SESSION 2: DAY 2: To Barovia: 16 Days Until Full Moon, Waning Crescent
Then, There Were Four
DAY 2: TO BAROVIA: 16 Days Until Full Moon, Waning Crescent
The trio awoke in the morning and had a discussion around the fire. Recalling information she had forgotten, Song told Kragg about how one could paralyze a vampire in its resting place if the vampire's heart was pierced with a wooden stake. She also questioned if it was usual for the Vistani to send people on a runaway cart. Kragg declared that Song's first mistake was to consider that anything the Vistani did was usual. The dwarf also suggested that it may not even be the Vistani's fault. Vladamir occasionally muttered something to himself as if speaking to someone else, but no one decided to question it in that moment. No one mentioned anything about their unusual dreams. Kragg seemed pleased by his own dream while Vladamir and Song were both slightly unnerved. On a coin flip between the names Casper and Edward Cullen, the party ended up going with the name Casper for their new bone-white horse.
It was also determined that Vladamir knew Common, Celestial, and Infernal. Kragg admitted to knowing Common and Dwarvish. Song knows Common, Celestial, Draconic, and Primordial.
As they left the hidden burrow and returned to the road, they gazed up to gloomy, dark skies that never seemed to brighten. From the swirling mists behind them came a humanoid figure that seemed unwell. This figure was none other than Karl. Karl was an armored, tall man in his late twenties with short, wavy, black hair; stubble on his face, and piercing blue eyes. He looked exhausted and injured as he carefully approached the party. Vladamir stepped in front of Song, initially wary. Kragg snuck behind the cart to avoid being seen. After calling out to Karl and speaking with him, Song met Karl halfway with the intention to examine his wounds. She noticed that Karl's wounds were similar to some she had seen in the past and told him, "if your intentions are good, you are safe with me." Vladamir overheard Song say this, but didn't notice anything distinct about Karl's wounds. Karl pet the horse called Casper.
Seeing that the stranger meant no harm, Kragg made breakfast and Song bandaged Karl's wounds. The party asked him questions about where he had come from and what he was about. Karl was a monster hunter that had been traveling near Phandalin in the Lost Hills while in pursuit of criminals. He lost them as he chased them into the strange mists. He even heard of Barovia in his extensive training. Stranger still, Karl had found another years-old-corpse in the forest with a letter from Kolyan Indirovich that was an exact copy of what the party had found the other day. Karl devoured his breakfast, seeming to be starving as the trio explained how they had come to be here. Song was able to find 4 rations in the nearby forest.
They decided to continue down the road together. Song and Vladamir sat inside the wagon. Kragg drove the wagon while Karl sat with him. They eventually came out of the forest into an open field. As they drew closer to the village in the distance, they could also see a river that was distantly parallel with the road. Beyond that, they could see a great castle with several towers that overlooked the village high up in the mountains. Song determined that there was a chapel in town off to the right of the village with a fenced-in gated area. The moon cleric could also tell that the style of the stonework of the castle was very very old in comparison to most she had seen in the past in Faerun. The road ran through the village and veered off to the left over the river.
As the party came close to the town, they decided to hop out of the wagon and walk alongside it towards town in the hopes of not disturbing the locals with their arrival. The buildings almost looked like tombstones in the mist as they approached. All in the village was deathly quiet aside from the rain and the distant, echoing sobs of a woman. The windows were dark. Several buildings looked absolutely ransacked. Song determined some of them appeared to have been attacked by beasts with claws.
The party sent Kragg ahead to scout and see if he could find the crying woman. Before the dwarf could reach the crying woman, he came across two little children. The older girl was trying to hush her little brother who was crying. Kragg tried to talk to them and soothe them but they seemed uncertain about Kragg. They didn't seem to realize he was a dwarf. Kragg tried to make them a little tent to keep them out of the rain with a blanket and stick. Karl followed after Kragg, seeming suspicious about the children and attempting to see if a holy symbol or holy water would make them react. The children did not react and only seemed more confused. They told the pair that there was a monster in their basement and that their parents were still inside the house.
