Tuesday, April 2, 2019

GC Dungeons and Dragons Part 17: Aftermath

In which the party deals with the fallout of the battle last session, and attempts to decide what to do next.




Last time, the group participated in a multi-sided battle in Vallaki's town square. lady Fiona Wachter lead some followers in an attempted uprising against the burgomaster and Izek's city guard, but when Fiona summoned some zombies that fell upon the townsfolk and revealed she was working with Strahd, the adventurers fought against her, essentially supporting Izek. Fiona was killed, and Balazar accepted some sort of deal with parties unknown which gave him a new spectral hand made of swirling dark energy. Meanwhile, some Vistani attacked Father Lucian in the church and stole the bones of St. Andral once again.

In the town square, Balazar and Izek glare at each other as Balazar shrinks back to his normal size. On the other side of the square, Elle loots the bodies of guardsmen and townsfolk alike, looking for anything of value. She finds a scarf and a dagger that may be magical, several coins, and a set of spell materials n Fiona's body.

"Think about how this could have gone," Balazar says to Izek, a regular sized dragonborn once more. And with that, he turns and walks from the town square, leaving a thoughtful Izek behind.

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In the church, Talna, Sadun and Jaro move Father Lucian into a private room in the back of the church where he can recover from his injuries in peace.

"Stay close to us Irena, we'll keep you as safe as we can," Talna calls out as they move.

Ismarck enters the church, looking ragged and tired. "I tracked those Vistani as far as I could after they attacked Father Lucian, but I lost their trail in all the commotion. They were heading east last I saw them though, towards Lake Zarkovich."

"Is that the direction of Madame Eva's camp?" Talna asks.

"Yes, but there is also another Vistani camp near Vallaki, they could also be going there," Ismarck explains.

Jaro, remembering Blinksey's predicament from before the fight, looks around the church but does not see the toymaker. Sadun, picking up on his distress, looks for the children the group had rescued from the hags in the windmill. When looking through one of the back rooms, Sadun hears a creak from the closet in the otherwise isolated room. As she approaches, the room goes very silent.

"Is there anyone here?" Sadun asks.

No response. Sadun assumes the children are hiding in the closet, so she returns to the main sanctuary and tells Jaro. Jaro walks to the closet, and peeks inside, checking on the children. As he eases the door open, a makeshift club swings past his ear and hits the wall. Opening the door further, Jaro finds Yeska guarding the younger children from the windmill. All three are shaking and terrified.

"Oh I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Yeska says between tears, recognizing the satyr.

"No, you did good," Jaro reassures Yeska. "You've learned to use the dagger, and you are protecting people. I'm proud of you."

Yeska buries his face in Jaro's shoulder, as one of the other children explains "We saw the bad people hurting Father Lucian so we ran to hide."

"I'm just so glad you're alive," Jaro says. "It is safe now, you can come out. You did well though."

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Balazar follows Elle to the Burgomaster's still smoldering mansion. The fire has been brought under control by the emergency fire brigade, and the day's rain also helps. A cloud of smoke pours into the air above the mansion. In the distance, Elle spots a little boy and an older lady, surrounded by guards. 

Other guards ring the mansion, keeping passersby from gawking at the ruins and trying to bring some sense of order to the scene. The reduced number of guards are making their task difficult. Izek stands in the middle of the scene, barking orders.

Elle approaches Izek but is stopped by pair of guards at the perimeter. "That's close enough," says one of them. Elle simply shrugs, and decides to turn around and head towards Fiona Wachter's house by way of the church to check in with the group. 

On the way to the church, Elle and Balazar pass Blinksey's toy shop. Suddenly struck by unusual concern, Elle walks up to the front door. Ignoring the "Closed" sign on the door, she knocks very loudly, but gets no response. Setting her jaw in a determined expression, she pulls out her thieve's tools and begins picking the lock.

"You don't want to kick the door down?" Balazar asks from behind her. 

