SESSION 3: DAY 2: Barovia: 16 Days Until Full Moon, Waning Crescent
The Death House of the Dursts
Karl's hooded lamp began to dim after an hour had passed. Vladamir kindly cast light on a coin and placed it in the lamp for Karl so he didn't have to worry about oil. The party proceeded onward to the last room on the second floor, discovering a small ballroom with a piano and a harp. Upholstered chairs were leaned up against the walls. For a moment, they all heard a strum of a stringed instrument. They tested and studied the instruments to see which one might have been played, but could not find a connection as if it had been a mere echo of another instrument that was played in the past. Further investigations proved to be fruitless, but there was a brief moment of respite. Karl and Song performed a nice little amateur duet on the piano and harp respectively.
The group proceeded up the final flight of the red marble staircase, which was extremely creaky and dusty in comparison to the rest of the house. With every step, there was a loud groaning of wood. Kragg scouted ahead carefully and laid eyes upon the extremely unkempt third floor that was caked with dust. As he turned right to approach several doors, the wolf-headed suit of armor near the landing swung an axe high above Kragg's head.
The party immediately worked together to quickly dispatch the animated suit of armor. Karl revealed a unique magical ability that allowed him to imbue his weapon with heat using his own blood.
They carried on in exploring the long abandoned, dirty rooms of the third floor. First, they found the bathroom where Song took a moment for relief. Then, they moved on to the master bedroom belonging to Gustav and Elisabeth Durst. Kragg instinctively shot at the rotting tiger skin rug with his crossbow. It did not react. In the mirror-covered closet, Vladamir made an unfortunate discovery of spiderlings that quickly scattered across the room and frightened him. Not much was found in the room aside from the jewelry box at the vanity and a much happier wedding portrait of Gustav and Elisabeth. Vladamir stepped out of the room when he was no longer able to tolerate the spiders. As Song went to check on him, Kragg went to take the jewelry but was noticed by Song out of the corner of her purple eye.
They all moved on to a closet that Karl decided to explore before being attacked by a broom. Karl absolutely smoked the angry cleaning tool while Song idly played with a wolf-headed helmet, mostly unaware of the situation.
From there, they went to the last rooms: a bedchamber with an adjoining room. Kragg began to hear a cry of a baby as he approached the door to the other room. As he opened the door and stepped in to approach the veiled cradle, a horrible screech was heard as the specter of a young woman appeared in the corner of the bedchamber. The vicious specter immediately targeted Karl and the party quickly banded together to take the specter down. However, the specter seemed to take a toll on the monster-hunter before it dissipated with the final strike of Vladamir's blessed blade. After the fight was over, the paladin and cleric healed Karl the best they could.
Vladamir then went to see the baby hidden under the black veil and swaddled blankets. However, within the blankets he found nothing. Instead, he felt the feelings and memories of the short-lived babe. The nursemaid that had once lived there was the baby's mother and Gustav was the father. Meanwhile, as Kragg investigated the bedroom mirror, the dwarf saw blinking eyes hidden amongst the berries carved into the frame of the mirror. Song took a moment to suggest that the heirlooms of the household should be given to the children, despite the actions of their parents. After casually breaking the mirror and making the eyes stop blinking at him, Kragg agreed and made the suggestion of burning this house after they left. Song seemed uncertain, but seemed to agree as long as the fire didn't spread to the rest of the town. The rest of the town had clearly been through enough lately.
Everyone moved on to the balcony. Knowing that there was still a fourth floor yet to be explored and no stairs to reach it, Kragg bravely climbed up the house from the balcony to reach a fourth floor window. He tossed down a rope to make it easy for the others to follow him. While standing on the roof, Vladamir noticed a smiling doll in the window and decided to take it to give to the children.
They entered the window of a dusty, storage room of sorts. Many sheets covered old furniture of various kinds, but one sheet had long covered the body of a long dead young woman whose cause of death was left undetermined.
In the next room, they found another empty bedroom. Then, there was a padlocked door. Karl pulled out the key that he found on the desk in the library. It fit the padlock and he was able to open it. To the party's horror, they discovered the long, dead remains of Rose and Thorn curled up together in their shared bedroom. When Song questioned what was within, Kragg went to pick up Thorn's doll to show her.
As soon as the doll was picked up, the ghosts of Rose and Thorn appeared. Thorn protested the removal of his doll. Through the children, the party discovered that their father had locked them in this room to go fight a monster downstairs. No one ever came back to let the children out. They had starved to death in that room. Rose and Thorn had no memory of meeting the party outside. Rose also revealed a secret passage that led to the basement, using the dollhouse that was a replica of the Durst Manor.
The ghost children were quite determined to have the party stay to play. No amount of soothing or reasoning from Song or anyone else seemed to do the trick. Song mentioned having a short and bossy younger sister, an older brother, and a younger brother in an attempt to relate to Thorn and his relationship to his bossy sister. The best thing Song could determine to do was to take the remains and lay them to rest in the catacombs.
When the party attempted to leave, the ghosts attempted to possess several members of the party but were unable to do so. Karl poured holy water on the remains, which hurt the children a little bit. After a stern talking to from Vladamir, Thorn and Rose backed down and let them leave with the remains. As Song left the room, Rose told her that the party was going to die down there just like the rest. Then, the two ghosts disappeared.
Song stared out a window while Kragg and the others explored the remaining doors on that floor. There was a hidden staircase leading to the third floor and the bedroom that Vladamir took the smiling doll from. Then, they all gathered up in the storage room to approach the secret passage, which was a cramped spiral staircase full of spiderwebs that headed deep below.
Karl seemed tense at the sight of it, but managed to just steady his nerves enough to continue. Following Kragg who burned webs with a candle's flame, they proceeded into the depths below the house into dark and tight hallways with supporting wooden pillars like a mineshaft. Song gave her darkvision to Karl and Vladamir. Feeling more comfortable with his companions, Vladamir confessed that he was an aasimar and warned that he might glow with a bright light on occasion but to not be scared. Lightheartedly, Kragg jokingly told everyone that he was also secretly a halfling and can't actually see in the dark.
Hearing unintelligible chanting from every direction, they carried on and found an unmarked crypt as well as another crypt labeled Walter that was empty. Karl threw the Light coin inside his hooded lamp towards the southern path, seeing a room. The rogue led the group north up the hallway. They found a sleeping area with hay beds and then another sleeping area with slightly nicer cots, locked chests with valuable items, and a well with water many feet below.
Karl grew feverish with the more time he spent down in the dungeon. Concerned, Song asked if he was new, but he assured her that he would be fine. Then, everyone suddenly heard an inhuman screech down the hall. A monster was somewhere down there and was aware of their presence. Vladamir attempted to go ahead and lure it out, but it was nowhere to be seen.
Kragg peered down an adjacent hallway and his senses tingled. Sure enough, there was a nasty spike trap hidden in the footprintless floor. The party determined that it would be easier to find an alternate hallway than for everyone to jump over. The dwarf marked an X on the spot with chalk. He then created a slightly haphazard trap made of rope and pitons for anything that might attempt to jump over the spike trap to get to the other side. As Kragg continued onward, Karl adjusted the trap to make it more effective with Song's guidance.
The party managed to make a complete loop, finding the room with the light coin. Karl picked it back up. They all looked around the large room with a dining table covered in humanoid bones and a darkened alcove with more hallways to explore. The quartet found more of the crypts and were able to find the ones with Rose's and Thorn's names on them. The children's remains and dolls were laid to rest in their rightful places. Rose and Thorn's spirits appeared one last time before the party and laid down to rest before passing on.