The party find themselves in the dungeons of Castle Ravenloft where they endure confinement and torment. As the months pass, the sunlight fades in the outside world, signalling the return of Strahd von Zarovich. When all hope seems lost, a mysterious benefactor helps the heroes escape from their bonds. But they are deep inside the lair of their enemy and must arm themselves before their final confrontation.

Player characters: Casaba, Gorgonzola, Kane, Nyr
Assistant DM characters: Ismark, Takarov

Part 11. The Crypts

1.

The heroes did not remember how they arrived in Castle Ravenloft. Their fracture memories revealed the face of a dusk elf woman, bearing a resemblance to Kasimir, who had pulled them out of the ruins of the Amber Temple. Then another dusk elf, a stranger, had greeted them as they arrived at the castle. In his presence, they could feel the voices of thousands of dead souls screaming in agony inside their minds. The stranger had led them past the wine cellar and the crypts beneath the castle to a dark hallway whose floor was covered with water. These were the dungeons beneath Castle Ravenloft where the enemies of Strahd von Zarovich were imprisoned and tortured. Here, the heroes were locked inside their cold, wet cells, each suffering their own special torment.

Kane was bound to a chair with water falling onto his face. Every time he tried to open his mouth, the water would strike him, preventing him from speaking. Nyr was suspended from the ceiling of her cell by her wrists which were bound by iron manacles. Casaba was hung upside down over a barrel of water, threatening to drown him if he weakened and relaxed his body too much. Beside him was the skeleton of another bard who could not keep up his strength up. Gorgonzola and Takarov were shackled into seats that cruelly bled them with sharp needles. Ismark and Ireena counted themselves lucky, being locked inside a cell where they were slowly starving to death.

At one end of the hallway, there was a cell holding a dark-skinned man in tattered rags, half-starved and brooding inside his cell. On the other end of the hallway, they saw Gydean, lying prone upon the floor. He was unmoving in all the time that they saw him. Yet Kane sensed that Gydean was not dead. He could not be dead, because Kane had to save him.

Days turned into weeks, and weeks lengthened into months as the heroes slowly weakened. The only company they had was a hideously deformed hunchback named Cyrus Belview, who came to feed them and occasionally gloated about his newfound treasure. The only other voices that the heroes heard were each other’s screams.

A small opening cast a ray of sunlight into the hallway during the daytime. But as the months passed, the sunlight grew dimmer and dimmer until finally it had vanished. Then the heroes, in the midst of their agony, knew that the darkness and the mists had returned to the valley, and Strahd von Zarovich had risen again as was foretold.

In their despair, the heroes wondered what had happened to Kasimir who had promised to aid them against Strahd. But as their memories slowly returned, they recalled the dusk elf woman’s gleeful monologue about fulfilling her long-awaited revenge against her brother. Then they knew that Kasimir had perished, killed by the sister he had raised from the dead in a vain hope for redemption.

But unbeknownst to them, another ally was working to save them, helping them discreetly from the shadows. He was a two-headed named Clovin, a cousin to Cyrus Belview, who was called to Castle Ravenloft by fate. He was visiting his cousin in the dungeons when he saw the heroes and took pity on them. He began to mix small amounts of nourishing potions into their food. Then little by little, the heroes regained their strength until, finally, they had strength enough to break free from their bonds.

2.

Gorgonzola was the first to escape from his cell, praying to the Morninglord for deliverance. Feeling the warmth and strength of his faith return to his limbs, the goblin paladin escaped from his bonds. As he exited his cell, he saw a light in the water that covered the floor of an adjacent cell. Finding his way inside, he reached down and lifted up a shortsword which glowed with a bright light. Much to his surprise, the shortsword spoke to him.

“What master do you serve?” it asked in a quiet but stern voice.

“I serve the bringer of dawn and light, Lathander the Morninglord!” Gorgonzola replied.

The goblin paladin sensed that the weapon had a divine purpose to fight evil creatures in the world. He christened his newfound blade the “Piece-a-light” and held it aloft.

“Gorgonzola and the Piece-a-light, servants of the Morninglord, will light the way!”

Gorgonzola released his companions from their confinement. Finally, they freed Gydean from his cell. But when Kane tried to lift him to his feat, Gydean pushed him away.

“Begone, you fool!” Gydean rasped hoarsely. “I am too far gone now. Leave me to my doom, or you will share my miserable fate.”

In the light of Gorgonzola’s sword, the heroes saw that Gydean’s skin was pale, and his limbs felt cold to the touch. Then they knew that their former companion had done the unthinkable. In his quest to gain mastery over Castle Ravenloft so that he might escape from the valley to seek his vengeance, Gydean had beseeched one of the denizens of the castle to turn him into a vampire. Shortly after being turned, he was discovered in a state of weakness by a dusk elf named Rahadin, the chamberlain of the castle who had also imprisoned the heroes. Gydean tried to defend himself, but in his weakened condition he was no match for the chamberlain. Rahadin defeated him and took from him the Sunsword. Then the warlock was put in bonds and cast into the dungeon where he was left in solitude until his companions had arrived.

Gydean had not spoken to the heroes in all this time because he feared what they might think of him. He had taken from them their most powerful weapon against their enemy, and allowed it to be taken from him. They would see him as a fool and shun him as a monster.

