Before I start, Talna and Elle had character portraits drawn by a very talented artist who can be found on Twitter @ArtsicFox and I wanted to post pictures and shout out the artist. Consider sending them a commission if you like their work!
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| Talna |
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| Elle |
In our last session, Balasar fled from the law while the rest of the party tried to be good. We eventually found Balasar, discovered he had the bones of St. Andral, and returned the bones to the church. However, when the bones were reinstated, Balasar was magically expelled from the church grounds. As he picked himself up just outside the gates of the church, Balasar saw two familiar hunters who had tracked him the night before, and a number of the city guard running towards him...
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The guards approach Balasar cautiously, forming a semi-circle around him to prevent him from escaping but keeping their distance at first. As the line become solid, the guards begin slowly advancing on him in disciplined lockstep. Behind the line of guards, Balasar sees the captain of the guard we met the night before, handing bags to the two men in wolf pelts and saying something to them. As the rest of the party exits the church building and comes upon the scene, Talna overhears one of the wolf-pelt wearing men say "Thanks, I wanna watch." Talna being Talna, she shouts "That's kinky!" in their direction.
The guard captain, ignoring our party for the moment, steps into the now fully formed circle of guards who have surrounded the dragonborn and glares down at Balasar.
Jaro walks to the outside of the circle of guards, standing on hoof-tip and craning his neck to see over them, but they nearby soldiers tell him to move back.
"So now you are caught," the guard captain says to Balasar, "You ran from interrogation, stole from the Bluewater Inn..." Elle interrupts by running to the circle, ducking around the guards' legs, dashing to Balasar, and casting Minor Illusion to change the color of his scales. "This is not the dragonborn you're looking for!" she shouts. The guard captain simply glares at her. "Are you sure you want to be in on this?" he says, and the naked menace in his voice is enough to make her step back. "Um..." Elle stammers, and then runs back out of the circle of guards. Balasar returns to his normal red.
"I am the Burgomaster's enforcer, here to pass judgment upon you. Draw your weapons." The guard captain concludes, pulling his massive axe from under his cloak.
"Anyone got a betting pool going? What are the odds?" Jaro asks one of the stone-faced guards, but receives only silence in response.
"Good luck Balasar!" Talna calls out, channeling healing magic into her words to restore some of his stamina (considering that Balasar got no rest the night before, he's already in poor condition for a fight). The townsfolk here are not as unfamiliar with magic as elsewhere in this realm though, and someone calls out "She's casting magic!" Talna glares in the direction of the shout with her most intimidating expression, and the voice calls out again "Nevermind! I was wrong!"
The guard captain stands patiently as Balasar starts to climb to his feet. As this happens, Gilligan makes an attempt to stop what is to come. He approaches the circle of guards and calls out "Hello fellow law enforcers! I am myself a law goblin in my homeland, could I not perhaps help to resolve this without violence?" One of the guards looks at Gilligan, who proffers some papers. "Here is my proof of legal authority." The guard glares at the papers. "Who is Helm? I don't recognize any of these legal bodies. No, you have no standing here." The guard hands the papers back and turns to watch the fight.
Balasar stands up, and launches himself at the guard captain in a sudden spring, attempting to tackle the man, but the guard captain simply shrugs off the attack, and swings back with his battle axe. The first swing goes over Balasar's back, but the reverse swing plunges into Balasar's shoulder, biting deep and lodging in bone. The shock of the blow causes Balasar to stagger back, and then crumple into an unconscious heap on the ground.
"Oof!" Talna says, loudly.
A nervous but expectant stir goes through the crowd of townspeople who have gathered to watch. Jaro, amongst the crowd, gets the feeling that while this sort of scene may play out with some frequency, the people are not necessarily in favor of it. The guard captain may not be the most popular figure in town.
Seeing his target on the ground, the guard captain pulls out a potion, but Talna shouts out "Don't worry, I've got this!"
"Yeah, don't add more to our bill!" Gilligan calls out from the anonymity of the crowd.
