenpine Semetary
Several miles deeper into the Svalich, the group found the Barrenpine Semetary gates, high, imposing iron and stone, thankfully closed, and keeping prisoner hundreds of roving dead. Largely mindless zombies, they wandered in packs between the headstone-riddled hills and tree-choked clusters.

Rumored an old Vistani burial ground with the unhallowed power to raise the dead, the semetary's first mausoleum was built five hundred years ago by a bereft widow named Svetlena Grymig. She hoped to resurrect her slain husband Victor, victim of a young Count Strahd. He did indeed return, as a ravenous ghoul, devouring her and staking claim to what would eventually grow into a sprawling yard filled with centuries' worth of desperate souls looking to cheat death. And with Aldric's dark ritual occurring somewhere on the premises, every last cadaver was risen and restless.

Stealing themselves, and knowing there was little chance of fighting their way through the throngs, the party opted for stealth. They slipped between the bars and used large grave-markers and stretches of copse to mask their movement, avoiding the more intelligent ghouls and wights along the way. On the highest hill they found Grymig Mausoleum, where an aura of black magic and the stink of death marked it the location of the last fane ritual.

Victor Grymig
Entering the constricted tomb, they found none other than the Lord of Ghouls himself, Victor Grymig, hunched upon the lid of his stone sarcophagus, attended by several festering reanimates. It appeared they were serving guard duty, and sprung into action as soon as the party was noticed. Victor's voice was thick of accent and brimming with hatred, his despise for the living as shocking as his stench.

Grymig's constituents proved quicker than normal zombies, and, as their claws sheared stone walls in narrowly-missed attacks, stronger too. The party was able to use the tight quarters to their advantage, laying down wide-burst spells of fire and force to catch their huddled masses, and thereby allowing Kaern and Rogar a clear path to the pallid ghoul. After snarling a final promise the dead could never die, the fallen angel ended him.

The dregoi collected the monster's head, shaving clean the skull, while the rest of the party searched under the corpses and discovered heavy crypt doors and a staircase leading down.

Hellfire
The party moved down the narrow stone hall toward the Grymig Crypts, quickly discovering the place had been trapped. As with the animal head halls of the Chram of Deep Mystery, Aldric was trying to stall them in order to finish a ritual. Infernal sigils had been carved into the walls, spewing constant veils of burning, necrotic hellfire, entirely impassable, but not insurmountable.

Portia leaped to the head of the party, thieving tools at the ready. She managed to compromise the first glyph, and the fan of flames abated. On the second, however, she was burned for her efforts. Unbeknown to some in the party, Portia had been giving Diana lessons in moving quietly, picking simple locks, lifting a coin or two from pockets, and the vampire was eager to test her skills. She truly graduated from student to full-fledged hood during her next few attempts, as she disarmed the remaining three sigils with stunning deftness, on two occasions with only one dexterous flick of the wrist. Portia swallowed her jealousy and quietly accepted her borrowed tools back.

Reflections
Turning the corner, the party discovered an even more dangerous obstacle, though the exact nature of the mirror hall was only discovered when triggered. The mirrors were divided into a dozen large panels, and closer inspection revealed some were... occupied. Pained, wispy forms pressed their sorry faces against the surfaces, looking out with anguished eyes. The group halted, unwilling to step on or past any of these mirrors, but unfortunately even being near them was enough. In a spectral flash, Kaern and Thamior dropped dead, their souls sucked from their bodies and trapped in previously empty mirrors.

The group panicked, uncertain what to do, fearing for their friends and in some cases lovers. The details of these strange mirrors were a mystery, even to the learned in the group, though it seemed the ghostly reflections were souls sucked in the past. Their bodies, however, were no where to be found. The party ended up breaking those far mirrors occupied by souls, hoping to learn the best course to take for the angel and feladrin. The souls slipped up into the ether with echoing sighs and disappeared. However it was entirely unclear whether those souls vanished because of lacking bodies, or because any soul caught in a broken mirror was ushered to its maker.

