We’re staying at the ‘Blood of the Vine’ in the town of Barovia. It’s late, but I can’t sleep. I think others have gone to their rooms for the night, but I find it peaceful to write this and try to make sense of what has gone on. And there is so much that has happened.
If you remember, Mr. Frostbeard was talking about leaving for Daggerford to pick up the last of the payment for moving the travellers on. We all asked him not to go, but he was adamant that he didn’t want to stay another minute in this town. Looking back, I think he might have had a point.
So, we left the Vistani camp and walked along the road that led to the town. There was a signpost that showed the way to Ravenloft, Barovia (where we were heading) or back to Tser Pool, where we had left the travellers. At the crossroads was a gibbet that stood over a collection of unmarked graves. Gorek moved to bless the graves, offering up a prayer to the MorningLord, when we all heard a creaking noise coming from the gallows behind us. We all slowly turned around to see that a body had appeared hanging by its neck from the ancient wooden scaffold facing away from us. Lunae tried to shoot at the rope to make the body drop and missed, (It was a tricky shot, no-one laughed.) so Bastion (who is quite tall, I think I mentioned that earlier) cut it down. When the body hit the floor, everyone took a step back in horror. It was Gorek! It wasn’t as if it looked a little bit like him, it was him! I have to say, I’m not really scared by much, but this was a little eerie, so we decided to get to the village as soon as we could. Dog started growling, which didn’t help settle anyone’s nerves and Lunae said there were wolves in the forest on one side. It was enough to make us pick up our pace and head directly for the houses ahead of us. There were still a few hours of daylight left, but none of us fancied loitering in the woods too much. I think the hanging man really spooked Bastion.
And that was the last time we saw Mr. Frostbeard. As he stomped off through the high street to the big gates that we had passed through earlier I felt a tug at my sleeve and a little human girl, or about 7 or 8 looked at me and asked if we could help her. We were standing in front of a handsome brick house, three stories high, with lights coming from the windows.
“Help us Mister.” Said the little girl and a boy, a little younger, joined her.
“There’s a monster in the house,” said the boy, “our parents keep it in the cellar and we’re really worried about our baby brother Walter. Can you help us?”
We agreed that we would, I think Bastion wanted to do something good. So Lunae asked Dog to stay with the children and we knocked on the door. No answer. We knocked again and when we heard nothing, Gorek pushed at the door. It was unlocked, so we all went into the hallway. It was a fine house, but a little dusty. There was a big red marble staircase, a sword over a fireplace and everywhere was wood panels. We could hear voices coming from another room on the ground floor, so we shouted through and went to look for the children’s parents. Gorek called on the MorningLord to see if there was anything that would trouble us, but I think he might have been busy, because he didn’t answer him. We searched the rooms for the owners, but every time we thought we were going into a room where the voices were, we found it empty. The dining room had been set for a lot of people, but there was no one there.
Gorek stayed on the ground floor whilst Karak, Lunae, Bastion and I went upstairs to look around some more. There was a huge painting hanging over the fireplace on the landing that showed two adults and two children, (the ones we met in the street.) The plaque underneath said that these were Gustav and Elizabeth Durst, and the children were Rosa and Thorn. Nice to put some names to faces. There was no baby though, which was a bit odd. It’s a shame Gorek wasn’t with us because there were some nice suits of armour on the landing that looked like they might have fitted him.
We found a library and Karak stood guard outside whilst Bastion, Lunae and I went to have a look. The library was dusty too, and Bastion, looking through the desk found a black iron key. He then went around some bookshelves and noticed one of the books was a different colour to the others and pulled on it. At that moment, the bookcase kind of turned a little and there was a small room on the other side. He shouted through so we came to see what was up, by which time Lunae had gone into the room and found a chest with a skeleton hanging out of it. Its arm was trapped between the chest and its lid. Without hesitation the elf lifted the lid to see what was inside and I got a little cross.
“Now that’s just bonkers!” I said, turning to them. “There might have been traps or anything in there, you should let me have a good look first.”