Song and Vladamir were pushed forward by the encroaching mist, taking the cart with them. While they were alone, she asked Vladamir if he was all right, seeming a little concerned that he was talking to himself. Vladamir told Song that ghosts have been following him around most of his life. There was a particular ghost named Alfred that seemed to annoy him. They came onto the scene of Kragg and Karl speaking with the children. The little boy named Thornboldt immediately rushed over to greet the horse. Vladamir was quick to intervene in a possible spooking of the horse when Song wasn't quick enough. Thornboldt began to cry, worried he'll never see his parents again. Rosavalda, the older sister, continued to try and comfort her brother. Song did her best to comfort him and gently introduced him to Casper the horse with a little food so he could pet the horse. The party decided to go forth and fight this monster within the house as the fog seemed to enclose all around them.
They carefully entered through the portico and passed through the foyer past portraits of stony-faced aristocrats. There was a coat of arms of a windmill on a red field. Karl was unable to see in the dark, so he lit a hooded lantern. The party began to explore the first floor of the house that was clearly owned by members of the upper class. It was very clean and decadent, but not a soul was to be found. The walls were carved with symbols of flora along with satyrs and nymphs. Skulls and wolves were hidden amongst the carvings. Over the fireplace, there was a sword with an undetermined mark on it. There were crossbows and bolts in the den, taken by several party members in case they helped with taking down the monster. Taxidermied wolves in the den were poked with blades, only to reveal the unpleasantness of maggots. Kragg took the silverware on the dining table. Karl and Kragg were tempted by fresh, delicious food from the kitchen. There was no way to the basement, hidden or otherwise.
Suddenly, they all noticed that the fog had completely surrounded the house. Song looked out the den window for the children, calling out to them and the horse. There was no response. She stuck her head in the mist and was almost overwhelmed by a wave of grasping souls that tried to reach into her very soul. Barely holding on, she quickly retreated from the window and shut it, warning the others to not do what she just did. Vladamir relayed that he had been absolutely overwhelmed when he had tried to use Divine Sense near the fog.
The uncertain party headed up the red marble staircase to the second floor, seeing no other way. At the top of the stairs, there was a portrait of the family. Rose and Thorn were pictured there along with a woman with a severe face and a tight dress next to a top-hatted nobleman with a long coat, mutton chops, and arms that held a swaddled baby. The woman seemed to be looking upon the baby quite scornfully. The party investigated the servants' quarters, only finding a continued connection to the dumb waiter in the kitchen and a few uniforms.
Passing by wolf-headed suits of armor, they then entered the library. Karl investigated the desk, finding an iron key, a seal, and other writing implements. He only took the iron key. The monster-hunter continued on with Song, investigating the many shelves of books. They noted the books' subjects to be related to history, alchemy, poetry, and fiction. In some of the history books, they gather that the parents of the children were named Gustav and Elisabeth Durst. There also had been a war between two factions 400ish years ago. Song picked up a book on the local history. Vladamir picked up a book on poetry. Karl then discovered a red book with a blank spine. He pulled on it and a secret room was revealed behind a bookcase. The monster-hunter found more bookshelves with books on made-up rituals and a clawfoot chest with a humanoid body that was halfway inside and not moving.
After carefully studying the body and the chest for possible traps, Karl opened the chest completely and Kragg moved the body out of the way. The pair looked inside the chest finding 3 spell scrolls (one identified as Bless by Song), a deed to the house they were in, a deed to a windmill out in the forest, and a last will and testament of Gustav Durst that willed his possessions to his wife Elisabeth and children Rosavalda and Thornboldt. Song examined the body with aristocratic clothes. The man had been dead for years much like the corpse out in the woods. He had died from 3 poison darts to the chest that must've come from the claw-footed chest's trap after being improperly opened. The identity of the dead man was yet to be determined, but he is hypothesized to possibly be Gustav Durst with his fine clothes. Searching the dead man's pockets, Song found a rather scathing letter addressed to "my most pathetic servant" from Strahd von Zarovich, a name none of them had heard before. The letter called the man out for being disloyal to his wife, cursed with a stillborn child, torturing visitors in their dungeon, and bleeding souls on a hidden altar. Strahd also denied being their savior, calling these people "worms writhing in his earth". He preferred them to wallow in their misery and had no intention of leading them to a path to immortality.