Tyvis thought to test it once more, Kaern and Thamior's bodies deathly pale, their soul reflections fearful and confused. He summoned forth a swarm of locusts, and directed them in loving sacrifice toward the occupied mirrors. In a second spectral flash, Kaern and Thamior's souls were released, quickly finding their bodies again. The two leaped up, gasping, and finding the open arms of the ones they loved, while the insects dropped dead, their tiny souls a-buzz in the mirrors. The druid, feeling guilty, then broke all the mirrors in the hall, releasing the Wild summons back to their home plane and the other unfortunate victims to the next world.

Thamior, wondering the possibilities of soul removal as it related to Vilthanos, quietly palmed a shard.

W-Hell-come!
Kicking down the doors into the crypt's antechamber, the party was met by a collection of true devils called from the Pit itself, something never quite faced before. Lesser fiends, to be sure, but unnerving enough: a Pain Devil in all her sumptuous, blood-red glory sporting twin scourges, a contingent of Legion Devils, horned and hoofed, in blackened iron with dull, crimson-stained cleavers, and a winged, Cambion with fiery great sword.

The passage into the final crypt, wherein lied the Forest Fane, was blocked off by two more hellfire veils. Vague behind the flames, was a wretched crone dragging something and a tall, lordly figure that could be none other than Hecate's Shadow Prophet.

Desperate to end at last the threat of Triglav and the schemes of his would-be-resurrecter, the group plowed through their infernal opponents, proving worthy of greater fiends as they overwhelmed the Pain Devil, carved through the legionnaires, and outflanked the blazing-quick cambion. All the while, the crone critiqued the devils for their failures and spurred Aldric to hurry, recognizing Kaern for an angel and Kaylan for something more worrisome still.

Hell Holds
Aldric's response was to trigger one last trap, a collapsing ceiling, which allowed tons upon tons of semetary soil, including roots, markers, coffins and inanimate corpses with it, to pour into the antechamber. Within seconds, the place would be filled, and all of them buried alive.

Braving the hellfires, Kaern and Rogar plunged ahead, while Diana and Kaylan fought the falling gravedirt to maintain line of sight with the witch and prophet. Portia tried to disarm the open ceiling shafts, but to no avail, and Tyvis use all strength left him to bend the roots and obedient earth into makeshift supports, turning a trap which would have killed in seconds into minutes.

Thamior, discovering the baba dragged a toddler across the floor, undoubtedly some sort of fane sacrifice, fel forward, teleporting past the fire and lurching the dumbfounded babe from the witch's arms. She was driven suddenly made from the theft, and Kaern came upon her and cut her down, clearing the way for Rogar to reach Aldric himself, standing upon a green-glowing organ reminiscent of a giant brain embedded in the rock. With the baba's death, the fiery veils separating antechamber from crypt proper flickered and died out. The pouring dirt from above, no longer burned away by the hellfire, surged inside, offering precious few more seconds.

Before an enemy could touch him, recognizing with a cold glare defeat, Aldric unsheathed his exquisite black fullblade and spoke his final words, "Hell holds no surprises for me," before plunging onto his sword, killing himself rather than succumbing to the enemy. Shouts and snarls of coward and bastard sent him on to oblivion, even as the dirt continued to surge through half a dozen new fractures.

Desperate Measures
The group holed up in the crypt, exit entirely blocked off, air running thin, and more so time. In the dim of starved torchlight, the sounds of cracking and sifting all around them, they made their final stand. Tyvis, drenched with effort's sweat and bleeding from his nose and tear ducts, staved total collapse as best he could, though his strength and that of his supports were waning.

Thamior rummaged through both corpses, discovering the baba was in fact the black rattle maker, and had a satchel of a dozen such one-shot devices. There was means for escape, though deciphering which went where would take a little time. Worse came to worse, he'd pick blindly and shake, hoping they weren't whisked away to some remote cult temple or, worse, Hell itself.

Yet before they could go, there was an important matter to attend to, the binding of Isabella's ashes to this final fane. Her return was entirely dependent on this last ritual. Kaylan, hugging the remains of her friend, squinting as she read the crinkled parchment upon which the spell was writ, knew an hour wasn't afforded her, nor even five minutes. In a decision she knew she'd later regret, the cleric 'piggy-backed' off the arcane and divine weaves set in place by the deceased Aldric and used them to complete the spell in mere seconds.

