Upon returning to Vallaki, the party learns that the broken gem recovered from Berez was a relic of great importance. The innkeeper Urwin Martikov sees the shattered gem as a bad omen and urges the heroes to seek out his family’s vineyard, the Wizard of Wines, where the wine that sustains the valley is produced. Meanwhile, the party also discovers that dark forces are moving in the shadows of Vallaki, vying for control over the town.

Player Characters: Barsun, Casaba, Dan, Gydean, Kane, Nyr

Part 4. The Shadow over Vallaki

I.
After the heroes emerged from the witch’s hut, the wereraven Muriel approached them. She was eager to learn what treasures they had discovered inside. Nyr showed her all that they had found, but when she saw the broken green gemstone, she looked utterly distraught.

“We are ruined,” she said, over and over again. “The valley is ruined and all will be lost!”

Clearly the gemstone was an item of great importance to her, but she was not in a state of mind to explain further.

The party took a boat that Muriel had hidden on the bank of the Luna River and traveled upstream. However, Eliza, Pera, and Lemoni feared the witch Baba Yaga’s reprisal and took a different path through the mists to throw her off the party’s tracks. They agreed to meet again at the town if they were able.

On the way upriver, the party noticed a stone statue on the far side of the river. Gydean and Ismark noticed that it looked strikingly similar to Ismark’s sister Ireena. Ismark begged Gydean not to reveal this fact to anyone else. Gydean interrogated him and learned that the devil Strahd had visited Ireena but called her by a different name. He called her Tatyana. Ismark suspected that Strahd was pursuing her because she resembled someone he knew from the distant past.

The party arrived in Vallaki near sundown and went straight to the Blue Water Inn. Inside the tavern, they found their goblin friend Casaba! He was in the company of a man, a gnome, and a half elf. They were Dan the human fighter, Barsun the forest gnome rogue, and an elderly half elf named Rictavio.

Dan and Barsun were adventurers who came from beyond the mists. They had come to this land by following a carnival wagon. Only after they arrived did they realize that they were trapped in this dark land. Hoping to find a way to escape, they came to the Blue Water Inn in search of a carnival wagon. That was when they met Rictavio who introduced himself as a carnival ringmaster.

Rictavio was regaling his fellow taverngoers with fantastic tales from his journeys. He was clearly a man who had seen many things in his lifetime, but the tales that he told were all far fetched and incredible stories. Casaba, not one to be outdone, began to sing a song about the time he led a goblin horde from the depths beneath Waterdeep to the surface of the city. Rictavio seemed intrigued by the goblin’s song and invited him and the other foreigners to join his carnival as performers.

When Casaba saw his party enter the tavern, he greeted them heartily. Rictavio, seeing that the sun was going down and the tavern was beginning to fill up, got up from the table. He packed up a cooked wolf steak and an apple prepared by Urwin and took his leave.

“Remember my offer, sir goblin,” Rictavio turned to say. “I am staying here at the Blue Water Inn, so you know where to find me. I have an errand to run now. My friend, a local toymaker, is waiting for his meal of wolf steak.”

As Casaba reunited with his friends and they shared the tales of their adventures, Ireena and Ismark asked for rooms from the innkeeper. They thanked the heroes for helping them to reach Vallaki safely and wishes them good fortune on their road ahead.

Then Muriel went to Urwin and whispered in his ear. He looked utterly devastated and wept into his hands.

“Now we are lost,” he said aloud. “Without the magic gems, the valley is without hope.”

Gydean peered into Urwin’s mind. He saw Urwin as a young boy, growing up in his family’s vineyard. A large building with a sign that said “Wizard of Wines” stood alone amidst the fields of grapes. In the vision, Urwin was being scolded by his father. He had been playing near his family’s vineyard when he stumbled upon a hole in the ground. Something had been taken out of the ground. The grapevines near the hole had begun to dry out and wither.

It was then that Urwin had learned the secret of his family’s vineyard and why it had continued to produce good grapes for the wine that flowed through the valley. Long ago, three magic gems had been planted in the earth. They imbued the soil with life giving energy. When darkness descended upon the valley, the lands of the vineyard alone remained rich and bountiful.

Urwin’s father had punished him because one of the three magical gems had been stolen while Urwin should have been watching the vineyard. After the disappearance of the first gem, the vineyard could no longer produce the grapes needed to make it’s finest variety of wine, Champagne du le Stomp. Since then, the people of the valley had to settle for the unremarkable Purple Grapemash No. 3 or the slightly more tantatilizing Red Dragon Crush. Urwin’s father blamed him for the misfortune, and the two have not been on good terms since then.

Now, seeing one of the magic gems shattered into pieces, Urwin sensed it was a dark omen. The Blue Water Inn had not received a shipment of wine recently, and their barrels were nearly empty. He felt in his heart that something terrible had happened at the vineyard. He implored the party, if they would, to travel west to the Wizard of Wines, his family’s vineyard, and find out what had happened there. If they could bring back a shipment of wine, the people of Vallaki would be most grateful.

