In which the party travels and meets a fortuneteller.
In our last session, we met Ismarck and Irena, helped them bury their father the previous burgomaster of Barovia, learned about the priest Donovich's son who is probably a vampire being held in the church basement, got attacked by wolves, and somehow survived.
This month's session starts off with Ismarck telling us we need to go west to Vloki, and the sooner the better. Sagira asks if the fortune teller we'd heard about is in Vloki. Ismarck grows visibly uncomfortable at this, and says that Vloki and the fortune teller are in the same direction, but we can decide where to go once we reach the crossroads.
The party agrees to this, and we head southwest from Barovia. We reach a nearby bridge, which Rek checks for trolls before we cross it. Soon we reach the crossroads. There is a sign pointing East to Barovia, Northwest to the Sirpoole Camp, where the fortune teller is, and Southwest to Ravenloft and Vloki. Eld wonders aloud how long the camp has been there to have its own sign. The Northwest trail descends into heavy forest, while the Southwest climbs up a slope into some hills.
At the crossroads there is also an old wooden gallows, the arm of which creaks in a breeze blowing from the northwest. There is a frayed rope still attached to the arm. A low wall encloses a small plot of graves near the gallows.
Ismarck advocates heading straight to Vloki, preferably avoiding Castle Ravenloft on the way, but says if we decide to go see the fortune teller he and Irena will accompany us.
While the rest of the party debates, Rek investigates the gravestones, and notices they are all blank save for the same chiseled drawing on each stone. She calls Colin over, and Colin examines the stones. He determines that the drawing signifies that an elf is buried under each stone, and there are about 20 stones. Rek remarks with surprising insight "I thought only humans lived here." Attracted by the discussion, Arf joins them and notices that the gravestones are all very old, hopefully meaning the gallows has not been used in a long time.
By this point, the entire party has become distracted exploring the area. Seesil wanders the perimeter looking around for anything tasty that could be stocked for provisions (grubs would be great) and realizes as he does so that the land stretching for some ways from the crossroads is dead. It's not dead from overuse, simply dead, which clashes with the surrounding woods.
A sudden gust of wind causes the gallows to creak very loudly, startling everyone, particularly Sagira who promptly she sets the frayed rope on fire. The party notes that while the rope burns, the gallows itself does not catch, despite the age of the wood. It appears to be too damp, and we realize that we haven't seen the sun since we've been here. Ismarck says that the people of Barovia have not seen the sun in years. Gazing at the gallows, he remarks that there once were execution sites like this all over Ravenloft, but they have fallen into disuse, and merely serve as reminders of the past that most travelers ignore as they hurry from the safety of one village to the safety of the next. Well, relative safety, considering the wolf attacks we've experienced...
Ismarck continues to explain that while the majority of the inhabitants of Ravenloft are human, they occasionally get nonhumans who are pulled into the realm by the mist we ourselves walked out of, and once the people of Ravenloft looked... unkindly on nonhumans. Which explains the graves. Colin, reflecting on this, notes that some of the markings on the graves are almost entirely worn away, and estimates the gravestones are between 300 and 80 years old, so at least nobody has been buried here recently.
At this point the group becomes aware of a distant shouting. A faint voice that grows louder as we listen, coming closer to us, and sounds like it might be crying for help.
Eld climbs up on top of the gallows to get a better look, and sees a figure running in our general direction, chased by four other figures. The single figure is out in front, and moves unevenly, as though injured. The pursuers move more leisurely, almost like predators playing with their prey. As they get closer, Eld can make out a crossbow bolt protruding from the pursued figure's leg. Deciding to help, Eld calls out "This way!" At that, the figure looks up, seems to make us out, and starts heading straight to the crossroads. The pursuers are dressed in leather, three of them have crossbows drawn and the lead figure has a longsword drawn. They speed up in their pursuit, but as they reach our range Eld fires an arrow which sticks in the ground directly in front of the lead pursuer's feet, which brings them up short. The pursued man continues running towards us, shouting "Help! Help!" in a ragged breath as he gets nearer.
The leader of the pursuing men shouts up at Eld "We have no business with you, we just need to kill him!" "You should have finished the job you started a long time ago, there's no honor in this chase!" is Eld's reply.