"No, I don't want to draw too much attention here," Elle replies, as she works on the lock.

With a click, the bolt slides back and Elle opens the door. After Balazar follows her in, she shuts the front door. Looking around the dark shop, Elle notices a door leading further into the building.

"Blinskey! Blinksey!" Elle whisper-shouts as she walks to the door. Still getting no response, she opens the door, and follows the walkway up to a second locked door. Knocking again, she once more gets no response.

Out come the lock picks, and once again, the door glides open. Inside is a modestly appointed living/workshop combined area, with an open kitchen nearby. A monkey watches Elle from the desk, startled. 

"Where's Blinksey?" Elle whispers to the monkey.

"You're the bad lady!" The monkey squeaks in monkey-speech, and runs into an adjoining room. Balazar watches the scene from the doorway, bemused.

Footsteps herald the approach of Blinksey, monkey on his shoulder. "What are you doing in here?" he demands.

Seeing him, Elle bursts into tears, and runs over, hugging his knees tightly and crying "You're alive!"

Blinksey, perplexed and failing to stay mad at this display of emotion, pat's the gnome on the head. "There there," he says. "Have a seat? What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to make sure you were still.. *sniff sniff* aliiiivve" Elle sobs.

The monkey brings her a handkerchief. "Don't look at me," Balazar says when Blinksey looks up, "I'm just here for the show."

"Now now, please don't cry," Blinksey says. "I see you brought friends?"

"Only one," Elle says between her tears.

Looking more closely at the gnome, Blinksey says "Who's blood is that on you?"

"It's zombie blood," Elle sniffs. "Do you know what's been going on outside?"

"I heard a commotion, but I'm trying to stay out of the way," Blinksey replies.

"Stay inside, seriously, don't go out right now, it's dangerous," Elle tells him, her tears drying up.

"That was the plan," Blinksey says with a smile.

"In all fairness, there were two locked doors," Balazar mumbles. Elle glares at him.

"I could make an illusion to make your door look like a wall," Elle says, thinking out loud.

"I've never needed that before," Blinksey says. "To hide where I live. But times have changed. Apparently."

"I'm sorry," Elle says, tearing up again, "It was an accident, I swear!"

"Now now, enough with the tears. What is happening?" Blinskey asks.

"There was a riot, and zombies attacked, and the burgomaster's mansion burned down," Elle explains. "A lot of people died, and a lot of people are hurt. We didn't start it this time!"

"Thanks for pointing that out," Blinksey says.

"In all fairness, we do start a lot of shyte," Balazar says from the doorway.

"Well, thank you for checking on me," Blinksey continues. "Hopefully when the furor dies down a bit, I can go back to bringing happiness to people's lives."

"They'll need it now more than ever," Balazar observes.

Elle sniffles and nods.

Blinksey looks at Balazar and notices the new hand. "Well well, good for you!"

"It's great, isn't it?" Balazar says proudly.

"We should go back to our friends," Elle says. "Stay safe Blinksey!"

"I will try!" Blinksey says.

"Keep it Blinksey sir," Balazar says, as they leave.

Elle gives a gold coin to Piccolo the monkey, who does a little dance and delivers the coin to Blinksey. The monkey no longer seems worried by Elle.

Spotting a water dish with Piccolo's name painted on it, Balazar pours some of his beer into the bowl for the monkey. Piccolo takes a drink, and staggers around the room as the pair depart the building.

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Returning to the church, Elle and Balazar enter the grounds without thinking about it. As soon as he walks past the gate however, Balazar stops. "What in the seven hells?" he wonders aloud, "How did I get past the gate?"

Elle stops and looks at him. "Uh oh," she says, "Somebody took the bones again."

They enter the church building, noting the signs of struggle, and the churchgoers and Sadun working to put the pews back in order straighten up the sanctuary.

"Blinksey's alive!" Elle announces as she sees the group.

