<< [[CoS Summary 13-15|Previous Session]] | [[CoS Summary 17|Next Session]] >> # Curse of Strahd: Session 16 ## Outcasts of Barovia ### Players [[Arbane Elkhorn]] [[Bea Boglak]] [[Bol Boglak]] [[Destry]] [[Squan Dron]] [[Pip]] ### Davian's Camp ![[Svalich-Woods-Camp.gif]] *Davian's Camp* Coming to their senses, the group decides maybe running away with a stolen children's toy may cause more problems than it solves. They walk back to Davian's camp and try to earn the toy fair and square through conversation. Bea tries to give them one of Blinsky's toys instead, but the young boy Martin just wants his horsey back. Pip's guilt overcomes him, and he decides to hand the toy back to the young boy. As he kisses the horse on the cheek in farewell, he notices beneath the familiar tagline "Is no fun is Blinsky!", there is a name carved into the wood: "Beucephulus". Arbane walks up to the father, Dag, and places his hand on his shoulder, and uses [[Command]] to compel him to let us keep the toy. It works, the man's disdain turns to a helpful disposition as he walks over to the toy and places it in Arbane's hands. The other Martikov's are not happy about this display of magic on their family member in plain sight. Bea tries to diffuse the situation offering to the group that they could just sell wine and buy their own rocking horse from Blinsky's shop. Arbane hands the horse back "It's too small for me, no thank you". Davian suggests it's time for them to leave, "I appreciate what you've done for us, and I had more you could help us with, but let's just part ways for now and I'll be in touch." Bea kneels down next to the boy, and places Thorn's doll on the little horse, and with that the group sets out on the Old Svalich Road. ![[Beucephalus Toy.jpg|300]] *Beucephalus* ### Destination Krezktination They discuss their next destination as they head out. The Wolf Hunters say they need to head back to Vallaki to handle some important business. They remind the group that getting into Vallaki after dark is a tall order, so they suggest either setting back soon or making use of a Scout Outpost they have set up on the way back to town. Ireena suggests going back with the hunters. On one hand, Father Lucian guided her to seek refuge in the nearby town of Krezk, but she knows it will be difficult to gain entry based on their reputation of isolation from the rest of Barovia. They decide to have her go back to Vallaki with Szoldar and Yevgeni, and they set off north and cross the Raven River. The temperature drops as they hike up the mountainous slopes to the cold village of Krezk. ![[Krezk.gif]] *Approaching Krezk* The road branches north and climbs a rocky escarpment, ending at a gatehouse built into a twenty-foot-high wall of stone reinforced with buttresses every fifty feet or so. The wall encloses a settlement on the side of a snow-dusted mountain spur. Beyond the wall the tops of snow-covered pines and thin, white wisps of smoke. The somber toll of a bell comes from a stone abbey that clings to the mountainside high above the settlement. The steady chime is inviting—a welcome change from the deathly silence and oppressive fog to which the party has has grown accustomed. It's hard to tell at this distance, but there seems to be a switchback road clinging to the cliffs that lead up from the walled settlement to the abbey. The air grows colder as they approach the walled settlement. Two square towers with peaked roofs flank a stone archway into which is set a pair of twelve-foot-tall, ironbound wooden doors. Carved into the arch above the doors is a name: Krezk. The walls that extend from the gatehouse are twenty feet high. Atop the parapet you see four figures wearing fur hats and clutching spears. They watch the approaching group nervously. > "Hail and well met! My name is Bea, and these are my nuts!" Bea leads the group up to the gates greeting the guards with confidence. The guards question this strange group's intentions. Arbane tells the guards that they heard of a shrine here and they've come all this way to seek worship here. "Worship who?", the guards inquired. "The Sun God", Arbane replies. Bea quickly corrects him, "THE MORNING LORD of course". "For all we know you could be one of Strahd's minions" the guards speculated. "We hate Strahd!" The group exclaimed. Their attempts at persuasion weren't seeming to gain traction. "That's enough", the guard said as he descended the structure behind the walls of stone. "Stay right there". Meanwhile Bol slipped away from the interaction, getting a lay of the land around the town. The 20 foot high walls surrounding the settlement seemed to be well guarded by men placed around 300 feet apart on buttresses inside the fortress walls. The walls seem well secured, however the cliff formations to the east of the village could be scaled with some climbing gear, gaining access to the Abbey and perhaps passage the town below. A new figure ascended into view on top of the gates of Krezk before the party. "Who goes there, and why are you here", his tone was more commanding than the guards. "We are looking for a place to stay tonight and we seek to worship the Morninglord" Arbane reiterated. "I'm sorry, that is not enough. We are not accepting visitors." "What will it take for us to be able to stay here tonight?" Arbane implored as he covertly casted [[Detect Thoughts]] on the stately man. > They're not even showing any respect to a noble. We don't let anyone in, friend or foe Strahd so why would we let you in? What would we get in return? Arbane takes out the [[Sunsword Hilt]], "We're here because of this, it gave us a vision". There's a long pause from the puzzled Krezkians. "Okayyyy I think it's time to wrap things up here. Whether you speak the truth or not it will be best if you go ahead and leave." Arbane casts [[Message]] on him and starts to plead his case once again before the nobleman rejects the act "OKAY enough tricks good BYE" and stomps down the stairs. In his absence one of the guards says "Look, I don't know what that was all about or if what you're saying is true but if you're looking for a way in you're going to do something for the town. He has an oath to uphold and will honor a gesture of good will". The group asks what they could do and he starts to explain, "Well, we've been expecting a delivery from the winery for quite some-" "OHHHHH GREAT". The guard stops short of a promise but does say that the 4 barrels of wine they've been expecting could