The guard captain looks agitated by the constant interruptions, but calls Talna over. She walks through the circle of guards and over to Balasar, still wearing her clerical vestments. However, as she starts to cast a healing spell, the guard captain stops her. "An eye for an eye," he says, and moving in front of Balasar, raises his axe over Balasar's hands. Talna gasps, and grabs the axe as he starts to swing it, bringing the blade to a halt before Balasar loses a limb.
"What?!" The guard captain cries out in evident fury.
"He deserves to be punished certainly, but he doesn't deserve to be maimed!" Talna shouts back, "he needs those limbs, we have stuff to do!"
"You come uninvited into MY city, he RUNS from me, he steals from MY people, and you have STUFF TO DO?" The guard captain loses his temper and smacks Talna with the flat of his axe, knocking her back a step.
Sensing trouble, Elle clambers up one of the pillars flanking the church gate for a better vantage point, and pulls out her bow, but is not yet prepared to fire on the raging guard captain.
In the crowd, Jaro starts jeering in an attempt to turn the townsfolk against the guard captain. "How dare he call over a friendly priest, stop her from doing her healing work, and then attack her!" A man nearby whispers urgently "Stop saying those things, you'll get us all killed!" "They can't kill all of us! Do you want to fight this oppression? I can help you!" Jaro shoots back.
Talna remains on the defensive. "I don't want to fight you!" she calls out, as she magically blinds the captain, but the captain is deaf to her pleas, and swings at her again. However, without his eyesight th axe goes wide. He stops a moment and wipes his eyes, shaking off the spell. Gilligan, blending into the crowd, whispers a spell that would compel the captain into a duel with the goblin instead of our danger prone cleric, but the captain doesn't even notice as the spell fizzles.
"We returned the bones! You need to calm down! Yeah, Balasar is an ass, but he's OUR ass, and we'll take care of him! We just want to leave Barovia, and get out of your business as soon as we can. I don't want to fight you, but I will if I have to!" Talna says.
I am here for RETRIBUTION!" the guard captain retorts. "Either I make him suffer for his crimes or you will die with him!"
"How would you feel if someone chopped off YOUR hand?" Talna asks. The guard captain looks at his right arm, which we belatedly realize is not a human arm at all but a twisted black demon's arm. "I've had enough of this," the guard captain says, with barely suppressed fury. "Guards!" And with that, two of the guards step forward and pull Talna away from the guard captain. Talna continues to shout protests, and Jaro continues to jeer from the crowd, but the guard captain ignores them both. Positioning himself near the unconscious dragonborn, he uses the demon arm to ignite the axe blade, then pours a healing potion down Balasar's throat. As the warrior's eyes flicker open, the guard captain swings his axe and neatly lops off Balasar's left hand, the flames cauterizing the wound as he does so. Balasar screams in pain and falls unconscious again.
The guard captain turns and screams at everyone gathered nearby "I AM THE JUDGE! I AM THE EXECUTIONER! I DECIDE WHAT HAPPENS HERE!"
Elle shouts from the top of her pillar "You don't have to be an ass about it!" Simultaneously, Jaro shouts from the crowd "You mean a tyrant?" The guard captain shouts "Who said that?" Several members of the crowd point at Elle. Snarling, the guard captain hurls a fireball at Elle from his demon arm, but the flaming sphere goes wide, arcing away to impact somewhere farther away.
"Try again!" says the (possibly suicidal?) gnome. In return, a second fireball smacks into her chest, singing her face. The Elle is briefly distracted patting out the small flames on her tunic.
The crowd and the circle of guards take the lull in action as a signal to disperse, and begins returning to their daily lives.
The guard captain looks at Talna. "Get him into the church, Father Lucian can help him," he says, pointing to Balasar, and begins to walk away. Gilligan runs to catch up. "Excuse me," the goblin says politely, "I was wondering about the law in this city?"
"Who are you?" The guard captain says, sounding a bit tired.
"I am Gilligan the Goblin, a Paladin of Helm. I'm traveling with these adventurers... my friends."
"You need new friends."
"I was just wondering what the actual laws and punishments for breaking them are here? That seemed a little excessive compared to the standards where I come from."
"You keep the law your way, and I'll keep it in mine. There's no difference between fear and respect, they both work to keep the peace."