The party needed to rest for the night. They would decide their course of action after consulting the dusk elf Kasimir in the morning. Perhaps the old elf might know the means by which the broken gem might be restored.

That night, while Kane was recuperating from his brutal injuries in the battle with the witch’s hut, Ireena visited him in his room. She wanted to know if he was feeling better. Also, she had listened in on their conversation with Urwin. She asked Kane if the party could take her with them if they departed for the vineyard. She did not feel safe here despite her brother Ismark’s assurances. She felt much more secure in the party’s company, and she would much like to see the vineyard where all the wine in the valley came from.

Kane agreed on one condition. He asked her to tell the truth about her plight. Ireena sighed and began to tell her story. While living in her father the Burgomaster’s house in the Town of Barovia, she had been visited by a mysterious figure in the night. She remembered little from these encounters, but the bite marks upon her neck told her something terrible had happened. As people in town began to murmur and whisper dark things, she pieced together the rumors and concluded that Strahd von Zarovich himself had visited her. She did not know why he pursued her, but she knew it was not safe to stay in Barovia any longer. That was why she and Ismark had set out on the dangerous road to the town of Vallaki where they had heard there might be a glimmer of hope for them in the darkness of the valley. Now that Kane knew her tale, Ireena hoped that he and his friends would not shun her for the ill fate that had befallen her.

II.
The following morning, the heroes went to the Vistani Camp to visit Kasimir. When the dusk elf saw the pieces of the gem recovered from Berez, he marveled at them. But he confessed that he did not have the art to mend the gem and restore its magical properties.

“The only power that can repair this gemstone lies in the Amber Temple,” he informed them. After a moment of thought. He added, “There is one other person who might be capable of this task. He is the Mad Mage of Mount Baratok. Rumor has it that he came to this land from beyond the mists. Perhaps he is an adventurer like yourselves. In his hubris, he challenged Strahd von Zarovich for mastery of this land, but he lost the contest. Moreover, he lost his sanity and now resides on the far side of Lake Zarovich in seclusion. He was said to be quite a powerful wizard, even more powerful than myself. He might have the knowledge to restore the power of this gem, but he is quite insane. You may seek him out, but at your own peril.”

Kasimir gave the heroes one other bit of information. The tale of the Mad Mage’s struggle against Strahd had reminded him that there was a power struggle within the Town of Vallaki. The Burgomaster of Vallaki, Baron Vargas Vallakovich, was not a popular man. His family had been the burgomasters of the town for generations, but the baron’s efforts to bring “happiness” to his town had grown oppressive and rubbed everyone the wrong way. People were being forced to act happy and chant the town motto: “All will be well.” Those who did not fall in line were taken away by the Baron’s fearsome henchman, Izek Strazni.

At least one person saw the baron’s lack of popularity as an opportunity. Rumor had it that Lady Fiona Wachter, the matriarch of another noble house, was vying for the burgomaster’s position.

Before setting off on their next quest, the party decided to investigate the burgomaster’s mansion and speak with Lady Fiona.

Casaba used his magic of clairvoyance to see into the mansion’s attic, hoping to discover some of its secrets. He saw that the door leading into the attic was ajar. The door had a skull carved into it and a handwritten sign that read, “All is NOT well.” Beyond the door, the attic had been converted into a messy study. There were several tables covered with parchments that contained arcane diagrams. More worryingly, there were a number of skeletal cats lounging about the room. Clearly they were the product of necromantic magic. And soon he saw the culprit. In the center of the room, a young man was cradling an old leatherbound tome, trying to decipher its pages. He was sitting on the floor where he had drawn a wide circle of runes, copied imperfectly from the diagrams in his book. He was too young to be the Baron, so Casaba guessed that he might be the Baron’s son.

At this point, Gydean summoned his imp Cespenar to eavesdrop on the young man in the attic. When Cespenar appeared, he seemed to have been called from elsewhere. He was throwing electrum coins in the air and saying “The Princes of Darkness shower blessings upon you!” When he noticed his surroundings, Cespenar quickly picked up the coins and smiled guiltily at Gydean.

“We’ll talk about this later,” said Gydean. “I have a job for you.”

Cespenar entered the mansion through the chimney. After falling into a bowl of casserole in the ground floor kitchen and frightening the chef, he narrowly escaped the notice of Izek, the Burgomaster’s henchman. Izek’s right arm was covered with barbed spines and had elongated fingers and claws. He was a grim and terrifying figure to gaze upon. Cespenar rather liked the look of him.

The imp crawled back up the chimney, licking the casserole off his limbs. He found his way to the attic and snuck inside, just as the young man was being called away.

“Victor, it’s time for supper,” said a woman’s voice from downstairs. “What is keeping you? What are you doing up there?”

“Nothing, mother! Don’t come up here!” the young man named Victor shouted in a shrill voice. Then he left the attic, locking the door behind him as he went downstairs.

