No-one would ever have called me as a pious man, I have no leanings one way or the other, but I do respect the beliefs of others. So, when Gorek had finished his dawn ablutions and joined us again at the breakfast table. (Without Breakfast!) We agreed that we would take a short stop at the Merchants store opposite the Blood on the Vine and then seek out the local priest to let Bastion and Gorek commune with him before setting out to the Durst House.
The merchant was called Bildrath and he was as rude as the innkeeper. Lunae wanted to top up her food supply (and make sure Dog was looked after) but balked at the extremely high cost. 2 gold pieces for two days food. Karak however must be made of money as he bought the rations that Lunae refused and added to his order with some petrified newts’ eyes. Bildrath told us that he didn’t like travellers such as we, and that the Lord Strahd would play with us and then break us. What is it with everyone around here? They are really rude.
He did however point us to the local temple, so we set off and found it easily enough, a foreboding ancient stone structure that loomed out of the mist as we approached it on this grim, sunless morning. The huge black, arched doors were closed to us but unlocked. We all noted the scratch marks and fire damage but said nothing to each other.
Gorek and Bastion led us into the building where we found an old priest, on his knees by the altar. The place was in such dis-repair, it reeked of old water and mildew, the pews were wrecked and torn and the whole chapel was strewn with debris.
I could hear the old priest mumbling his devotion when the air was ripped with a piercing scream coming from, well, it sounded like the floor itself.
“Father!” The voice bellowed, “I’m starving.”
“I’m not surprised.” I thought. “The prices Bildrath is charging, everyone needs to tighten their belts.”
Bastion whispered to us that the priest kneeling in front of the altar was repeating an invocation to ward off evil. He sat with the priest and gently asked him who was screaming and why the temple was in the state that it was.
“My Son,” moaned the priest, “He left on some damn fool crusade to rid this land of evil with a Wizard that came from somewhere else. On his return he was infected by evil”
Gorek bent over the old man. “May we see your son?” He asked.
“He is in the basement.” The priest replied meekly.
“You have hidden him from the MorningLords sight?” Cried Gorek, becoming more incensed as he realised that one of his Lords subjects may not have seen the sun in some time.
“Promise me you won’t hurt him.” Implored the Priest. “You must not hurt him after everything that the Devil Strahd has done to him.”
The party reluctantly agreed, and the priest handed them an iron key. As they filed towards the room that the priest had indicated I stopped to ask him if he had anything that would help us. He looked quizzically at me. “I have told you everything my son.” He replied.
I was beginning to think that this might not be the crazy priest that Madam Ava had told us about.
We gathered in the small room with the trapdoor, Bastion and Gorek entreating whatever was down there to come into the light. A small figure appeared. “Please, I am so hungry.” He implored, so Bastion dropped some food through the gaps where the ancient wood had split.
I looked at Karak and whispered, “I wonder what Vampires are hungry for.” He looked at me and smiled grimly. “I was thinking the same.” He muttered back. At least we both thought the same thing.
Whilst the party were debating what to do, I slipped out of the small room to see whether there might be anything else we might find useful. There were three other, small rooms, but they were sleeping chambers and an office. Nothing of real interest, except a small book on cults, myths, and arcana, which looked like someone had forgotten it was there, so I slipped it into my pack for safekeeping so I could return it to the rightful owner when I saw them.
Gorek had continued to ask questions of the figure in the basement. But I think the young man was angry about something because all of a sudden, he surged forward to the trap doors and everyone could see two huge fangs, blood red eyes and long, bony fingers curl around the wood of the trap door.
‘Called it’, I thought to myself. And went to see what the others had decided to do. Gorek had strode off towards the priest.
“We must destroy it.” He declared.
Bastion stepped forward. “In my travels,” he said quietly, “I have heard that if we can destroy that which turned him, we may still save his life.”
I was still standing in the hallway. “Well then,” I said confidently, “all we need to do is find this Strahd, do him some mischief and we’re all set.”
