At Lake Zarovich, the party arrives just in time to rescue Arrabelle, the daughter of Luvash, from a watery grave. Her kidnapper is taken to the mansion of the burgomaster in Vallaki to face punishment. Having completed their task for the Vistani, the heroes travel south along the Luna River to the ruined village of Berez to find the second relic foretold of by Madam Eva.
Player Characters: Eliza, Gydean, Kane, Lemoni, Nyr, Pera
Part 3: The Conjurer
I.
The following morning, the heroes along with Ireena and Ismark departed for Lake Zarovich, following the Vistani Alexei’s lead on the whereabouts of Luvash’s daughter. They heard that her name was Arrabelle and that she was a precocious child whose manner was more like an adult than a small child.
Lake Zarovich was a wide body of water to the north of Vallaki. Beyond the lake, the tall dark peaks of Mount Baratok stretched across the northernmost reaches of the valley. Rumor had it that a mad mage lived at the foot of the mountain. The Vistani suspected he was not of this land but a powerful adventurer from beyond the mists. But something had caused his mind to snap, and now the mad mage lived across the lake in seclusion.
Arriving at the lake, the heroes saw several boats upon the shore. In the middle of the lake, a single boat was afloat. A man sat in the boat with a fishing pole in hand and waited, but no fish came to him. Growing impatient, he reached into his boat for a large burlap sack. Something, or someone, inside the sack was kicking and struggling in protest as the man dumped the sack into the water. Then he returned to his seat, took up his fishing pole again, and waited.
The heroes were horrified by what they had seen. Pera, Kane, and Eliza swam out to the middle of the lake. None of them were expert swimmers, and they nearly drowned in their rescue attempt. They found the sack, but they did not have the strength to return to shore. Using magic, they created a beacon of light to signal their location. The others who were waiting ashore took a boat out to the lake and rescued their friends and the victim inside the sack.
On opening the sack, a young Vistani girl emerged, coughing water out of her lungs, but she soon regained her composure. She introduced herself as Arrabelle, the daughter of Luvash, and thanked the adventurers for rescuing her.
The heroes also brought the man in the boat ashore. He was a dull looking fellow without any light in his eyes, and he hardly seemed to notice what was happening around him. Judging by his clothes, Ismark suspected he was a local man from Vallaki. The party began to wonder if he was mad or had one too many dream pastries when Arrabelle spoke.
“If the man seems dull, it is because he has no soul. We Vistani are born with the spark of our spirits, but most of the common people of this valley have no souls at all. Your two friends are the exception.”
Arrabelle fixed her gaze upon Ireena and Ismark. The two Barovians looked uncomfortable and seemed to be unnerved by her. Arrabelle went on.
“Only one in ten Barovians are born with a soul. Those who are not tend to be dull folk. They have no laughter and shed no tears, but they know fear. And they are superstitious people. This man had no luck catching fish in the lake. He had heard that the Vistani are lucky folk, so he kidnapped me and threw me in the water as a sacrifice, hoping that the lake would reward him with fish.”
Arrabelle spoke without anger or malice. She did not have any of the innocence and naivete of a small child. When the heroes heard her voice and looked into her knowing eyes, they were reminded of Madam Eva in the moments when her madness gave way to lucidity.
The party returned to the hilltop camp and were given a hero’s welcome from Luvash and the other Vistani. Even Arrigal begrudged them a lukewarm salute. Now the adventurers were welcome to stay among the Vistani in this area if they pleased.
As for the man from Vallaki, Arrigal and Luvash were divided on what to do. Arrigal wished to stone him, but Luvash was not so quick to violence and feared a reprisal from the townspeople of Vallaki. The party offered to take the man to the town to be tried for his crimes by the local authorities. The Vallaki agreed to their suggestion and surrendered the man into their custody.
II.