Forcing the consequences from her immediate thoughts, she rushed back to the others, even as Tyvis fell into unconsciousness, even as Thamior shook the rattle he prayed led to Barovia, and the entire party was torn from death's jaws, covered in dirt, at the absolute last possible moment.

Experience: XP 1657 each (29, 629 total)
HAZARD: Famine Mist, 500
Sneaking through Barrenpine, 500
Mausoleum Fight, 1750
TRAP: Hellfire Spouts x 5, 1750
TRAP: Soul Capture Mirror Hall, 800
Forest Fane Battle, 2800
MAJOR QUEST: Triglav Lives!, 3500
Magic: Souldrinker, Pentagram of Wisdom
Money, Loot: Victor's skull (Rogar), fragments of a soul capture mirror (Thamior), pain devil's leather thong (Portia), twelve black rattles (Thamior)

New NPCs
Victor Grymig (dead): The Lord of Ghouls, he was a beloved husband buried in the Barrenpine Semetary over 500 years ago only to rise again as a ravenous undead. He fashioned himself a ghoulish monarch and was aligned with Aldric, but perished under Kaern's sunblade.

Baba Crech and Babe (dead): A despicable crib robber and expert of black magic, Baba Crech constantly dragged around a toddler by the leg (turned out to be her disguised imp Babe). Devote worshiper of Hecate, she was aiding Aldric in the forest ritual, but perished under Kaern's sunblade. She was the fashioner of the black rattles, and had a bag full (claimed by Thamior).

New Monsters
Legion Devils, Pain Devil, Cambion Hellsword

New Hazards
Famine Mist

New Traps
Hellfire Spouts, Soul Capture Mirrors, Glyphs of Fiery Warding

Active Quests

1. Isabella's Ashes (3/3 complete; group): Attune Izzy's remains to the three Barovian fanes, then return to the countess at Ravenloft in order to resurrect her.
   
2. Rising of the Sunsword (Kaylan, Kaern, group): Uncover what you can about the missing Sunsword and help return day to the sunless expanse.
3. Rightful Rulers (Diana, group): Restore balance to Barovia. Help Ireena regain her former power, and displace Mara. Depose Sir Konrad and uplift Dame Ashlyn.
   

Completed Quests

1. Triglav Lives! (group): The group successfully prevented Triglav's resurrection, destroyed the last remnants of his cult in Barovia and inspired the cowardly Shadow Prophet to fall upon his own sword. Hecate is without an exarch...

Souldrinker
This exquisite black fullblade has no sheen, looking dull if not for the blood drawn with but the faintest caress. The crimson's absorbed into the dark metal, which rumbles like an unfed stomach. If this weapon doesn’t make a kill, it takes its frustration out on you.

Level: 14
Price: 21,000 gp
Weapon: Fullblade
Enhancement: +3 attack rolls and damage rolls
Critical: +1d6 necrotic damage per plus

Power (Encounter * Necrotic): Free Action. Trigger: You hit an enemy with this weapon. Effect: You deal 2d10 extra necrotic damage to that enemy. If this hit doesn’t reduce the enemy to 0 hit points, you take 2d12 damage.

Pentagram of Wisdom
This iron amulet increases your wisdom and can be activated to greatly enhance the strength of your will.

Level: 13
Price: 17,000 gp
Item Slot: Neck
Enhancement: +3 Fortitude, Reflex, and Will

Property: Gain a +1 item bonus to Wisdom ability checks and Wisdom-based skill checks (but not Wisdom attacks).
Property: This item can be attuned to a deity other than Hecate with deep prayer and an extended rest, changing the appearance to any other god or goddess's holy symbol (though not functioning as a holy symbol).