"That's good! A group of Vistani stole the bones, and Ismarck saw them heading east," Talna says. "It's getting dark though, so we may need to take a rest and pick up the hunt in the morning. We had a rough day, and we don't want to work ourselves to exhaustion."

The party begins discussing their options, but soon Talna notices a figure entering the church. Turning, she sees a familiar dusk elf smirking at them. Talna steps protectively in front of Irena.

"I like what you guys have done with the place!" the dusk elf declares, toeing a broken vase on the floor.

"Churl, that was my favorite vase!" Gilligan shouts.

Balazar draws his swords. "What are you doing here ruffian?"

"Yeah, you need to leave," Talna says.

"But I just got here," comes the reply.

"But you are not welcome here!" Elle shouts.

"But I thought this church allowed everyone in!" The elf protests. "Especially now," he adds with an evil smirk.

"He knows about the bones," Elle moans.

"Of course he does, he works for Strahd," Talna says.

"Maybe," the elf shrugs. "I see you haven't given up yet. It's obvious you are in over your heads. It was easy getting the bones from you. Why bother? Do you want to die here?"

"Do you want to die here?" Talna retorts.

"As if you could do anything to me," the elf says.

"Do you want to try me?" Talna says aggressively. 

"I don't really know what's going on," Jaro says, walking towards the elf, "but hello, I am Jaro!"

"He killed Balazar," Talna says, not taking her eyes off of the elf.

"What? I knew he was a ghost!" Jaro exclaims.

"He was already dead," Talna says.

"Wait, ghosts can die?" Jaro says in wonder.

"Well, he keeps coming back. Nobody on the other side wants to keep him," Talna says.

Coming back to the moment, they realize the elf is talking to himself. Balazar, Talna and Elle are able to make out his words: "Please, just a little more..."

"A little more what?" Balazar shouts.

The elf moves to draw his scimitar, when Strahd's voice rings out "RAHADIN!" We have heard Strahd before but never so angry. Talna moves back in front of Irena on instinct. Rahadin, with an angry scowl, turns to leave.

"Vassal!" Jaro shouts after him. 

Rahadin turns, stares at Jaro while biting his lip until blood flows, then spins on his heel and strides out of the church.

"That's right, go serve your master!" Balazar shouts after the figure disappears.

"Well, that was an occurrence," Talna says. "Let's all take turns on watch, and rest in the same room. Irena, you stay with us. Ismarck... you too."

"Are we ignoring Balazar's new hand?" Gilligan asks.

"Oh, right," Talna says. Turning, she aims a slap at Balazar, who ducks out of the way.

"What are you talking about?" Balazar asks, hiding the hand behind his back.

"It that a normal thing for dragonborn?" Jaro asks. "Do they all get ghost hands?" Sadun shakes her head at the satyr.

As Talna keeps swinging at Balazar in semi-mock frustration, Gilligan focuses his divine senses on the dragonborn. While he senses no evil, the goblin does sense an alien entity residing in the dragonborn's bloodstream, concentrated in the hand. The feeling is a mix of celestial and undead to the confused paladin. Otherworldly, a power he has not experienced before.

"Where did you get that hand?" Gilligan asks.

Balazar blocks Talna's last swing with his new ghost hand. It seems to function as a normal hand would. "Yeah ghost hand," Balazar crows. As he is distracted, Talna kicks him in the knee. Elle finally pulls the two apart.

Finally, the group takes a rest. They are joined by the three children, Ismarck and Irena, and Talna brings in Father Lucian's bed as well, figuring safety comes in numbers. The children and Elle end up in a ball in the middle of the group.

Sadun and Gilligan stay up for the first watch. Just before Talna comes out of her trance to relieve them, Gilligan asks "We've known each other for a while now. What do you think of the situation with Balazar?"

"I am concerned. He has always been a strong fighter, but his actions have not been good for the group recently," Sadun replies.

