GC Dungeons & Dragons Part 5: Taverns and Trouble

In which Gilligan learns of a kidnapping, and the rest of the party gets drunk.


We started this session with two extra players, but Elle and Talna arrived late.

When we left our adventurous adventurers (I'm reluctant to call them "heroes") they had escaped Death House and wandered down the road, possibly being driven by some unknown power considering the terrifying fog and the dire wolves they met along the way. They had arrived at a village and Elle had threatened an old man in his home. The party then went in separate directions, Talna and Gilligan going off to investigate the sound of someone crying while Sadun, Balazar and Elle went to the tavern.

Arriving at the Blood on the Vine tavern, Sadun and Balazar note that the "N" in "on" had been scratched on over an "F", meaning it had been called Blood of the Vine tavern. This probably holds some deeper meaning or insight that the two dragonborn fail entirely to understand, and simply enter into a bar area. In one corner three well dressed women watch the newcomers from a table at which they converse in low voices, and in another corner a lightly complexioned blonde man sips his drink quietly, between a purple skinned trifling and a blue scaled dragonborn, who are talking to each other. The bartender cleans the bar area, not acknowledging the party.

Balazar walks up to the bar and orders a keg of ale. The bartender replies that a glass is one copper, and a pitcher is a silver. Balazar orders two pitchers, hoping to get drunk quickly after his enforced period of sobriety. The bartender serves up two pitchers of wine and immediately returns to cleaning his glasses. Balazar is furious. "I ordered ale! Not wine! What is this?" The bartender looks up and says "glass of wine one copper, pitcher one silver." At this point the blue dragonborn at the corner table shouts to us "They only have wine here!" Balazar is appalled. "What kind of tavern doesn't have ale?" But he takes the two pitchers of wine anyway and moves to sit at the table with the dragonborn. Sadun moves to join him.

The dragonborn and trifling introduce themselves as Vivi and Garland, respectively. Sadun and Balazar recognize Garland as the trifling bard who had accompanied them into the first floor of death house, but disappeared mysteriously when the rest of the party went upstairs. Garland explains that he actually has no idea what happened, he lost consciousness int he house and then suddenly woke up in this town and has been coming to this tavern since then.

Vivi (played by aproustian) appears vaguely familiar to Sadun, but neither of them can place the familiarity. Vivi explains that they also woke up in this town some time ago, but have no memory of whence they come, but some things have been oddly familiar to them in a deja vu kind of way.

As the introductions are going on, the blonde man walks over to the bar, sets down a gold piece and returns with several more pitchers of wine. "Welcome friends, too Barovia. I am Ismarck. Please enjoy this drink on me, but I would like to ask a favor in return, which I will explain later."

Our new dragonborn friend Vivi

And Vivi's new miniature

Meanwhile, Gilligan has followed the sound of crying to a 2 story townhouse down the road a ways from the tavern. The area seems largely deserted, and the buildings are worn down. Seeing nobody outside, he knocks on the door and calls out "Hello? Is anyone in there?" The door creaks slowly open at his knock, but nobody answers. Seeing the latch has failed, Gilligan steps inside, calling out as he does that he is no threat, and just wants to offer help.

He follows the sounds of grief to a room off the main corridor and finds a middle aged woman in tattered clothing sitting on the door and holding a child's doll as she weeps. Gilligan walks slowly up to her, and puts a comforting hand on her shoulder. She looks up at him, having not heard his approach despite his calling out, taken aback by the appearance of the small green skinned humanoid, but gets past her shock quickly. Her voice is hoarse from crying, but she is not visibly injured. Nevertheless, Gilligan offers what comfort he can, sending the holy power of his god through his hand in a wave of soothing, healing energy.

"I'm Gilligan, what's your name?" he asks. "Mary," she replies. The magic seems to have calmed her enough to speak. "My daughter Gertruda, she's gone."

Mary explains that her daughter has been missing for a week. Mary is at her wits end with worry. "Can you find her for me?" "I can certainly try." Gilligan assures her.

"I fear somebody has taken her. She rarely leaves home, and is never out of sight of her doll" Mary explains, holding out the doll she had been crying over.

"It's my duty, as a paladin of the Church of Helm, to help you. My god commands that we protect the innocent!" Gilligan declares. Mary is confused, she has never heard of the church of Helm. Mary gives Gilligan a description of her daughter and hands him the doll to help his search. Gilligan notices a phrase stitched on the hem of the doll's dress: Is no fun, is no Blinksy.

As he takes his leave, Mary whispers to him "Don't trust the Vistani, they serve that devil!"  "What devil do you mean?" Gilligan inquires. "If you say his name, he appears!" she cries. She explains that we are in Barovia, which Gilligan had never heard of before. He names some of the areas surrounding our mercenary company's home base of Daggerford, but Mary has never heard of any of them. "But then, no-one is allowed to leave, except this damn Vistani. Oh, I have said too much!" Mary starts sobbing again, and Gilligan leaves in the direction of the tavern, having done all he could.