Session 63: Three Important Meals

Morning - Afternoon, Ulanra 16th

A Mixed Morning
The group awoke to find Barovia in the midst of a blizzard, two feet having accumulated since they went to bed! It showed no signs of stopping. A few of the Lords also discovered Relic missing, having gone off to handle Aldric and the forest fane alone, so consumed by Heaven's zeal. Thamior was distraught and wanted to mount a rescue immediately, but Diana insisted keeping level heads so as to have a better chance of finding and/or rescuing him. That hardly sat well, and it seemed during the night Kaylan had some revelation, her demeanor lighter and more mellow, her love of the goddess greater than ever before. She doted on everyone, especially the girls, though she had no gifts as fine as Fog-eye's: expensive applique and velvet clothing given to Chiela and Christina, dressing them up like small princesses.

The Most Important Meal of the Day
Undeterred by snow, missing friends or current events, the group had breakfast (after some complications with the innkeeper's wife) and a group meeting in the beer hall. Diana led proceedings, contending with Kaylan's new-found mellow mood and talk of prophets.

The sorceress postulated what Mara's intentions might be, concluding the devil witch was using them on a number of levels. Most obviously, she wanted her rival Aldric destroyed and the rise of Triglav foiled, thereby allowing her to come to power in Barovia and ultimately take the would-be exarch's place. Mara as a demigod caused several to shudder. In order to have final dominion over the realm, the witch first needed her old powers back, the one's Count Strahd stole from her and locked away in his Tome. But the book was hidden somewhere in Castle Ravenloft and accessible, according to Kaern, only by a blood relative of the von Zaroviches. Izzy would be a perfect candidate (Angelique her aunt and Strahd her grandfather), explaining why their use of the fanes didn't bother Mara either. Talk was lively, and the fallen angel, in all the hubbub, forgot to conceal her identity! The dozen patrons in the beer hall couldn't help but listen, and certainly took notice of a girl with golden skin and silver hair...

While the others finished their meals and got ready to leave, Thamior stewed and nearly left alone. He couldn't understand how casual his friends could be in the midst of a crisis. Relic, his brother, was out there somewhere in the storm and endless night, braving impossible odds alone.

Group gathered, Fog-eye summoned a giant, jade riding snake which proved invaluable traversing the deep snows. On its back they made good time to Kolyana Manor, where Maggie welcomed them warmly. A brooding Thamior was last to enter, but the grandmotherly maid was quite persuasive, and a hell of a good baker besides, as told by past visits and the wonderful smells wafting from within.

At Kolyana Manor
While the old woman took the girls into the kitchen, followed shortly after by Portia and Rogar ( and which ultimately led to a food fight), the rest of the group discussed their current situation with Ireena. She looked as radiant as ever, and was joyed to see the ladies of the group well. She apparently already knew Kaern, as well, and embraced her fondly.

However Kaern admitted telling them about the noble's current plight, to say that rightful burgomeister was more-or-less under house arrest by the occupying Lightbringers. Ireena, ashamed, made no excuses for her current predicament, but the group bolstered her resolve with encouraging words and a promise to restore her to her proper place. She wanted to return to power, as the people had chosen her as replacement to the long line of burgomeisters that came before, some of their likenesses hanging on the wall: her father, her brother, and, had he survived, perhaps her one-eyed, tiger-raising uncle.

When asked, Ireena agreed to take both Chiela and Christina under her wing for as long as the group needed, having known the little Belmont's parents from childhood. Kaylan asked if the girl had any surviving blood relatives, which Ireena suspected she did, somewhere on the plains of Nova Vasa to the east.

Does Dessert Makes Bad News More Palatable?
Around this time the girls, covered in sugar and dough, skipped out of the kitchen and into Tyvis and Kaylan's arms respectively. At Maggie's behest, Portia, covered in jellies and flour, walked out lively with a few trays of pastry and square cakes. Rogar emerged last, similarly covered, carrying tea, coffee and coco. Refreshments were had, looks and smiles were given, and talks continued.

Diana discussed the local politics and of foiling Mara, ultimately suggesting the burgomeister align with Countess Angelique. Ireena almost immediately refused, not having the heart to trust the daughter of Strahd von Zarovich. Diana delicately tried to reason that she might be judging Angelique too harshly because of what she was more than who she was, and Ireena admitted hating and fearing the children of the night, who had been the cause of nearly every misery in her life.