"Well, I think I can trust you with this. If it comes to it, in the name of Helm, I will not hesitate to put a stop to him."

Sadun nods, pondering. Finally, she allows "If he threatens the group, the group must come first. I will back you, if it comes to it. But I hope it does not."

Talna takes over shortly thereafter for the second watch. She notices Gilligan's gauntlet, engraved with the holy symbol of Helm, is glowing in the dark. "Is he afraid of the dark?" Talna wonders. "Does the light help him sleep?"

Gilligan, in his dreams, sees Vallaki burn. He hears his own voice shouting "Burn it all down!" Tossing in his sleep, his gauntlet grows warm. He sees visions of violence and battle, of paladins past, and finally he sees himself, standing triumphant and proud.

Elle wakes to join Talna for the third watch. Observing Gilligan's glowing gauntlet, Elle steps almost instinctively to touch the glow. She steps on several people on the way over, including Balazar's tail and Jaro's hand. They grunt in their sleep but do not wake. "Sorry, sorry," she whispers, as she goes. Touching the gauntlet, Elle feels a sense of comforting warmth radiating from the holy symbol. 

Talna observing Elle's path, recalls a piece of history she had learned, of paladins of Helm at the forefront of the armies opposing the Drow empire, although nothing she remembers sheds any light on the glowing gauntlet.

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From the journal of Sadun Dorgona: I feel we have failed the people of Vallaki. We came only searching for sanctuary from Strahd for Irena. Instead we found a town ruled by the fear of their own town guard, and a burgomaster who promised to cleanse all evil from the land with festivals and bizarre rituals in his mansion. We found vampires. We found Strahd himself. And now what little protection there was in the Church of St. Andral is once again stolen from beneath our noses as we fought to protect the people from a distastes we may have spurred! We thought Fiona Wachter may have been better than their current burgomaster, but she was in league with Strahd all along. Obviously we could not stand the walking dead to kill as they pleased, but what has been the cost? I do not know how this failure plays into what must certainly be our ultimate destiny of freeing this land from Strahd. My companions are good and noble people, however they may act on the outside. Surely, together we can achieve this? 
The gauntlet stops glowing with the morning light filtering through clouds and windows, and the party rises to meet the new day. Gilligan rises inspired by the lingering images of previous paladins from his dream, thinks how great it would be to have a mount like the legendary heroes of old, and the words to a spell materialize in his mind. He begins to pray.

Outside the church, the townsfolk wander, many seem to be in a daze, the chaos of the previous day still fresh in everyone's mind. 

Elle brings the scarf and the dagger out of her pouch. "I found these, are they magical?" she asks Talna. 

"They do have a magical aura," Talna says, examining the scarf closely. Deciding the items are safe enough, Talna begins attuning to the scarf while Elle attunes to the dagger. As they do, clouds begin forming inside the room, and take the shape of a large wolf. The clouds solidify as a large white furred warg. 

"Yeah! I did it!" Gilligan shouts, running up to the warg. "Who's a good boy?!" 

Elle, looking at the warg, jumps up and runs over to pet it. "It's so cute! I shall name it Poptart, because it popped up so suddenly and it's sweet like a tart."

"Poptart it is," Gilligan says, smiling proudly.

Talna, who had reached for a weapon at the warg's sudden appearance, relaxes. 

Some time later, the items are attuned. Talna has a Scarf of Cleansing, which would lend her resistance her to poison. The dagger, which Elle grins over maliciously, turns out to be more masochistic. During attunement, Elle was able to discern that the dagger feeds on her lifeblood, so that if she cuts herself in combat, it grows stronger, and the more blood the dagger drinks, the stronger it becomes. Ironically useful in this land of vampires.

"If you kill yourself with that, I'm not bringing you back," Talna warns Elle.

The group reconvenes after finding food in their packs to discuss what to do next.

"We should go after the bones," Talna says. 