Ismarck notes that the running man has a fuchsia scarf, and may be one of the Vistani. The man reaches our position around the gallows. Colin and Seesil note that the bolt embedded in the man's leg is poisoned, which Seesil is pretty sure is hemlock. As this happens Eld continues his shouted conversation with the pursuers. "Why does this man need to die?" "Because he's a filthy Vistani!" is the response. "Well I hat the Vistani too!" Eld bluffs. "Come on over and finish him off!" The pursuers are confused, not quite believing Eld's words. "Send him out to us and we'll finish him off really quick!"
It's a Barovia standoff, the pursuers are not willing to approach within Eld's sneak attack range, but Eld is attempting to bluff them closer without surrendering the man. "It will be hard to send him back to you if we can't catch him!" Eld tries. Rek, taking him literally, tackles the Vistani man. "Don't kill him Rek!" Eld says in a loud whisper. "We've got him, come and get him then!" Eld calls out to the pursuers, who have cautiously walked closer to us, but remain outside our optimum range.
Arf helps the situation by attempting to remove the crossbow bolt from the Vistani man's leg, but accidentally twisting it instead, causing the man to scream in pain. Curious about the whole situation but convinced poison is bad for the fleshy meat people, Seesil bends over the man and casts Lesser Restoration, neutralizing the poison.
Eld finally gets fed up with the bluffing game, and shoots the lead pursuer. The arrow hits the man in the side, and he is knocked to one knee. Eld asks the DM if he can use his free action to taunt them. "Sorry, my hand slipped!" He calls out. The pursuers are no longer fooled at all. "Filthy Vistani lovers! Get them!"
At the commencement of hostilities, Ismarck and Irena draw their swords and take cover behind the low wall around the gravestones. The pursuers run into the nearby tree line, also taking cover from Eld's arrows. Rek, figuring out whose side we've taken, picks up the Vistani man and moves him behind the low wall next to Ismarck and Irena as Eld fires another arrow into the Leader's chest. "Oops! Slipped again!" he calls out, as the leader slumps to his knees and then falls forward dead. We hear the remaining three pursuers cursing from the trees. "He's killed Brock!" Eld attempts to bluff them again, saying "He might be alive, you should go check!"
Sagira flings a bolt of magical fire at one of the men in the trees, hitting him full on and knocking him back out of his cover (I'm playing for Sagira this game as she is out of town, and I rolled a critical hit! That never happens for me in combat...) The other two men shout to each other "They have magic! Kill the spell caster!" and at that Sagira ducks behind the wall to take cover from their crossbows.
Shouting "Leave some for me!" Arf pulls his axe and sprints out of cover, crossing half the distance between us and the trees. "Ok, forget the spell caster, get the angry dwarf!" one of the men shouts.
Colin takes aim and fires his crossbow, nailing one of the men leaning too far out from his tree. "That one was on purpose!" Colin calls.
Ismarck and Irena watch Arf charge out, shrug at each other, and rush after him as backup. The two men who aren't putting out fires from their tunic rush to meet Alf's charge, dropping their crossbows and drawing swords as they do. Arf meets one of their downswings with his axe, breaking the sword in half, but the other gets a swing in, stabbing into a weak spot of Arf's armor and drawing blood.
Seeing the melee and knowing Rek, Seesil casts Longstrider on the half-orc, allowing her to move faster and farther than normal. Just in time, as Rek immediately runs at the man whose sword lies in pieces, raging at his temerity and planting her axe directly into his chest. The man falls dead at her feet. The other pursuer, the only one to manage to harm any of us, takes an arrow to the shoulder from Eld, who is still on top of the gallows. The final man, standing up from where Sagira's fire bolt knocked him, is surprised when Sagira hits a second fire bolt immediately where the first went, this time burning a hole into his chest. He falls dead amongst the trees, a surprised expression on his face.
Colin decides to get in on the flame game, and summons a Sacred Flame from the sky on the remaining man, igniting his body and burning him to death to Arf's whispered "Burn!" (We all looked at Arf's player at that one...) Eld surveys the field, and just to make sure, puts another arrow in the leader's body. Seeing no more enemies approaching in the wake of these four, he jumps off the gallows. "I'll be right back after I loot some racists," he tells us. He finds a vial of dark liquid on the leader's body, which he identifies as the hemlock poison. He also takes all their armor and weapons to sell later. While Eld loots them, Seesil slices up the burned bodies. "No sense letting good meat go to waste" he explains, "and cooked meat lasts longer." Surprisingly, nobody objects to this.