Bastion and Lunae both agreed and stepped back. Honestly, it’s like they want to get hurt. I gave the chest a good look and found that there was a trap, but whoever this skeleton used to be had triggered it as there were three small darts lodged in it. The darts came from a mechanism with a crossbow icon hidden just inside the lid. I stepped back once I was sure there was nothing else, to show them that I wasn’t just trying to get my hands on whatever was in there and told them off again. They found some scrolls and letters, deeds to the house, deeds to a Windmill (that keeps cropping up) and a will naming a Dimov Durst steward of the lands until the children came of age should anything happen to the parents. The Holy Men said they would look at the scrolls and we moved on.
Lunae and I went upstairs to see what was on the top floor, as we got to the top of the stairs, we noticed that there was an enormous suit of armour standing against the wall opposite. Lunae stepped onto the dusty landing looking to see what was up there when the suit moved! It started to walk towards us and Lunae called on her druidic powers to grow vines out of the floor and walls. It was terrific to see, but the armour just walked straight through it and punched Lunae knocking her back. Which I thought was very rude. Bastion heard us shouting out and came rushing up the stairs, calling his Holy Light down on the armour which seemed to knock it back a bit and let us all run downstairs. But it was quick and had soon caught up. I was furthest away and didn’t know what to do, so I fired an arrow at it, and it just bounced straight off. Gorek was there in an instant and laid his hands on Lunae who felt better immediately, whilst Karak invoked his Eldritch power. He hit, but there were screaming faces in the light, which he told me afterwards he wasn’t expecting. Lunae, who was feeling a bit better tried to move away, but the armour hit her again. This was making me a little cross. Gorek then faced whatever this thing was and bellowed “Come to me!” blocking the armour from chasing after the elf. I had moved to the side and could see that armour wasn’t paying me any attention, so I loosed an arrow that hit one of the creases and slowed it a little. Bastion and Karak hit it with their different magics so that smoke was starting to issue out of the gaps in the armour, but it still managed to connect with Gorek, knocking him to the floor. His sacrifice was worth it, because Luane and I now had a clear shot, my arrow pierced the armour in the knee, but Lunae slotted an arrow directly into its faceplate and the armour fell to the ground in pieces.
We rested for a while. I was lucky enough not to have been hurt, but some of the others were a little shaken by it all, so I wrote in my journal, and they caught their breath. After all, we had just come in to help the children. Once everyone had collected themselves, we all agreed that we should press on, so after looking around, we all went upstairs to see what the crazy armour had been guarding.
Gorek said he felt a presence behind one of the doors and we went in to see a lady standing with her back to us singing to something in her arms. Gorek hailed her in a friendly way and she straightened her back, and said, “Poor Baby Walter. He lied to me, he said that Walter would bring peace and that I could raise the children as my own.” Then we saw that she was kind of fading. She turned to face Gorek, she was wearing a blue gown, which started to spot with blood. The blood spots got bigger until they became open wounds and her skin started to melt away from her face. I didn’t recognise her from the picture in the hallway.
“I have nothing. NOTHING!” She screamed and then floated into the air, blackened, and surrounded by a purple aura.
“Lady.” Gorek said. “Is there aught we can do to assist?” I thought he was crazy and that we would have to run away, but it worked, and the lady returned to her original form.
“What can I do?” She asked, “Baby Walter is dead, all is lost. He killed me.”
“What can we do to ease your suffering lady?” Gorek asked gently. “Should we find your earthly remains and remove this curse?”
“Gustav took him from me. He lied, Walter was in the basement, but now he is gone.”
“We will aid you in whatever way we can.” Gorek said soothingly. “We will help to lift this curse.”
Bastion approached her and asked if she knew anything about the iron key that he had, and she looked at him and said that it was the key to the children’s room. She motioned to a full-length mirror that I had looked at earlier and it swung open to reveal a staircase leading up. I was very surprised because I couldn’t see how that worked, but I don’t know much about magic.
We made our way upstairs at Bastion’s urging that we help the children. After checking some of the rooms, I made sure that the big doors on this floor with the big iron padlock weren’t booby trapped in anyway. Bastion put the key in the padlock and Gorek knocked on the door. As soon as he did so, we could hear young voices from within.
“Help us, we are so hungry.”