"Should we check after the burgomaster, or look for Ricktavio?" Gilligan asks.

"The bones are more important. I'm going to go look for horses so we can move fast," Talna says. "I have prepared a spell to locate the bones." And so saying, Talna casts the spell Locate Object. "Oh shyte, I don't sense them. The bones have already moved out of range of the spell!"

"I'm going to go check on the burgomaster," Jaro says, and promptly heads outside. He hears several townsfolk discussing who would take over as Burgomaster.

"I hear it will be Victor, but he's so young!" says one.

"Maybe his mother will step in..." says another.

"I'm sorry," Jaro interrupts, "I couldn't help overhearing, is the burgomaster dead?"

"Yes, I heard he died in that accidental fire yesterday."

"Thank you!" Jaro returns to the church to inform the group.

"So the burgomaster's dead. We were on our way out of town anyway, I'm pretty sure we're not welcome here anymore," Talna says.

"I want to check out Fiona's house first!" Elle says. "I found her keys!"

"Maybe we should check on the burgomaster after that," Jaro says.

"I'll go with you," Gilligan says. "Poptart, stay here and guard Father Lucian."

"I'm going to go get horses," Talna says. "Why don't you come with me, Sadun?"

"I would be willing, but I want to guard Irena," Sadun replies.

"Irena, you should come with us. You've been locked up here for awhile anyway, and the church is no longer the safe haven it had been," Talna says. "And Balazar, you're coming with us."

The group split up once more, and went about their respective tasks. Both groups notice that the townsfolk shoot them nervous glances as they pass. Some people who thought the adventurers would side with Fiona's rebellion based on the previous days questioning of Izek and the burgomaster's rule were upset. Some were angry that we allowed the zombies to kill so many people. Others still were confused about how we felt about Izek and the town guard, considering we had set off so much chaos only to side with him against Fiona. All the people were afraid of what the future held for them, now that the relative stability the burgomaster had offered was shattered, and none of them knew what the adventurers would do.

"I really don't think we should stay here long term," Talna says to Sadun as they walk.

"I agree. I do not feel we have improved these people's lives," Sadun says sadly. "I am afraid of making things worse."

"Perhaps, but it seems this would have happened eventually without us. Maybe we were the catalyst, Balazar in particular, but the unrest was here, if buried."

The four arrive at a stable. 

"Do you have horses available for purchase?" Talna asks of the nearest person.

"For you?" the man responds. "Two hundred gold each."

"Ok," Talna says, 

She turns to walk away. From behind her, she hears a voice shout "Yeah, you tell 'em!" Talna turns around immediately, locating the source of the voice in a young teenage boy, glaring at her belligerently. Sadun looks worriedly at Talna's angry expression.

"Fight the child, fight the child!" Balazar whispers from behind them.

"Eric, Eric calm down!" the initial man urges.

"No, I won't calm down!" Eric says.

Talna sighs and pushes her hair back from her face. "Children these days," she mutters.

"Fight the child!" Balazar says. Talna kicks him.

"This town has been in utter chaos since their kind showed up! What about my brother Aaron?! He died yesterday!" Eric shouts. The first man now holds Eric back.

"You should have protected him." Balazar says coldly.

"Who did I kill?" Talna asks. "When did I lay a hand on anyone who wasn't attacking me? This would have happened with or without us. Just because you couldn't see these currents rippling under the surface before we arrived does not mean they were not there! You shut your mouth!" The last sentence she shouts at Balazar, who had sauntered up beside her and was poking the air in front of Eric muttering "I'm not touching you, I'm not touching you."

Eric sneers at the speech. "Yeah, what about your friend here, he's nothing but trouble and you brought him!"

"I don't control him!" Talna says, exasperated.

"You are the company you keep!" Eric says.

Sadun walks up and starts pulling Balazar away, trying to stop the fight Balazar is working hard to provoke.