"Then there's no difference between you and Strahd." Gilligan turns to leave, but the guard captain grabs him by the collar and lifts the goblin bodily into the air.
"How dare you accuse me of being like Strahd," he hisses. "You come into this town where you were not wanted. You cause a commotion, you disturb the peaceful lives of citizens under MY protection, and I am like Strahd?"
"We didn't cause a commotion, Balasar did," Gilligan says.
"Your friend."
"Well, we didn't exactly want to be here."
"You came in the gates didn't you?"
"We came here on a job. We were protecting someone from Strahd. And we found the bones to keep her protected."
"You found the bones? Then your dragonborn friend is lucky we didn't do what we usually do to thieves."
"What do you usually do?" Gilligan asks, nervously.
"They are either stoned by their victims or left to starve in prison. We don't need this disturbance. The Festival of the Blazing Sun is in two days and the city needs to prepare for it."
"The festival wouldn't be as effective without the bones of St. Andral, right?"
"And that is why your friend is not dead."
"We are going to do something about that which troubles this land, and end the reign of that tyrant."
The guard captain puts Gilligan down, and looks him over more closely. "You're different than the rest of your group. They'll bring you down if you stay with them."
"I have faith in my friends," the goblin says simply.
"Well, I hope that faith is repaid." And with that, the guard captain walks away, holding Balasar's severed hand.
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Back at the church, Balasar groans and opens his eyes. Talna walks slowly over to him. "I'm sorry I couldn't stop him from taking you hand," she says with sincerity.
"You should have just met me at the tavern," Balasar says.
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As Talna sees to Balasar's wounds and Sadun and Gilligan stand guard in case any more unpleasantness comes by, Jaro and Elle head over to the Bluewater Inn, the only place in town with spare beds. Inside are the two wolf pelt wearing hunters. Jaro waves at the hunters, who nod back at him. The barkeep recognizes Elle from the previous night, and seems to be wary of the visit. "What do you want?" he asks. Elle walks up to the bar and counts out 125 of her gold pieces onto the counter. "That's for the wine our friend stole. We need a place to stay, so can we call it even with this?"
The barkeeper stares at the pile of gold, then slowly scoops it off the counter. "Yeah, you can stay. My name's Irwin, and we have rooms for rent. You know you don't have to do this, right? You're not the one who stole the wine."
"Yeah, don't worry about it. Thank you for letting us stay."
Irwin reaches under the bar and pulls out a bottle of wine. "My supply of wine is actually nearly gone, and the next shipment is overdue, so don't ask for much, but here." He pours two glasses and hands them to Elle and Jaro.
"Do you need any help with the wine shipment?" Elle inquires.
"Yes? Are you offering?"
"Sure, what do you need done?"
"Well, the Wizard of Wines is usually on time with the deliveries, it would be nice if you could look into the delay."
"If I do, what would I get out of it?" Elle asks, still a bit mercenary even on a trip to create some good will.
"Well, what would you like?"
Elle takes a few moments to ponder the question. Jaro pipes up at this time, "Thanks for the information that helped us find our friend last night. Do you know about a weird falling down house on the edge of town?"
"You're probably talking about Fiona Watley's house, why?" Irwin responds, with a shrug.
"I just think they were trying to get Balasar inside that house, so I'm curious."
"I don't know about that. The Watley sons are regulars here."
"What about them?" Jaro asks, indicating the men in wolf pelts.
"What about them? They help with the wolves."
"You have problems with wolves?"
Irwin stares at Jaro a moment. "Did you not see the wolf heads posted outside the gate?"
"Ah, fair point."
The pair leave the inn and return to the church, Elle still pondering what she might want from the inn if she helps with their deliveries.
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Elle and Jaro return to the church to find the rest of the party discussing Madame Eva's fortunes, trying to decide if we'd seen anything in town that might fit into what we're supposed to be doing here.
"The bones of St. Andral are certainly items of power and protection," Gilligan points out.
"But I don't think Father Lucian is going to let us take them again," Talna replies.