When Victor was gone, Cespenar tried to get a closer look at the book that the young man was reading. But as he approached, the undead cats became alert and chased him away. He managed to read a single page that Victor had been studying. Upon the page, there was a diagram for a teleportation circle. The runes written upon the floor were a crude imitation of those drawn in the book. The imp also noticed a poorly made, half sewn wizard’s robe. Clearly this young man was one who liked to think of himself as an up and coming mage. But why was he trying to create a circle of teleportation? And to what untold realm might this circle lead?

On his way out, Cespenar heard a groan coming from a closet. Inside, he found two men chained to the wall with manacles. One of the men was Bluto, the fisherman from Lake Zarovich. The other was a man named Udo. He had been frightened into obedience, and would dare not flee even if his manacles had been unchained.

“Udo will be good! Udo will be happy! All will be well!” the man repeated again and again.

What they had seen inside the Baron’s mansion was enough to convince the party that something must be done. They decided to seek out Lady Fiona Wachter to see if the woman might be a suitable replacement for the Baron as the burgomaster of this town.

III.
The heroes came to the house of the Wachter family. It was a depressing look house whose facade seemed to droop like a frowning face. Never before had they seen a house that so hated what it had become. If they listened quietly, they could hear the old wooden walls creak and groan in despair.

Casaba knocked on the door and gave a warm greeting. The maid inside, a woman named Ayva, was frightened by the sight of Casaba’s broad toothy grin. She was so terrified of the goblin that she agreed to open the door if only the goblin promised not to eat her.

According to Avya the maid, the Lady Wachter was out, gathering the members of her “book club.” In her state of fright, she mistook the party for new members who had arrived early. She led the party down to the cellar and she showed them to the “parlor” where the book club met for Lady Wachter’s readings. Beyond an antechamber with a dirt floor and several cots, there was a dark chamber with sconces along the walls and a large pentagram drawn on the floor.

Suddenly, electrum coins began to appear in mid air and fell clattering on the ground. Then two small, high pitched voices could be heard inside the room. The heroes recognized one voices as Cespenar the Imp.

“The Princes of Darkness give their blessings unto you! Power, wealth, and long life will be granted to you if you follow the High Priestess, Lady Fiona Wachter, in service to… Ah crap, not again.”

Cespenar revealed himself and smiled sheepishly, then confessed to the party. He had been moonlighting as a “servant of the Dark Ones” for Lady Wachter who was gathering initiates for a fiendish cult under the guise of a “book club.” She lured local Vallaki townsfolk who were dissatisfied with the reign of Baron Vallakovich with promises of refreshments and read to them from her fiendish manifesto.

The party had little time to be horrified by their discovery before Lady Wachter herself arrived. She had been informed that new book club members had been invited into the estate. Upon seeing the goblin Casaba and the tiefling Kane, she thought her prayers to the dark powers had been answered. She was eager to tell the heroes of her plans to usurp the Burgomaster’s position and invited them to join her. If they helped her in her pursuit of power, she would reward them handsomely for their assistance.

The party debated the merits of replacing Baron Vargas Vallakovich, the tyrant of a dystopian community, with this cult leader. That is, until they learned in the course of their conversation that Lady Wachter’s cult beliefs were merely a ruse to build a base of power among the people. To their horror, they discovered that her true loyalties lied with Strahd von Zarovich.

“This land has no need of the Baron’s empty promises of happiness. We exist to serve our true lord, the master of Castle Ravenloft.”

Lady Wachter went on to detail her schemes to attack the Baron at the upcoming Festival of the Blazing Sun which would take place in a few days. The conversation was interrupted when the heroes heard a noise upstairs. It was the lady’s daughter, a young woman named Stella. She was meowing and scratching at the door of her room like a cat. Evidently she had been involved in Lady Wachter’s previous attempt to gain power by wedding her daughter to Baron Vallakovich’s son, Victor. But the brooding young man said such cruel things to Stella that it drove her to madness. Now, she was confined in her room.

Casaba approached Stella’s room and entered. The young girl was crawling on her hands and knees. She hissed at the goblin in fright, but soon took a liking to his friendly nature. When he felt that he had gained her trust, Casaba used a spell of suggestion to convince Stella that she was not a cat but a human being.

Stella temporarily regained her senses and stood up on her feet. Lady Wachter was most impressed and thanked the party for curing her ailing daughter. Stella was not so happy to see her mother after regaining her wits. She begged Casaba to take her away from her horrible family. Lady Wachter agreed to release Fiona for a brief stroll in the garden, not realizing (or not caring) that her daughter intended to run away.

After rescuing Stella from her confinement, the heroes bade Lady Fiona a good day and quickly left the estate. But they felt that someone was watching them. They soon discovered that an invisible imp was followed them. He was Lady Wachter’s imp, Majesto, who had been sent to keep an eye on them. The heroes chased off the imp for the time being but kept their eyes open, expecting him to return.

To be continued…