do the trick. With an exasperated sigh the group trudges back down the mountainside to the Raven River crossroads. ![[Sunsword Hilt.png|300]] *The Sunsword Hilt* ### On the Old Road Again Shortly after returning to the Old Svalich road, Squan notices a dark figure moving in the brush. He can't get a good look at it, but they see glimpses of movement the dense brush of the Svalich Woods. Investigating closer, Arbane notices what look like bare human footprints in the mud. They decide it's perhaps not worth the trouble and start to move on before an abrupt hiss pierces out from the woods, followed by some sinister chuckling. Bea charges into the woods swinging her axe, but nothing happens. They hear movement around them in multiple directions. "Okay guys", Bea starts to say, interrupted by a shrill mocking tone from an undiscernible direction "OKAY GUYS". Arbane takes a moment to focus on locating the source of these sounds and sends a fireball sailing into the woods. With a bright splash of fire the fireball illuminates the silhoute of a human figure ducking in the bushes who wails in pain. ![[Swamp-Campsite.gif]] *The Svalich Woods* Squan reacts quickly, aiming with his shortbow where the flash this stranger appeared. He's able to send his arrow straight into center mass, even in the confusion of the moment. Bol acts next, throwing a psychic blade into the brush, critically hitting the mysterious creature. Arbane casts [[Dragon's Breath]], throwing acid fire at the general area from his extended palm. They see a wild looking naked man stumble out of the brush, covered with grey mud and looking up at them with eyes filled with intense confusion. Pip leaps into the branches perching above the area. He uses [[Vicious Mockery]] to say "STOP BEING NAKED", but the mad creature doesn't seem to understand what he's saying. The wild man gets to his feet and runs away, while another hiding in the brush jumps out and recklessly charges Bea, swinging his great axe, hitting her with a solid hit. At this moment, Destry hears rustling behind him, and out of the brush comes out another wild naked man. He tries to swing at him but misses. Destry responds with his own flurry of blows with his short sword. He then uses Hand of Harm to do extra necrotic damage. Bea is pissed, and goes into a violent rage, farting and surging with wild magic. Shadowy tendrils reach out to the closer wild man doing necrotic damage while she swings with her great axe. He surprisingly takes it on the chin with some strength. She swings again doing max damage once again. He's woozy after that one barely standing on his feet. With an intimidating roar this guy is terrified of Bea. ![[Barovian Berserker.png|500]] *Barovian Berserker* Squan runs after the fleeing man and attacks with his rapier, he's not looking good now. Bol sends 2 psyche blades at the same one and inexplicably the fleeing Berserker is still standing. Arbane casts [[Haste]] on himself, and runs up to the Berserker attacking Bea and strikes him with his scimitar. It's only 4 damage. He pulls the shadows of the forest into his sword and strikes with the pitch black blade. Inexplicably the sliced man is still standing staring at the group with wild eyes. Pip leaps from branch to branch and casts [[Shatter]] on the fleeing Beserker. A ring sounds out as Pip sings at an impossible pitch, the weird man widens his eyes, singing with the vibrating note before separating into chunks skattering across the forest floor. He gives Bardic Insipiration to Destry. The Berserker cowering under Bea's shadow attempts to flee, but is exposed to opportunity attacks from Bea and Squan who both chop pieces off of the pitiful madman. He's crawling away squealing, with his eyeball popped out and limbs attached only by ligaments. The other berserker tries attacking Destry again, but Destry expertly ducks under the swing of his greataxe. Hopelessly, the madman runs away giving Destry an opportunity to land an attack as he flees. Destry then gives chase, slashing and punching with a flurry of blows. The final Berserker is showing a limp as he continues to run. Bea and Squan land blows with their weapons on him fucking him up but he's still up and running. Pip casts [[Healing Word]] on Bea and uses [[Vicious Mockery]] on him yelling "your body is ugly" but he doesn't care. Pip has just been hanging from a branch and yelling things pretty much. Bea slices his guts out as he trudges away in the mud, and Destry ends things with a shove of his shortsword into the wild Berserker's face, putting him out of his misery as he slumps to the ground. They spend the next moments trying to figure out what just occured, it seems like they may have just murdered some weirdos who were just mocking them, but on the other hand they certainly were attacking them in the fray. As they consider the morality of the situation, Destry searches the remains of the weird naked bodies of these men. There's not much to be found in the minimal cloth they wore, but he did find a muddy envelope on one of the bodies. He's able to make out some of the words on the soggy parchment: > ...what led you down this path... > your mother would... > Your potential... could never... > > We'll be.... > Pestry At the bottom of the letter is the unmistakable signature of Destry's father, Pestry. Destry is stunned, he picks up pieces of face he can find in the mud but doesn't recognize these wild men. He shares this with the group who asks if he ran away from home. "We've all done some shit right?". Bea says "I haven't done shit, this was self defense. There are only 2 solutions for this question. One: these guys are all mailmen, or two, they are your father." They discuss their plans to return to the winery. They *mostly* decide on *not* trying to steal the rocking horse until *after* they kill Strahd. Pip cannot fully get on agree so Bea slaps him unconscious and throws him over her shoulder. It's around 7 o'clock as they journey down the Ol' Svalich Road back to the winery. They notice some ravens perched above in the trees watching them before flying off towards the vineyards. Be asks Destry if she could see his letter again. Shockingly, the parchment is clean and dry. The letter is now stamped with an eerily familiar crest, the mysterious message is now penned in a completely different handwriting. It's an invitation to dinner from the devil himself: **Strahd Von Zarovich**. ![[Strahd's Invitation.png|600]] *[[Strahd's Invitation]]*