"Hey guys, I got us a room at the Bluewater Inn," Elle calls out as she approaches. "I thought it would be good for Balasar to have a place to rest."
"Good idea," Gilligan says. "I'd still like to check out that Blinskey's Toy Shop, I promised someone in Barovia I'd look for their missing child, and that's my only clue."
The group turns at the sound of footsteps and armor nearby. The guard captain walks up, dragging a bound Azog. "This is your problem now," says the captain, pushing Azog towards us. "Keep him out of trouble, or I will kill you."
"Why is he our problem?" Jaro asks.
"He wants us to suffer," Sadun says.
The guard captain points at Sadun and winks. "I knew you were a smart one." With that, he turns and leaves.
"Well, I want to go see that monkey," Jaro says.
"At Blinksy's?" Gilligan asks.
"Yeah, sure," Jaro responds dismissively.
"Ok, well I think we should get Balasar to the inn so he can rest after today's ordeal," Elle says.
"I'll accompany you to the Inn, then we can catch up with the others," says Sadun.
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The party splits up, Elle and Sadun walking a morose Balasar to the Bluewater Inn while Talna, Gilligan, Jaro and Azog walk towards the toy shop. Balasar stares at the stump where his hand once was. As we walk, Elle thinks back to tales of gnomish technology from her world that allowed warriors who lost limbs in battle to fight on, but as the gnomes responsible for such things were of a different clan than she was, she keeps silent about it.
As the trio approaches the inn, they come upon a crowd of people standing at the door looking into the inn's main room. Pushing through, they spy a half-elven man in brightly colored clothing regaling a group of townsfolk with tales of derring do. As we pass by he tips his hat to us, but does not interrupt his narrative. Moving past the bar area, Sadun is nervous from her last encounter with Irwin (when he was so upset at dragonborn that he kicked her out) but Irwin just nods to her, and she relaxes. Elle leads Balasar up to the room while Sadun remains in the main hall, watching the man tell a rousing story. At several points he stands and gestures wildly, and then he begins acting parts, mock-sword fighting and shouting insults at an invisible opponent. The story reaches its climax as Elle comes back down the stairs, with the man pretending to get stabbed by an invisible sword, and falling behind the bar. The crowd gasps, and then breaks into cheers when he stands up and takes a bow.
"That will be all for now gentlebeings, but be sure to check out the carnival during the Festival of the Blazing Sun for more exciting tales of adventure!"
His story concluded, people begin filing out, talking amongst themselves. The man approaches Elle and Sadun. "You're new here!" he exclaims, noting how we stand out from the mostly human population. In a lower voice he says "Were you the ones causing that commotion?"
"Yeah, that was us. I'm Elle, who are you?"
The man steps back and gives us an elegant and intricate bow. "I am Riktavio, the master of the carnival! I and my troupe are hosting the Festival of the Blazing Sun in a few days on behalf of the burgomaster. Will you be attending?"
"It sounds interesting," Sadun admits.
"Yes, we'd love to attend!" Elle says.
"Delightful!" Riktavio exclaims. "Barkeep! A round! ... of water!" he amends.
"We'd like to try and get some wine in for the carnival," Elle says.
"Why thank you kind souls! It is so nice to meet helpful people," Riktavio replies. "Where are you from? I don' often see people like you here."
"A forest covered mountain?" Elle says, a little surprised by the question.
"I am from a land of rolling hills and gentle fields called the Giant's Plains. My people have lived there for centuries, but I left to find my own destiny," Sadun begins, gesticulating to emphasize her story. Riktavio is enamored with the storytelling, mimicking Sadun's gestures as he listens. "I traveled long and suffered much, but eventually I found my way to Daggerford, where I joined my friends the Greyflow River Mercenaries! We have had many exciting adventures together, and have become sound friends. Then one day, we were taken by a magical fog and found ourselves here, where we met my good friend Elle!" Sadun slaps Elle on the shoulder. "We are trying to find a way to help the good people of this land, and find our way back home now!"
"That is a good tale my friend!" Riktavio says, applauding. "Mayhap soon you could tell member of it?"
"Some other time perhaps," Elle cuts in. "We have to go meet some friends, but we'd love to see you around."