That afternoon, the party entered the town of Vallaki. On the side of the road leading up to the town, they saw the heads of wolves stuck on long spikes in a macabre display. At the north gate of the town, two guards stood watch, leaning wearily upon their long pikes. Upon seeing the adventurers, one of the guards greeted them curtly and asked them to state their business. When the party showed him the man from the lake, the guard seemed to recognized him.
“Bluto, is that you? Were you drinking again? What trouble did you get yourself into this time? Thank you for bringing in our town drunkard, strangers. If you please, you may take him to the Burgomaster’s mansion. That is where we send the troublemakers in town. Do stay for the Festival of the Blazing Sun. Our town holds an event every week by the burgomaster’s decree to improve people’s happiness. Isn’t that right, Frederick?”
He elbowed the other guard whose name was Frederick, but he hardly seemed to hear him. Frederick was alert for trouble, but he had a blank look and a dullness that was not unlike Bluto the fisherman. He only gave a rote reply in an emotionless voice.
“Yes, everyone in Vallaki must be happy. The burgomaster says so.”
The party took Bluto to the burgomaster’s mansion, a large two story building topped with an attic. They handed Bluto over to a passing guard who was taking another “troublemaker” into the mansion. Evidently, the latter person’s crime was “not being happy enough for the burgomaster’s liking.” The guard thanked the adventurers for their service. He added, “If you are in search of lodgings, you may stay at the Blue Water Inn. There you will find accommodations for yourselves and a stable for your… err… rooster.” The guard gave Eliza a curious look before taking his leave.
By now, Eliza had grown frustrated by being treated like a farm animal everywhere she went. She began to cast off her bags and her hood, wishing to reveal herself and be treated like a person. Suddenly, someone grabbed her shoulder and pulled her into an alley. It was a local Vallakian man with a bushy mustache and a barkeep’s apron. The man spoke to Eliza in a low voice.
“What are you doing, friend? Don’t you know how dangerous it is for our kind to reveal ourselves?”
When Eliza did not answer, the man studied her closely. He said, “You are not a wereraven, are you? What are you? You are a strange creature indeed, and by the look of it you must be a foreigner. I would much like to hear your tale. I am Urwin Martikov, the proprietor of the Blue Water Inn. Please, do visit us if you plan to stay on in Vallaki. It is a sanctuary from the evils of the land.”
Urwin departed, but the party had other business to attend to before visiting the Blue Water Inn. The party stopped by the local stockyard to purchase supplies. There, they noticed a colorful wagon with the words “Rictavio’s Carnival of Wonders” painted on its side. They thought it best to leave it alone when the padlocked wagon began to shudder violently and the sound of bestial snarls were heard from within. After all, they had more a urgent quest awaiting them in the ruins of Berez.
III.
The party marched south from Vallaki, following the Luna River upstream. The heroes walked until the late afternoon. They passed by an old grave and encountered a flock of ravens. The ravens followed them a short distance, keeping a watchful eye upon them before scattering. Finally, they arrived in a marsh where the ruins of old cottages were scattered amidst the fog. On the far side of the river, there stood a ring of tall stone menhirs. Nyr saw that a raven was perched upon one of the stones. After studying it with her keen hunter’s eyes, she realized that it was the same raven the party had seen several times before, near the Old Bonegrinder and on the road to Vallaki.
The raven flew over the river and revealed her true form to the party, transforming into a young woman.
“Greetings, travelers. Do not be alarmed. My name is Muriel, and I am a wereraven. I reveal myself to you only because you have werecreatures among you.”
Muriel gestured to Lemoni and Eliza and continued.
“My friend Urwin Martikov asked me to keep an eye out for foreigners from beyond the mist, for he has need of adventurers such as yourselves. I have been following you for some time. I saw how you slew Morgantha the night hag at the Old Bonegrinder. That was very clever of you! But tell me, what brings you to this evil place?”
The heroes told Muriel of Madam Eva’s words and their quest.