"I survived!" Balazar shouts, and Eric swings at Balazar. Talna intervenes, grabbing the kid's arm. 

"Enough!" Talna says. Sadun, get Balazar out of here!" 

"Wait I'm not done yet!" Balazar shouts, as Sadun forcibly drags him towards where Irena is standing.

Eric starts to break down in tears, his anger spent.

"I'm sorry for your brother," Talna says, barely keeping her frustration in check, "Yes, Balazar is a haughty egg-headed ruffian, and we can't keep him under control as much as we should, and definitely as much as I would like, but all that has happened was not because of us! Balazar stole some wine and we took up to Izek, but that alone did not kill your brother. I apologize and offer my condolences for your loss, and... and I'm sorry. We were not expecting this to happen either. But please, don't direct your anger at us. Direct it where it should go." As Eric shrinks in on himself, Talna lets go of his hand, no longer a fist. "Balazar's existence seems sometimes to be to anger those around him, and even I hit him sometimes, but he is still a friend. And he did not cause your problems. Those were always there. Balazar just helped expose them in the worst way possible."

The man walks forward, and begins to lead Eric away. 

"It may be little consolation, but I will pray for your brother. I am a cleric of Naralis Analor, a god of death and the easing of suffering in my world. I will do what I can for your brother's spirit," Talna says, consolingly. "Naralis Analor came to me in my time of greatest suffering and saved me. I don't know much of your Morning Lord, but Father Lucian survived the attack in the church, and he will be able to help you now in your time of need as well."

As the man leads Eric away, he says over his shoulder "The horses will be one hundred gold each then. Thank you for your kind words."

"I'll take one horse and one cart then," Talna says. "Can we get a horse named Biscuit?"

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Across town, Gilligan, Elle and Jaro arrive at the Wachter house. Elle marches smartly up to the door, pauses to knock, then decides against it and tries keys until the door opens. Jaro and Elle begin exploring the house, looking for anyone still inside while Gilligan stands outside, unsure what to do. Elle opens every closet she comes across, looking for anything of value. Jaro discovers the kitchen, and opens every cupboard and drawer, just to see what's inside. Gilligan, finally following after the others, decides to search for Fiona's quarters and see if he can find any direct connection to Strahd there.

Elle, in her wanderings, finds a servant's quarters. Two servants are inside, packing bags. 

"Fiona gave me her keys, I'm supposed to be here!" Elle exclaims.

The servants slowly raise their hands over their heads, staring at the gnome in terror.

Elle looks at the bags. "Where are you going?"

"Away from here," one volunteers meekly.

"Good choice. Did you see what happened yesterday? Were you a part of it?"

"We heard about it..." the other says.

"Ok, good good good. Did Fiona have anything of value around here, any spell casting things or valuable items..." Elle asks persuasively.

"I don't know about that sort of thing. All I know is when people come over for the Book Club they meet in the basement!" The first servant says.

"Basement huh? Is it locked?"

"We're not allowed down there," the second servant says.

"Ok, good, good. Well I wish you luck on your travels, and have a good day!" Elle says, and leaves the room. The servants start packing faster as she walks out.

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Talna, Balazar, Sadun and Irena arrive at the Wachter house, and find the door slightly ajar. Talna sighs, and closes the door after the four enter the mansion. They begin looking for their companions.

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Jaro and Gilligan both head upstairs looking for Fiona's quarters. They find a room with a four-poster bed. The walls are hung with portraits portraying Fiona herself, a man they presume to be her husband, her two sons, and a young girl they have not seen before. Suspicious, Gilligan pulls the picture of the girl from the wall, but finds no secret passages or compartments behind it. Jaro walks over to the door closest to where the painting stood while Gilligan checks the wall for illusions. When he tries to open the door however, Jaro finds it is locked.

"Do you have any way to open this door?" Jaro asks Gilligan.

"Hello? Is someone here to play?" a child's voice comes from somewhere nearby.

To be continued!

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