We don't have a miniature for Gilligan yet, although his player wants to get one. So we've been using this from Order of the Stick's A Monster for Every Season

Throughout all this, the group in the tavern has been conversing and drinking. Mostly the latter, as Ismarck refuses to ask his favor, and the two newcomers have no memories to relate. Sadun has mostly been relating the tale of Death House to them while Balazar drowns himself in six pitchers of wine. Garland listens with one ear while he strums his lute and composes a new tune in his head.

The story of Death House does not seem to hold much interest for Ismarck, who is very distracted. Finally, he leaves the table for the privy out back. At his departure, one of the well dressed ladies approaches the table. "Welcome to Blood on the Vine!" she says, snapping her fingers. At her signal, the bartender stops his umpteenth cleaning his five glasses and moves to clear out table. "You must be new here" the woman continues.

Balazar answers her. "Yeah, we were driven here by the fog." "Have you spoken to Madame Eva?" the woman asks. We look at each other and shake our heads. Before she can continue, Bismarck returns. He and the woman exchange frosty stares, and the woman leaves us without another word. Ismarck glares after her, and says that it's time to go. Sadun and Balazar follow Ismarck out of the tavern where they meet up with Talna and Gilligan. Gilligan decides to go in and try talking to the woman. Meanwhile, Garland and Vivi follow the woman back to her table to see if she has anything more to say. She invites them to sit with her and her companions, and in response to Vivi's question explains that Madame Eva is a fortune teller at the Tserpool encampment. Vivi and Garland agree we should talk to the fortune teller, who may be able to shed some light o why we are here, especially the two of them with their memory problems. The two of them leave the bar, followed by Elle who had been drinking at the bar alone. (NOTE: this is when Elle and Talna's players rejoined us.)

Gilligan passes the three on his way in, and walks up to the three brightly dressed women, asking if they are Vistani. "Yes" one of them replies. "What does that mean to you?" She shows no shock at Gilligan's appearance.

"I've heard the Vistani can leave this place." Gilligan says, cautiously. "There are such rumors," The woman agrees. "You don't have the best reputation with the townspeople here though." Gilligan says. "Well, people hate what they cannot be," the woman responds, dismissively. "If you're not buying anything, please leave," she continues, giving Gilligan a stern look. He does, having concluded that the woman has indeed left the town due to her reactions to him compared with his conversation with Mary.

Outside, Ismarck hurries the group to a secluded spot away from the tavern's possibly prying ears. "I need your help. I need you to take my sister and escort her to Vloki, a town a short way from here. It's a dangerous road due to the wolves."

"Why does your sister need to leave?" Balazar asks. "There's an evil creature that wants her, and I have to get her away to protect her," Ismarck explains. Balazar grumbles that this sounds like it's worth more than a single night's drinking. "Why such animosity with those women though?" Balazar asks. "They work for that monster! I mean, I have nothing concrete, but the Vistani are a shady people who move around the area doing that monster's bidding, whatever it might be. It's his power that gives them the ability to leave Barovia."

At this point, Balazar starts talking price, but Ismarck interrupts him. "My father is the... my father WAS the Burgomaster here. You'll have whatever money you want."

Vivi interjects "That sounds like a rich position."

Sadun, upon hearing the term Burgomaster perks up. "Your sister wouldn't happen to be named Irena, would it?" Ismarck is shocked. "Yes! How did you know?" Sadun hands him the letter we found on the road, and he peruses it. "I guess Dalvin didn't make it... we had sent him to place this letter at the gates to dissuade people from entering while this monster stalks among us... you're stuck here as long as he is alive."

Elle pipes up "As long as who is alive?" Ismarck whispers in a low voice "Strahd." Elle is obviously bored with this conversation and with Ismarck, as she responds loudly "Strahd?! Did you say Strahd?!" Ismarck looks panicked, and moves to cover Elle's mouth, saying "Please, once is enough!" but he doesn't reach her, as Balazar immediately lifts Ismarck by the neck at the threatening action, choking him. Ismarck manages to choke out "He controls these lands!" as Gilligan hurries over. Balazar puts Ismarck down, and the party huddles to compare notes. Talna thinks we should join the Vistani cult in order to get out of here, while Vivi suggests going to talk to Madame Eva for guidance. Balazar wants to help Ismarck in order to get as much money as we can from him. Gilligan looks thoughtful, and then says "I've heard the name Madame Eva before, from that man we drove away from Daggerford, Stanimeer! And he wore bright colors too!" Balazar says we really should have let him break Stanimeer's fingers when he had the chance. We decide to help Ismarck right now, and come back to Madame Eva. None of us really want to join a cult...

Elle and Talna's miniatures

After some further interrogation, Ismarck assures us that Irena is not dead, nor is she a vampire. We decide to humor him by not naming Strahd anymore, and instead refer to him by some ridiculous name like Voldemort. Ismarck tells Gilligan that Blinksy, which he saw on the doll, is a toy shop in Vloki. We learn that Strahd also controls the wolves. We continue to negotiate price with Ismarck until he promises he'll take us to the Wizards of Winery themselves, and we finally officially agree to help him.