I cocked my head. ‘No’, I thought to myself, ‘that can’t be right’. We went into the room and saw a nursery with two beds and a dolls house, all covered in thick dust. In the middle of the floor were the remains of two small children. Decayed to not much more than bones. As we walked in, two spectral forms appeared. They were identical to the children in the street who had asked us to come inside and help their brother. The little girl, who we now thought of as Rosa took Bastions hand.
“Help us,” she said, “our parents locked us in here when they went to see the monster in the basement.”
I think there were tears in Gorek’s eyes as he stooped to pick up the bones from the floor.
“I will help you to leave this accursed place.” Said the Paladin.
“That’s all that’s left of me.” Said the ghost of the little boy.
“That is the least important part of you.” Whispered Gorek in a low voice, thick with sorrow.
I like Gorek, he said what we all felt.
Bastion in the meantime had been looking at the model house and noticed something. “There’s a shaft in this model.” He said and strode into the hallway straight to a secret door, right where it had been on the dolls house and behind it was a spiral staircase. “I bet that leads straight to the basement.” He said, but then he looked at Gorek’s forlorn face. “We must lay these poor wretches to rest.” Gorek said simply and handed the bones, carefully wrapped in a cloak, to the cleric.
“I will see it done.” Said Bastion and started walking downstairs.
I think he wanted to share his grief with the spectre because he stepped into the bedroom to show her what we had found. But she started screaming again. “Lies.” She wailed. “He lied to me.” Bastion started to speak with her, but she wouldn’t stop. He said afterwards that she started bleeding everywhere as if she had been attacked with knives. And then lunged at him. I was still upstairs, but I could hear her screams so I called for Gorek to help. I saw a really bright light cut through the shadows, but the screaming of the lady just got louder. Karak slammed past me and put himself between Bastion and the lady and unleashed his ancient magic on her, stripping half of her unsubstantial body away, but she wheeled around and laid her hands on Bastion, causing him to fall to the floor unconscious.
Gorek was there by now and pleaded with the lady to stop, but she ignored him and turned to Karak, who by now was in a deep trance. Thick ropes of dark energy erupted from the Dragonborn’s body and exploded into the dark lady’s form, shattering her into thousands of parts. As the black vapour dissipated in the room, we could hear her last words.
“Thank you.”
I think Gorek must have been hit by the blast because he gasped and slumped to the ground. “I must rest.” He said. We all agreed that this was probably what we all needed. But Bastion, torn with grief, and now recovered after some healing words from the elven druid was insistent that he inter the bones of the children.
“I can meet you at the Inn.” He said to us in the room. “But I must lay these poor things to a decent rest.”
“Well, we’re not splitting up now.” I replied. “We’ll all go with you.”
The sun set on this dismal town as we left the house to find a suitable plot, away from the buildings. Dog was sitting where Lunae had left him and fell into step with us. We had only walked a little ways down the street when we were accosted by two small children. To our horror it was Rosa and Thorn.
“Help us.” Said Rosa.
“There’s a monster in the house,” said Thorn, “our parents keep it in the cellar and we’re really worried about our baby brother Walter. Can you help us?”
I turned to talk to them, urging the others to carry on with their sacred work, but there was nothing else I could do for them, so reluctantly, I left them by the house.
The shadows grew deeper as the priest and the paladin dug shallow graves, and then in accordance with their faith, set the bones on a small wooden pyre and lit them with their torches. Lunae started suddenly. “Can you hear that?” She whispered. “Wings, lots of wings.” We all looked up to see thousands of bats circling overhead. The holy men finished their work and we all hurried back to the supposed safety of the town. Not one of us needed any further incentive to get into a warm, welcoming tavern.
And that’s where we are now. It’s not the best kept inn I’ve ever been in, but we have had wine (they have no food), and there is a general store nearby that might have some useful things for us when it opens tomorrow. We have grimly agreed that we need to go back to the house to finish what we started, but we need rest. We spent the evening speaking to one who lives here. Ismark he told us his name was. He spoke quietly about the ‘Devil Strahd’, and how his own sister lives in fear of Strahd’s visits. I took the chance to ask him about the House of the Dragon, like Madam Ava spoke of, and he seemed to think it might be something of which he had heard. He asked us to visit him in his father’s house. Which we will do after we have finished what we need to.
Ah, the Vistani women are closing the bar up, I should retire to my chamber and sleep.
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