“Ah, you seek something of great value in the ruins of Berez. I suspect will find it in the hut of the witch Baba Lysaga. And you are in luck, for Baba Lysaga is away on urgent business to investigate the murder of a hag at the Old Bonegrinder. If you wish to go to the witch’s hut, I will take you there by the safest route. But you must hurry before Baba Lysaga returns. I ask only that you consider visiting Urwin Martikov at the Blue Water Inn… if you make it out of the hut alive of course.”
Muriel returned to her raven form and guided the party through the ruins in the marsh. They arrived in front of an old ramshackle hut. It was perched high above the ground upon the rotting roots of a tree stump that rose up from the ground like the legs of a hideous monster. From the eaves of the hut, there were hung two cages that were filled with ravens. The heroes approached and opened the cages to set the ravens free. But as they did so, the hut began to stir. The roots lifted themselves out of the spongy earth like the legs of a giant spider. The hut began to creep forward. Its roots rose up and fell before the heroes like the feet of an angry giant woken from its slumber.
Ireena and Ismark fled from the creeping hut in terror. Gydean retreated while blasting the hut with his eldritch bolts, but he did little more than break a few shingles on its roof. Lemoni, Nyr, and Eliza climbed and flew into the hut, bursting in through its front door. Pera tried to follow them, but she stumbled and fell while trying to climb up the moving roots.
Kane alone stood firm before the hut, ready to face it with his fists. But the roots of the hut came crashing down upon him and crushed him with the weight of a hillside.
Within the hut, the three heroes who had made their way inside tore the place apart, trying to find what they had come for. The small interior of the hut was crammed with furniture and all manner of knick knacks. Against the far wall, there was a wooden chest. In the center of the room, there was a baby’s crib. The whole place was filled with a green light that came from below the floor boards.
They were startled to find an infant resting peaceful inside the crib. But when they reached inside to rescue the baby, they were shocked to discover that it was an illusion. What twisted mind would create a mirage such as this, and to what purpose?
The heroes had no time to dwell on it further. Outside, they heard Kane scream as he was crushed beneath the roots of the hut. They had to hurry before their friends were stomped one after the other.
It came into their minds to investigate the light emanating from the floor. Eliza blasted a floorboard with her wand and revealed an enormous green gemstone. Its magical energy could be felt, pulsing like a beating heart. Lemoni, almost instinctively, drew her rapier and thrust it into the gemstone, splitting it into pieces. The green glow of the gem faded, and the creeping hut began to slow until it came to a rest and moved no more.
As the heroes breathed a sigh of relief, they remembered the wooden chest against the wall. Nyr pried it open, but the magical ward upon it shocked her like a thunderbolt. Out of the chest came four crawling hands that grasped at Nyr. She might have been strangled and her eyes might have been gouged by the hideous things, but in that moment there was a flutter of black wings as a flock of ravens swooped in through the open door. They were the ravens that the party had rescued earlier. Now they fell upon the crawling hands like birds of prey, pecking and tearing upon their rotting flesh. The ravens carried off the bits and fingers that were left as they flew away.
Inside the wooden chest, the heroes found a pile of loot in the form of coins, potions, scrolls, and wondrous objects. They looked like the possessions of other adventuring parties that came to this valley. What unlucky fate had their previous owners met?
Hidden beneath the pile, they found an old leather bound tome with a strange emblem upon it. On perusing its old fragile pages, they found that it was a journal written in a strange shorthand that was difficult to decipher. What they could understand made them realize that this was a tome written by Strahd von Zarovich himself.
This must be what Madam Eva had meant when she said that knowledge of the ancient enemy will help the heroes to better understand him. But even with this newfound knowledge, will they have power enough to defeat him?
To be continued…
Session #2 Rewards
4 Advancement Checkpoints
4 Treasure Checkpoints
10 Downtime Days
Treasure
A set of Barovian common clothes
1,300 gp
Five 500 gp gemstones
† A set of pipes of haunting
† A stone of good luck
* Tome of Strahd
Consumable Items
A vial containing Oil of Sharpness
Spell scroll of mass cure wounds
Spell scroll of revivify
Pouch containing ten +1 sling bullets
† Unlocked item
* Story item