"I am staying in this very establishment," Riktavio explains, "so I am sure we will run into each other again."
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Meanwhile, the rest of the group arrives at Blinksy's. Jaro and Azog lead the way into the shop, where an older man greets them from behind a counter. "Welcome to the House of Blinksy! When happiness and smiles can be bought at bargain prices. Perhaps you know a leetle child in need of joy? A beetle toy for a girl or boy?"
"Where's the monkey?" Jaro demands.
The shopkeeper beams and claps his hands. "Piccolo! Come out, you have admirers!"
A monkey walks out from behind the counter. Jaro is delighted.
"I am very uncomfortable!" Gilligan exclaims at the sight of the primate.
The monkey starts to do a dance in the middle of the shop floor.
"I've completely changed my mind!" Gilligan says.
Jaro tosses a gold coin to the monkey, which grabs the money and takes it over to the shop keeper.
"What else can I do for you?" The shopkeeper asks, "Or was the entertainment sufficient? We have toys of all sorts here, so please look around!"
Gilligan pulls out the doll he had received from the bereft mother in Barovia. "Did you make this doll sir?"
Blinksy takes the doll and examines it. "Yes, this is one of mine, why do you ask?"
"I am trying to find a child, who had this doll. I was hoping to get a lead based on who purchased it." Gilligan responds.
"Well, I know the toys I make, but I don't always remember who purchased them. Let me think it over a bit."
While the shopkeeper ruminates, the party browses his wares. Elle and Sadun arrive and join the browsing. The toys on the shelves are a little macabre, including a working toy wooden gallows, a nesting doll where each smaller doll revealed is older and more frail than the one before, and a toy carousal that features children being chased by wolves in an endless circle. Gilligan pulls a ventriloquist's doll from a shelf that looks remarkably like the statues we had seen of Strahd himself.
"Can I buy this doll?" Gilligan asks.
"Yes, that one is 7 silver pieces!" Blinksy replies, happily. Gilligan hands over the money, an uncharacteristically nefarious gleam in his eye as he starts making "Strahd" say ridiculous things.
On another shelf by the main counter, Talna notices a doll that looks eerily similar to Irena. Elle sees it too, and they both asks simultaneously "Who is this doll supposed to be?"
"I... don't know?" Blinksy replies. Talna and Elle both look at him hard, but see no sign of a lie on his face.
"Can I buy it?" Jaro asks.
"I'm afraid not, that is a special order.
"Who placed the order? Did someone give you a picture to work from?" Talna asks.
"No, he just told me what to do and I made it."
"We know someone who looks just like that doll," Jaro says.
"Does this man turn people into dolls?" Azog asks, aghast.
"No?" Blinksy replies, clearly becoming uncomfortable with the questions.
"Do you have any other special orders?" Talna inquires.
"No, I do not get many," Blinksy says.
"Can I place a special order for a doll that looks like the captain of the guard?" Azog asks.
"Can you make a hand?" Jaro asks.
"I don't see why not," Blinksy replies.
"A hand that actually works?"
"That may be complicated, but I think I could do it."
"Can I buy that special order doll? I have a lot of gold," Elle pipes up.
"No, I cannot sell that doll. The client is a very dangerous person." Blinksy says, a little shaken at the thought.
"And you can't tell us who the client is?"
"No. I can say... maybe I can say his name starts with an I. But I will say no more! I do not want trouble! He places the order, and another man comes to pick it up! Please no more questions!"
The group leaves, Azog and Jaro placing more detailed orders for their respective toys as we do so, while Elle and Talna discuss how best to ambush the buyer of the special order. As we leave, Gilligan whispers to Blinksy, "I'm sorry about all that, but we do know someone who looks like that doll, and we are worried when you say the person who ordered it is a very dangerous person. Can you tell me nothing more sir?"
Blinksy whispers back "Very well, I tell you the client is Izek. But please, you did not learn that from me! I don't want any of this to come back on me later. I do not want trouble!"
Gilligan runs to catch up to the rest of the group, and we all head back to the inn for the night. We decide to discuss what to do next in the morning.
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