The Vistani man we saved gets up. "Thanks for saving my life. I was out looking for provisions for my camp, but it's not as safe to travel openly as a Vistani as it used to be. These men ambushed me. Could you escort me to my camp? It's north of here, and after this incident I'd feel safer not to be traveling alone." Rek offers to carry him. "Do you know of Madame Eva?" Colin asks him. "Yes! She is our esteemed leader and resides at my camp!" After a short discussion the party agrees to see the man safely home.
As we turn to leave the crossroads however, and odd thing happens. We hear a loud creak behind us as the breeze picks up. Turning back around, we see a lifeless gray body hanging from the gallows now, on a rope that is no longer burned to a cinder. The body twists slowly in the wind, and it seems to make eye contact with each of us. Arf whispers "Don't waste the meat!" To which Eld says "Oh, hell no." Seesil issues a sissing laugh at this.
The body is of about average human height, but is too decayed to make out what it is exactly. The eyes however are very much intact.
Seeing us staring, Irena and Ismarck ask what we're looking at. "Don't you see the body on the gallows?" we ask. "There's nothing up there..."
Weirded out, Sagira creates a magical bonfire at the base of the gallows structure, but the gallows seems oddly unaffected to our eyes. The Vistani man, slung across Rek's back, asks "Is it normal for you guys to set things on fire?" "Yes, it is for her," Rek replies.
Colin is even more disturbed than the rest of us. Turning to Eld he asks "Do you see me up there?" "No, but it's hard to make out the details..." Eld replies, and continues under his breath "this is not an omen, this is not an omen, this is not an omen..." Eld sights down his bow, and fires an arrow into the body. It pierces into it, and where the arrow pierces it the body immediately begins decaying. We watch the decay spread outward, until only a skeleton is hanging in front of us, and even as we watch the skeleton disintegrates into ash and blows away on the wind. All that remains is a decidedly burnt gallows.
"Why did you shoot that tree?" Irena asks. We look past the gallows and see the arrow Eld shot, which had seemed to stick in the body, quivering in a tree branch a few yards away. Eld shrugs, and we all shake ourselves, and retreat from the area.
After another while of walking, we reach the Vistani camp. It consists of 4 wagons parked in a circle in a clearing, near the banks of a river. Six tents are set up outside the circle. One of the tents is much larger than the rest, and sits at the edge of the river. In the center of the circle of wagons is a bonfire, and several people dressed in the colorful garb of the Vistani sit around the fire singing songs and telling stories to each other. Eight horses drink from the river nearby.
As we approach, some of the Vistani at the fire look up. "Andre! Welcome home! What have you brought for us?" "No food I'm afraid, merely an injury and some friends," our companion replies. "You're injured!" exclaims one of the Vistani, and they rush him off to tend his wound. As he is carried away, Andre points to the larger tent. "That is Madame Eva's tent. Feel free to go in, I believe she's expecting you."
Eld does not trust such a warm welcome, and before we go inside he checks around the outside of the tent for traps. Finding none, we decide to go inside, save for Rek who opts to keep a watch out, while conversing with the Vistani at the fire. The Vistani are very welcoming, and unlike most other people we've met here, Rek notes that they do not seem put off by our group of non-humans.
The rest of us enter Madame Eva's tent. "At last, you've arrived" she greets us. "Elduin. Colin. Seesil. Sagira. Arf. But where is Rek?" "Well, that's not creepy..." Eld says, "Rek is outside getting drunk." "No matter," Madame Eva continues, "The ones here are the ones fated to be here at this time. Would you like your fortune read?" She seeks consent for this from each of us, and we agree with various degrees of reluctance. Seesil is confused, looking around to see what his fortune is written on that it can be read so easily.
"Strahd fears you ," she beings, "because you've disrupted the balance he put in place long ago. Usually people are claimed by Ravenloft, but you were sent here. Sent here by whom or by what I cannot say. You want to leave here, and Strahd stands in your way. There is only one way to leave." She takes a deck of cards she had been shuffling, splits it in two. The second pile she sets aside for later, and holds out the first pile. "Who will draw the first card?"
(Note: The DM actually had a special Tarot deck for this, which the players actually drew cards from, and he then consulted his notes on what the drawn card meant. It was a really neat touch!)
Arf volunteers to go first, and draws the Charlatan. Madame Eva places the card in a very specific spot on the table, and explains this card will tell us about history. To defeat our enemy, we need to understand our enemy. We will find this knowledge in a dead village, drowned by a river, and ruled by one who brought great evil into the world.