Hoping to absolve the noblewoman of her prejudices, Diana bravely revealed that she was in fact a vampire, a display of fangs that shocked Ireena, as well as Chiela and Christina. Despite the support of her friends, Diana felt exposed, and her gambit proved to only shock and upset Ireena. She quickly excused herself and fled to her room, calling out a meek apology before shutting her upstairs door.

Again they had outstayed their welcome in the noble's home, though the unsuspecting Maggie returned to see them out, wishing them luck and safe return. Before leaving, Tyvis asked his sister to comfort Diana with a hug, to show that not all felt as Ireena did about vampires. The girl did so gladly, though Christina would not even look at her, much approach her. Kaylan said her goodbye and slipped out after Thamior, who'd again gone to brooding outside in the snows. Brother then said goodbye to sister, and they were off...

Through the Hungry Woods
Rogar leading, Portia lighting, Fog-eye driving, and the others helping where they could, the group began the ten-mile trek through the Svalich Woods, painfully aware that Ivan Koreshev was missing and ghouls ruled the semetary. Yet neither did they meet, just darkness and cold, for over an hour.

Then savory and delicious smells wafted up ahead, just before the appearance of an unusual yellow mist. The group suspiciously moved forward, despite Diana's reservations. There was no apparent source for the smells, just an increasingly intoxicating set of aromas.

Thamior could sense the fane on through the mist and insisted on pressing through quickly, while the sorceress thought to turn back, and others to go around it. In their confusion and hesitation, the fel abandoned them with an angry curse. Relic could be out in this and that notion nearly drove him mad.

Before anyone cold stop him, Thamior was swallowed by the yellow swirls, even as Kaylan screamed his name and moved to follow. The fallen angel was there, unwilling to let the priestess off on her own, and together they followed. Fog-eye, in turn, was unwilling to lose sight of his beloved. Thus the whole group moved still deeper into the mist...

Lunch, Anyone?
Hunger began to gnaw at them, unimaginably so, and when they moved to sate it, they found all their rations, drinks and potions were rotten and spoiled. They came upon a blood trail, and eventually a family that had eaten themselves alive. There was nothing but a sobbing, slurping, over-stuffed father powerless against his hunger and shoveling everything into his mouth. His wife and daughter shared death's embrace. The party couldn't help drooling at the sight, stomachs knotting, the mist exuding such incredibly delicious aromas.

Rogar lost control entirely and, despite the weak protests of the ravenous group, bit down and ended the gorged traveler's misery. He was completely lost to his hunger and began devouring the man, even as the others barely contained their urge to join him.

Kaern and Fog-eye managed to identify this yellow vapor as Famine Mist, a despicable Cadaveran manifestation that infected the body and the mind and drove men mad with hunger. It's weaknesses were fire and light, and in the cold, sunless land, it had become a vast bank.

The fallen raised her sword hilt and summon a blade of pure light, warding Kaylan, but unable to protect the party as a whole. Kaern herself seemed immune, her belt taking on a magical sheen.

Somewhere in the jaundice haze, Thamior wandered alone, suffering the same effects as the others...


Experience: XP 571 each (27, 972 total)
Outstanding Session RP, 500
+ Session 47 Summary, 3500
Money: -1 sun (Diana), -3 moons (Thamior)
Magic, Loot: paper pirate hat (Rogar)
Note: All rations, liquids and potions are spoiled.

New Hazard
Famine Mist

Active Quests

1. Isabella's Ashes (2/3 complete; group): Attune Izzy's remains to the three Barovian fanes in order to resurrect her.
   
2. Triglav Lives! (group): Prevent the Shadow Prophet from completing his fane rituals and resurrecting the new exarch of Hecate.
   
3. Rising of the Sunsword (Kaylan, Kaern, group): Uncover what you can about the missing Sunsword and help return day to the lightless realm.

Session 62: Mysteries of Barovia

Evening, Ulanra 15th

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Experience:
Magic, Money, Loot:

New PCs:
Kaern