GC Dungeons & Dragons Part 6: Poking the Bear

In which we very nearly get ourselves killed. Again.




When we left our adventurers, Elle had convinced a priest that letting her give his probably vampiric son a pat on the back would cure him while Strahd stopped in to say hello to Balazar.

Elle opens the locked trapdoor in the backroom leading to the basement. Another locked door awaits at the bottom of the ladder. She knocks and asks "Hello?" The screaming has stopped, but there is no response. Talna walks up and breaks the lock off the door, which swings open with a creak. They see steps leading further down into the basement proper, but nobody is apparent. Elle continues to call out but receives no response, so Talna summons some dancing balls of light and sends them ahead. The rest of the party joins them and follow as they move down the stairs, weapons drawn. As Elle and Talna reach the bottom of the stairs, we hear a shuffling noise as something retreats from us. Talna body walks to the center of the room, and spots a pale young man in the corner of the room. He looks very scared, but prepared to fight if attacked. "What do you want?" he asks.

"I want to give you a pat on the back!" Elle calls out. "It will make you feel better!"

"I'm hungry," he says. "Me too!" Elle replies. "Father locked me down here," he offers. "Why?" asks Talna. "Please let me go, I'm so hungry," he pleads. "What are you hungry for?" Talna asks. To this there is no response.

Talna loses her patience, and pulls an arrow from her quiver, and uses it to prick her finger, drawing blood. Gilligan, entering the room and holding up the desiccated frog on a stick he picked up from the ritual room in the Death House basement, sees the young man suddenly lash out at Talna, knocking her unconscious in two swift blows. As she drops, the young man bends over and bites into her neck, and the lights go out.

Crying out in alarm, Gilligan runs over and stabs the man with his lance, while Elle pulls out her short swords and begins stabbing at him. Hearing the cries, but not able to see a target, Vivi joins in with a bolt of magical fire which briefly illuminates the scene before impacting on the far wall. Sadun and Vivi have trouble seeing in the dark, but Elle and Gilligan both have eyes adapted to vision in the dark. Sadun, in the process of pulling out a torch, sees Talna crumpled on the floor with the man bent over her in the flash of Vivi's fire, and realizes what's going on. Losing her composure, she rushes over, swinging wildly with her axe and hacking into the man's back, but he does not let go of Talna's neck, and as he begins draining her life away, the wounds the group had inflicted on him begin to heal over. Gilligan and Elle, with their superior vision, notice tears running down the man's cheeks as he feeds, and hear him mumbling "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" as he does so.

Realizing the situation is dire, Gilligan reaches out and channels the divine power of Helm and sending a surge of healing magic into Talna, who wakes with a curse, and immediately complains about the man grappling her and her bleeding finger. She shoves him off and stands up, cursing vehemently as Elle stabs the vampire again.

At this point, Balazar arrives at the church, hears the noise and rushes to find us. "What the hell is happening?" he demands to know. "Vampire killed Talna!" Vivi responds. Talna shouts up from the darkness "I'm not dead!" and Balazar, unable to make out the action through the darkness, says "Can someone do something about the light?"

In the darkness, the vampire stands again, weathering more blows from Sadun's axe, and once more lunges at Talna's bleeding form, but while his claws are able to grapple her again he chips his teeth on her armor and fails to find her throat. At this, Gilligan leaps onto the vampire's back, trying to pull him off with the weight of the goblin's armor, while Talna once again summons her dancing lights to help the dragonborn see.

In the new light, Vivi sends some magic missiles slamming into his back, Balazar begins firing his crossbow from the top of the stairs, and Sadun continues attempting to hack off his head without hitting Talna or Gilligan, but the vampire weathers the blows and once more bites into Talna's arteries. Talna loses consciousness for the second time, and her life force flows into the vampire's form, once more healing his wounds. For the second time, we are left in the darkness. Elle backs away from the melee in the middle of the room and lights some candles she had pilfered from the room above us, while Gilligan attempts to lever the vampire off of Talna. At his request, Elle tosses a candle to Balazar, allowing him to light his lantern and shed some natural light on the area.

Seeing her friend once more unconscious Sadun loses her temper entirely and enters a rage, and as she does spectral and dragonborn wearing ancient armor appear around her and begin to harry the vampire as Sadun's axe once again bites into him. Distracted by the spirits, the vampire is unable to keep his teeth in Talna, and then Gilligan manages to trip him and he falls to the ground, still holding Talna's unconscious body.