But Kane reached out with his hand once more and spoke with compassion.

“My old friend, let’s get out of this place together. This is no place for you to die.”

Then Gydean saw that Kane truly was his friend, despite knowing full well what Gydean was and had become. He rose to his feet and renewed his oath of vengeance against the one who had made him and left him to rot in this accursed valley.

At last, the party turned their attention to the dark-skinned man. He called himself Emil and claimed to be a man from Vallaki. But he had a strange musk about him, not unlike the scent on the bundle of clothes they had once discovered on the road. They tested Emil and swiftly discerned his lies. In truth, Emil was a werewolf who had been imprisoned here by Strahd von Zarovich. They asked Emil if they could trust him, but he swore to serve the one who had freed him. In exchanged for his freedom, he promised to guide them so that they might recover their gear.

When the heroes freed Emil, he kept his word and led them to a stairway leading up to a wine cellar. There, he told them, they would find Cyrus Belview, the custodian of the dungeon. He would know where their gear was being kept.

Beside the stairway, there were two other passages. One path led up to a tall, spiral-shaped tower whose entrance was faintly illuminated by a red glow. The other descended into darkness, and the heroes realized that they led to the crypts beneath Castle Ravenloft. The thought came to them that they ought to explore these catacombs before ascending to the wine cellar. Although dangers surely lurked within, they might also find an item that could aid them in their fight against the enemy. As Gydean the entrepreneur once said:

Where there is great danger, great reward also awaits.

Desiring to find something that might help them in the battle ahead, the heroes left Gydean, Ireena, and Emil alone at the base of the stairway and crept down the hallway.

3.

The party split up to cover more ground in the crypts of Castle Ravenloft. Having no weapons apart from Casaba and Kane’s magic and Gorgonzola’s glowing shortsword, they paired up to guard each other from the possible dangers.

Casaba and Takarov found a crypt dedicated to Stahbal Indi-Bhak, who was evidently one of Strahd’s allies in life. The inscription on the door of the crypt read:

A truer friend no ruler ever had. Here lies his family in honor.

Inside the crypt, a long shaft plunged into the floor. Casaba and Takarov climbed down the shaft until they reached a vault that contained fifteen stone coffins. Sensing the danger that lurked within these coffins, the pair left them undisturbed and climbed back up the shaft.

Gorgonzola and Nyr had more luck in their exploration. They found the tomb of Tasha Petrovna, whose epitaph read:

Healer of Kings, Light unto the West, Servant, Companion.

Inside the tomb was a skeleton wearing the tattered remnants of a priest’s vestments, lying on a marble slab. Overhead, the domed surface of the ceiling was covered with a mural of a brilliant sun. And around the neck of the skeleton, they saw a holy symbol in the shape of a sun. From the shadows of the crypt, a voice spoke to Gorgonzola the paladin in a faint whisper.

There is a grave to the west, with roses that never die, in a place built by healers, in a village called Krezk. When all turns to darkness, touch this holy symbol to the grave to summon the light and find a treasure long lost.

Gorgonzola recalled from his own journey through the valley that there were rumors of an abbey dedicated to a saint named Markovia in the western village of Krezk. According to legend, Saint Markovia was a champion of the Morninglord. She had challenged Strahd von Zarovich by leading a mob of peasants from the valley in an assault upon the castle. A great battle raged from the catacombs to the parapets, but in the end Saint Markovia never returned from her quest. But it was said that Strahd von Zarovich emerged from his final confrontation against the saint with a limp and a grimace of pain.

The goblin paladin wondered if the voice was speaking of the abbey in Krezk. He picked up the holy symbol and pledged to seek out the grave if he made it out of the castle alive.

Finally, Kane and Nyr came to a crypt with a brief inscription on the door that read:

Saint Markovia: Dead for all time.

Evading the traps that guarded the door, the heroes opened the crypt. Inside, they were surprised to find that the vault was filled with the scent of roses. Upon a marble slab, they saw the remains of a skeleton that had crumbled to dust. They guessed that this crypt had been unopened for centuries. All that was left of the ancient remains was a single thighbone.

Kane reached out and spoke to the thighbone.

“Oh, ancient bone! Will you be our ally in the quest against the dark lord?”

The thighbone spoke to him, whispering in a faint voice.

The vampire must be destroyed. Use me as your weapon.

When Kane brought forth the thighbone from the crypt, Gorgonzola sensed that it was a relic from a saint of great piety and power. The paladin realized that the divine essence of the saint had become concentrated in this thighbone, turning it into a powerful weapon against the undead.

With their newfound weapon, the heroes returned to the stairway, ready to move forward. But to their dismay, Emil and Ireena were nowhere to be seen. Instead, they found Gydean alone and wounded on the floor. Though his wounds quickly healed, he reported that Emil the werewolf had betrayed them. Emil had wrestled with Gydean and kidnapped Ireena, taking her up the spiral-shaped tower.

Ismark flew into a rage and marched up the stairs to the wine cellar, followed by his companions. He was intent on recovering his weapons so he could rescue his sister.

“We must arm ourselves and find Ireena before it is too late!” he said as he climbed the steps.

To be continued…