Sagira draws second; the Druid. Placing this card below the first, Madame Eva says this card tells us of a powerful force for good and protection. A lonely windmill stands on a precipice, and within lies the treasure we seek.
Eld very reluctantly draws the third card; the Monk. Madame Eva places this card on the table, explaining that this card tells of a weapon of vengeance and of sunlight. We much look to the west, where we will find a pool of water touched by the distant sun and blessed by a sun whiter than any we have seen before.
Colin, presuming the druid wants to go last, draws fourth; the Necromancer. For the first time since the reading began Madame Eva smiles. The last two cards tell of two places at odds with each other. This card tells us of an ally we can seek who will help us in our fight. The man we seek is a man of entertainment, who travels with a monkey that often sits on his shoulder.
The final card is the conclusion of the story. Strahd, powerful as he is, cannot defy fate. Seesil draws the card; the Horseman. Madame Eva completes the cross she has created on the table with this card, and explains that our opponent looks in a dark place where light once shone. In this defiled place we will always find him.
"Heed the cards," she concludes, "they have told you all you need to know to complete your fate and leave this place. There is no more I can tell you than what the cards have already said, though their meaning may be literal and it may be symbolic." As we turn to leave, Madame Eva tells us that the Vistani wagons are open to our use. "Before you go, I have an item here that may help you. We have had it for generations, but it has long been felt that it would not be used by our family. I will give it now to you, as it might be useful to you." She pulls a box down from a shelf, and gives us a vial with milky liquid inside; a potion of Hill Giant Strength. Eld pockets the vial to give to Rek later.
As this was going on, Rek sits at the campfire with the other Vistani. One of them decides to tell the Tale of the Wizard. Although the rest of the group seems bored with another retelling, he goes ahead with it. Once, a wizard came to the land who stirred the people against Strahd. He led an army of the people against Castle Ravenloft, but when Strahd appeared, most of the peasants fled. Those brave few who remained were never seen again. The wizard and Strahd engaged in a magical duel, hurling spell after spell at each other. But while they were evenly matched in magic, the wizard was no match for Strahd when he descended upon the man, and Strahd threw him to his death in the river below.
The Vistani telling the story claimed to have seen it happen. However, attempting to find the wizards body (for the loot of course) discovered that the river had already swept it away.
In exchange for this story, Rek tells the group the story of our adventure at Death House, to much applause and appreciation. It is apparent that these people do not get a lot of new stories.
The rest of the group joins Rek at the fire. Arf asks if they have anything other than wine to drink, but is left to sip his bottle morosely at the confused expressions the Vistani turn on him. While Seesil settles onto a warm rock to sleep the night off, and Sagira stares with evident fascination at the fire, Eld and Colin set about investigating the fortune we have just heard. Eld asks about the windmill, and one of the Vistani volunteers that perhaps we should check out Old Bonegrinder to the north. It's on our way to Vloki, so we will pass it by. A local Barovian family once owned it, but it has fallen into disuse and disrepair. Remembering the deed to a windmill we found in the Durst's chest during out Death House adventure, Eld exclaims "Oh, I think I own that now!" to much laughter from the Vistani.
Looking around, Eld notices Ismarck and Irena are sitting by themselves at the edge of the camp, obviously keeping themselves apart deliberately. He moves to sit with them, and asks them about the windmill. Irena says the nickname "Old Bonegrinder" comes from local rumor. After it went out of use, people used to travel past it, but anyone who talked about it seemed to disappear soon after, as though the mill itself were consuming them. Eld asks further if Ismarck and Irena have heard of any villages flooded by a river. However, most people do not travel far from the safety of their villages due to the dangers of the road. (A little late to be telling us about this...) However, we may want to check out Lake Zarovich, or perhaps Lake Bartock.
Back at the bonfire, Colin asks if the Vistani know about a man with a monkey. Someone does remember a man named Rictavio, who used to be with a traveling circus. The circus shut down though, as it's hard to keep up when your audiences keep dying. (Is that why it was from the necromancer card? We debate a bit out of character.) It has been some time since anyone has seen Rictavio, and he may no longer be alive.
At this point, Arf, Eld and Colin gather our various loot together, and find some amongst the Vistani who are willing to trade with us. There ensues a long series of haggling I have not recorded. Eld sells the crystal balls we found to Madame Eva, who pays for them with gold coins stamped with Strahd's head. We sell a number of other items, and trade with one Vistani woman for a Ring of Swimming (for the drowned village).
At the end of the session, we advance to level 4. To be continued in a month!
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