Balazar darts down the stairs and attempts to get Talna away from the vampire as Sadun and Elle rain blows on the vampire's back, but is unable to loosen the vampire's grip until Elle, at a suggestion from Vivi, pulls out her rope and manages to tie back the vampire's arms. Vivi rushes in with a shocking grasp and the vampire releases Talna, allowing Balazar to drag her safely out of the way, as Sadun, screaming in rage hacks the vampire limb from limb, until there is nothing recognizable left. Panting, Sadun manages to come out of the red haze and stares in some horror at her handiwork.

Gilligan once more applies magical healing to Talna, who sits up again with a gasp. Elle finds the largest piece of the vampire she can, and pats it on the back as promised. The entire group is covered in gore. Balazar looks around. "Remember this next time you try to sober me up Gilligan."

As the echoes of battle die down we hear the priest upstairs, praying and weeping. Sadun sits down on the stairs, holding her head in her hands. Talna walks over to her. "Thanks for the save," she offers as comfort to Sadun, who nods. Elle throws her candles on the remains, and following her lead Balazar breathes fire to cremate what's left. We gather the remains in a box as Irena and Ismarck cautiously descend the stairs, looking shocked at the signs of bloodshed. "What happened here?" Ismarck asks.

Talna turns and asks of Irena "So are you a vampire?" "I already said I wasn't," Irena responds. "Good," Talna says, "I hope I don't turn into one then."

Talna puts on her cleric's vestments to cover her bloodstained armor as Irena and Ismarck return to the main floor. The rest of us follow after, and find Irena comforting the priest. Elle offers "Here, want to give him his son?" Talna shushes her with a wave. "I know this isn't what you wanted, but he would have attacked someone eventually. I'm just glad he didn't attack you," Talna says to the priest. "If it means anything, I did give him a pat on the back," Elle adds. "At least he's no longer suffering. And he didn't want to attack anyone, we could tell," Talna continues, handing over the box of ashes. The old priest accepts it with great sorrow. "My poor poor boy," he says through his tears. "You came to bury a body, I will do what I must to bury both of them now." In the back of the church, Vivi nudges Sadun and whispers "See? We helped!"

Talna looks out the window, and sees that it has gotten very dark. "We should wait until morning. Odd things seem to happen at night around here, and it would be best for the Morning Lord to watch over us as we lay them to rest." The priest offers us the use of the church for the night, while he goes to make preparations for the burial. Gilligan, Elle and Balazar volunteer to help dig the graves, while Vivi and Sadun force Talna to rest after her ordeal.

Time passes with rest and work, but at midnight, the crew in the graveyard see an eerie green light suffusing their surroundings. Ghostly figures then begin to rise, forming a line and marching north. Gilligan turns to the priest and asks if this is normal. "Yes, this is the march of the dead," the priest, who introduced himself as Donovich, replies as he keeps digging. "Where are they going?" Gilligan asks."

"They go to Castle Ravenloft."

"Isn't that where your son went?"

"Yes."

"How could you tell he was different when he came back?"

The priest stopped digging and thought back with a sad look on his face. "He wouldn't eat food anymore. I feel that he was sent by that evil man as revenge against me and my church."

"Revenge?"

"A man in black robes came and incited the village against the man in Castle Ravenloft. My son and many others went with him, and only my son returned. That evil man must have thought it was representative of all my family and church that my son would march against him." He points at the ghostly procession. "Some of these ghosts are probably from that ill fated attempt at opposition. Each night they rise and march to the castle."

They finish digging the grave in silence. As they head back inside, the priest has one final thing to say. "You know that's not her real father you are burying, right? He found Irena in Savlich woods as a child. He loved her deeply of course."

A few hours later, the morning breaks over the worn down little church. The party buries Irena and Ismarck's father with great ceremony, as Talna and Gilligan both offer prayers and blessings over the coffin as the dragonborn lower it into the ground. They also pray over the ashes of Donovich's son as they too are laid to rest. As we start to pile dirt over the coffin, Irena says simply "Goodbye father."