The creature in the basement started laughing. A full, throaty roar that made me feel a little uncomfortable.
At this noise, my friends decided enough was enough, Bastion stepped forward and handed the key to Karak who unlocked the trapdoor and stepped back. Bastion dropped into the cellar (which I think was very brave,) and immediately called on his faith to bring the poor soul out of Strahd’s influence. The wretch was thrown back from the force of Bastion’s faith which gave Lunae enough time to jump into the basement behind him and use her vines to stop him from escaping. But the same thing as happened in the tent with the chair happened here. Instead of vines, the poor man was entangled with tiny skeletal hands, all joined together. It was very strange. There was a flash of light and where Lunae had just stood there was now a huge white Dire-Wolf. I was still upstairs as this all happened, but Bastion told me that this is exactly how it happened.
Karak disappeared through the trapdoor and as I followed him, readying my short bow, I saw him call on his ancient alien magic and unleash dark energies toward the creature. I quickly followed with an arrow that streaked across the room and embedded itself in the creature’s chest. Gorek landed with a crash behind me. “Do you have nothing more exciting than that?” He exclaimed.
A little hurt, I cried out “Well I am a thief, I mean a rogue, I mean a HALFLING!!”
Gorek grunted at me and turned to bless the wolf, who he recognised as Lunae at once.
The battle became a maelstrom of flashing weapons, energy and arcane magics. Bastion entreated his Lord for divine aid, Gorek and Lunae rushed towards the creature that we now only thought of as a vile denizen of the dark, Karak whispered madness in its ear and standing away from it as far as I could, I shot arrow after arrow at it, trying to bring it out of its misery. It couldn’t free itself from the grisly binding that Lunae had cast, so working as one, Bastion turned slightly and seeing Gorek readying his mighty warhammer, closed his eyes and blessed the Paladins intentions. The warhammer connected with the vampire with such ferocious force I think we all took a step backwards; a piercing light briefly lit up the entire underground cavern and we were convinced that finally the curse had been lifted. When my sight returned moments later, I was amazed to see that the creature was not only still very much alive, but that it had managed to free itself from the skeletal ropes and was climbing the walls to be away from us all. Gorek took an opportune swing at the receding form and missed, but Lunae, in the shape of the Direwolf managed to tear a huge lump of flesh from its leg. Skittering up the walls and onto the roof the vampire was obviously heading towards the opening left by the trapdoor. And then, with a heroic leap, the Dire-Wolf turned and leapt towards it, tearing the flesh from its vile throat. Both crashed to the floor. Lunae sat on her haunches and growled at the prone form in front of her, but now, it was obvious that the nightcrawler was dead.
The body seemed to change in front of us. Now it was obvious that this poor thing, clad in rags, lying in an expanding pool of its own black blood was nought but a young man. Emaciated, filthy and pitiful. We took no pleasure but counted ourselves lucky that this encounter had not been worse for us.
So, I am writing this on the steps of the temple in the wan winter sun. Nothing else of note happened, except to say that Gorek and Bastion took the remains of the priest’s son upstairs and promised the poor old man that they would bury the boy in full observance of their shared faith.
Karak and I had a small scare. With nothing to do whilst the Holy Men were attending to their duties, he and I took a peek at the bell tower and I thought it might be interesting to see what was up there. Good job we didn’t try anything more adventurous though, because as we were debating what to do, the bell rope snapped all of its own accord and a few large chunks of masonry fell from the tower, narrowly missing us. It was very strange. Covered in dust and thankful for our good luck we decided to join the others.
We are deciding what to do, we think we will go back to the Inn, clean up and make good on our promise to visit Ismark. As this visit took much longer than expected, we will return to the Durst house first thing in the morning. You never know, with my luck we might be in and out in an hour, have solved the riddle of ‘the Devil Strahd’ and be on our way home by the afternoon.
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