Ismarck leads us down the street to the Burgomaster's mansion. The iron gates out front are torn asunder, and weeds fill the lawn. Claw marks cover the walls, and all the windows are barred with planks marked with evil omens. The walls also show marks from fires. Ismarck admits as we approach that he has not told Irena about going to Vloki yet, but insists that it will be safer for her there, as Ismarck himself cannot both protect her and run Barovia with their father dead. Passing through the useless gate we notice that the weeds are trampled down and there are wolf paw prints of varying sizes in the dirt, mixed in with a few barefoot humanoid prints. Ismarck opens the front door onto a heavily furnished but obviously worn down mansion. A woman stands before us, at the ready with rapier drawn as we walk in. Talna checks her out as Ismarck introduces us to his sister Irena. Sadun thinks Irena looks like she can handle herself.

Talna immediately asks "So, are you a vampire?" to a very confused Irena. "Ismarck, what is this?" she demands. "I brought them here to protect you." He explains. Talna winks at Irena at this. "I've asked these people to take you to Vloki, where they have walls and a cathedral, and he won't be able to..." Ismarck explains. Gilligan perks up at that. "A cathedral?"

Ismarck explains that there are two gods worshipped in this land, and the people of Vloki worship the Morning Lord over Mother Night. Gilligan and Talna both recognize the names.

Irena insists that she won't leave until her father is given a proper burial. His body lies in the coffin in the next room, which Irena made herself. She has been unable to this point because wolves and other creatures have been harrying the house for the past few weeks, and the villagers are too afraid to help. Talna and Gilligan offer to fo a ceremony so he won't come back to life, and Balazar offers to burn the body. Talna examines the body with permission. "Looks pretty dead!" she declares. Irena says dryly "Thanks for reminding me." Talna then uses a healing spell to cure Irena's bite marks, and as the spell heals and does not harm her, we are assured that Irena is not in fact a vampire.

"Please, just help me bury my father at the church with our family, and I will come with you to Vloki." We agree, and, dragonborn carrying the coffin, walk to the church in the north part of town without incident.

Sadun

The church doors also are covered in claw marks, and the marks of fires past. Gilligan uses his divine sense, and notes one living thing in the church, and one undead thing inside the church. And then notices a second undead thing? How odd.

As we enter the church, we hear someone praying, only to be interrupted by an inhuman scream from beneath the wooden floor. Deciding there is some obvious danger, Talna walks body into the church, raises her holy symbol, and channels her god's power to Turn the Undead. At this, Balazar drops the coffin behind her, and runs out of the church with no explanation (and he himself has no idea why). Sadun bemusedly picks up the coffin, while Talna drags Gilligan into a (fortunately empty) side room "For a private religious conference!" she shouts over her shoulder. The rest of us stand in the church entryway, looking confused at both our own party's behavior, and the content sound of praying at the front of the church interrupted by inhuman screams, some indistinct, others with words like "Father, feed me I'm starving!" As Gilligan and Talna emerge from the room, looking unhappy, Elle darts in and loots what she can. Vivi asks Irena and Ismarck about the screaming, but they both shake their heads, unsure as well. Gilligan then walks into the church proper, and confronts the man praying at the altar. "Are you the father of this church, or the father of that screamer?"

"Who are you?" The man replies in a hoarse voice. "I am Gilligan, a holy man... Holy Goblin of the Church of Helm." Gilligan says.

"Yeah, we're here to bury a guy." Talna adds. "And if what my friend says is correct, the person in your basement is not alive either."

The man gets angry at this. "How dare you talk about my son like that?" We work to diffuse the situation. "Why don't you tell us about your son?" Vivi suggests. The man explains he is the priest of the church we are in, and that he prays every day and night for his son to be cured. "There's no cure for the undead." Talna says severely, angering him again. "Get out!" He shouts at us. As we turn to go, Elle asks the man how to get to the basement to cure his son, and her question must catch him off guard somehow because he points her to the basement. She runs to the room and finds a trapdoor chained shut inside it.

Meanwhile, Balazar has regained control of himself and begun to return to the church, when a mysterious man walks up to him. "I know who you are." "Are you the voice who offered me that deal?" Balazar asks. The man looks confused, and Balazar recognizes him as Strahd from pictures we had seen in the mansion. "From what I hear, you're the main villain of this town." Balazar says.

"I'm not villain, I simply own the town. People don't always appreciate their owners" Strahd responds. "In any case, I'm not here for them Balazar. I'm here to give you something of a pep talk, as a new member of the soulless club. You see, you're dead."

"If I'm dead, how did I get so drunk earlier?" Balazar demands.

"Oh, it's not so simple as all that. Your soul simply belongs to these lands now.

At this Balazar draws his sword and puts it to Strahd's throat, but Strahd merely chuckles. Balazar senses several figures coming out of the shadows around him and resolving into the shapes of wolves.

"I'm merely checking in on my new inhabitants" Strahd continues, ignoring the sword. "You really don't belong with those people, do you. I wonder, will you betray them? Or will they betray you? I look forward to finding out." And he steps back from Balazar as a fiery black horse gallops over. Mounting his Nightmare, Strahd smiles once more at Balazar, and then leaves the befuddled dragonborn behind.

Balazar hasn't painted his miniature yet, but I think he likes the one in the cloak

To be continued!