After the ceremony, Donovich tells us to take Irena far from Castle Ravenloft, because the man who lives there is Strahd and he has taken an interest in Irena. We agree, and tell him we are taking her to Vloki, although we're concerned about the disappearances we have heard about and request a map and a supply of holy water for the journey. He obliges our requests. "People disappear around here all the time," he says. "If you're trying to get as far from Castle Ravenloft as possible, you could also try the abby of St. Morkovia in Krezk. They would help you there."

Vivi asks about Madame Eva, and learns she is less than half a day's journey from Barovia, though it would be a slight detour from Vloki. Irena and Ismarck are not happy about our proposed visit to the fortuneteller, but agree to remain behind and finish preparing for the longer journey. Sadun, noting Irena's rapier, hands the apparently unarmed Ismarck a javelin from her stock. "For protection." she says.

We travel to the Vistani camp, which we find along a river. Several brightly colored tents surround four large wagons, and a number of people in bright colors dance and chat around a fire. As we approach, one of them comes up to us. We ask after Madame Eva.

"I can show you where she is!" he exclaims, "But would you like to hear a story first?"

Talna groans at this. Vivi attempts to get out of it, but they are anxious to learn what Madame Eva might know about teleportation and escaping this dimension, and gives in.

The tale he tells is about a wizard who came to the region a year ago, stirring the populace with thoughts of revolt against the evil Strahd. He led a mob of peasants against the castle, but when the vampire lord appeared, many of them fled. The few who stood with the wizard were never seen again. Strahd and the wizard exchanged a flurry of spells, with neither gaining the upper hand, until Strahd suddenly flew at the wizard and overpowered him, throwing his body into the river Livilice below, which carried the body away. Our storyteller claims he witnessed the battle, and climbed down to look for the wizard's body, but could not find it.

After the story, he shows us to Madame Eva and returns to the fires. As we enter the tent, we hear an old woman cry out "At last you have arrived!" It seems she was waiting for us, and calls to each of us by name, and even calls Elle "Jezelle", a name Elle does not go by.

"Do you know how to escape this plane?" Vivi asks. "You want to go home already? But you have so much to do here still! How will you find yourself if you leave now?" Madame Eva replies. Vivi retorts "I find myself in the stars, not here!" "Ah, but you have already travelled far from your home, is that not what you wanted?" Madame Eva asks. Vivi grows thoughtful at that.

Madame Eva explains that she brought us here. "Violence is not always the answer. Isn't violence what killed you once already Balazar? I want to save Barovia, and I need your help to do so."

We question her about the rumors that the Vistani serve Strahd, and note that what she says does not sound like doing what he wants. "I do what I must for Strahd. I am not going against him, I merely wish to free him of his curse. If you can help me end his curse, you will be able to leave here. I chose you because you are equipped for bringing poor Strahd down, afflicted as he is with his evils." Sadun mentally notes that Madame Eva is not afraid to say Strahd's name.

"So you want him dead?" Talna asks. "I want him free. But I think we are probably on the same page about how to accomplish that." Madame Eva replies. "Did you bring that wizard a year ago?" Gilligan asks. "Would you like your fortunes read?" Madame Eva asks, changing the subject, "It's the least I can do to help you, after bringing you here." Vivi finds themselves unsure if Madame Eva is hiding something from us, or just losing touch with reality in her old age, and decides it might be a little bit of both.

Most of the party is suspicious about the fortunetelling, but Talna remembers a question she did have. "Do you know what this ring is?" she asks, holding up the gold ring she had found on the skeleton in the dungeon underneath Death House.

"Ah, it is a Band of Firm Grip. It will allow you to cast a spell," is the reply. Talna nods, satisfied.

We finally agree to have our fortunes read, and Madame Eva brings out a deck of Tarot cards and deals several out in a cross-shape. She tells us that knowledge of the ancients will help us know our enemy. We are to look for the mother, and a powerful source of Good and Protection. We are to look also for the Wizard of Wines, in wooden sands a treasure hides. There is a weapon of vengeance, a sword of sunlight, and if we look to the west we will find a pool blessed by the white sun. (The DM noted here there were two more pieces of the fortune he had forgotten to write down here.)

Finally, Madame Eva turns to Balazar. "So, what did Strahd say to you?" she asks.

TO BE CONTINUED!

(Note, Aproustian and I will both be traveling next week, so definitely no post then, although if anyone who attends the group wants to summarize next week's adventure in the comments, I would appreciate it!)