Post by gavmeister on Oct 18, 2017 11:09:46 GMT
Thanks to Lara for playing Myrtle.
A crowd of angry townsfolk march on the burgomaster’s mansion. Father Lucian begins to panic that the peasants’ revenge will extend to his sister and nephew. There is a more general concern over what Victor might do if pushed. Ricken and Bran try to hold the crowd back but are trampled in the rush. Pankas and Theo sprint to the Burgomaster’s mansion to try to avert a tragedy. Giselle blends in with the crowd, surreptitiously.
By the time the mob arrive at the mansion, they’re in an ugly mood. At first they are unimpressed by Pankas’ call for restraint, even when abetted by Theo’s theatrics. However, Giselle sows confusion amongst the crowd, giving Bran and Ricken time to catch up accompanied by Ismark and Ireena. With the arrival of the Barovian heroes, tensions ease off. Pankas breaks into the mansion to find that the Burgomaster has barricaded himself in the library with his mastiffs. He persuades Lydia Vallakovich and a reluctant Victor to accompany Father Lucian to St Andral’s church for safety. Victor pledges to return to his home when the dust has settled.
Once the civilians have been ushered away the mob can no longer be restrained. The Baron is unceremoniously lynched and his dogs butchered. Ismark eventually restores order and most of the loot taken in haste is returned. Theo takes advantage of the confusion to case Victor’s hideaway but finds only a half-finished wizard’s robe. Pankas grabs a skeleton cat as a gift for Jeny Greenteeth. They return to the Bluewater Inn for a general celebration. The last dregs of wine are drained.
Van Richten has left a note for Pankas telling his tragic story, and explaining how his vendetta against the Vistani began. A lich, Tenebrous, had provided van Richten with a zombie horde to take his revenge, albeit without explanation. Theo is startled by the reference to his Undead Patron.
Vampire versus Wereraven
That night Theo dreams again of Sasha Ivliskova perched smiling on the edge of his bed while a raven taps at the window. Then Sasha is nuzzling up to him. And then she’s biting his neck. He wriggles out from under her and opens the window. The raven flies in, turns first into Muriel Vinshaw and then she reverts to her wereraven form. Muriel and Sasha go at it hammer and tongs, with neither making much impression on the other. Sasha eventually grapples Muriel and bites her with some effect, but Theo plunges his Rat Skull Dagger into the vampire’s leg. Sasha decides to call it a night and escapes through the window.
Muriel explains that she and the Martikovs belong to a secret wereraven society, the Keepers of the Feather, who have allied with van Richten to oppose Strahd. She has kept an eye on the adventurers since they entered Barovia and will help them again if she can. She also reminds Theo that the Martikovs are out of wine, and it is time for the adventurers to help out in return.
On the Svalich road again
The Wachter boys arrive at the Inn with an envelope their mother asked them to give to the adventurers. An invitation from Strahd to join him for dinner. He promises them safe passage on the journey to Castle Ravenloft.
They visit Ismark and Ireena at the burgomaster’s mansion. A semblance of order has been restored but tensions remain high. Ireena tells Bran she has decided to move into St Andral’s church to elude Strahd’s attention, but wonders whether it might be safer to move on to the Abbey in Krezk.
Theo casts Detect Magic and Identify on the magic mirror by the bridal costume in the mansion, gaining knowledge of its purpose which he considers too dangerous to share.
The adventurers decide it is time to investigate the windmill whose deeds they took from the Death House. On the way, a no-longer speechless Theo creeps off to perform a ritual in the woods. Giselle follows him. She sees him animate his prized mummified monkey’s paw, naming it ‘Amon’. Next morning, his familiar crawls over to the campfire to help serve breakfast. The others are of course ‘surprised and delighted’, particularly Bran.
Old Bonegrinder
The adventurers climb back through the Balinok Mountains to the windmill; its warped wooden vanes stripped bare. They find dream pastries baking in an oven on the ground floor kitchen, along with a barrel of greenish black ichor which Bran identifies as fiendish in origin. Distressingly they find a variety of baking ingredients, including powdered children’s bones. There’s also a trunkful of toads and a chicken coop. Theo throws away the remaining pastries he bought from the old lady in the village. They head upstairs and find Morgantha, the hag from Barovia village, hard at work grinding bones with a millstone. Loud knocks are coming from one of the nearby crates, and cackling can be heard from upstairs.
Morgantha shrieks for assistance from her daughters and turns invisible. Bran opens the crate and Myrtle, a ten year old prisoner, springs out. She and her seven year old brother Freek were exchanged for dream pastries by their parents, and the green hags have been torturing them with their hairpins. Myrtle wants revenge.
Morgantha’s daughters hurtle downstairs. Bella Sunbane hits Pankas and Giselle with a Lightning Bolt before vaulting the stairs to confront Bran. Offalia Wormwiggle follows her, clawing at Pankas’ shield. Morgantha reappears and tries to Polymorph Theo three times - without success.
Myrtle grabs a hairpin from Bella and stabs the hag’s ample posterior with it repeatedly. Powered by divine aid, Bran slices into Bella with his greatsword. Ricken summons his skeletal Spiritual Guardians to slow and weaken the hags. Pankas outmanoeuvres Offalia wounding her again and again with his sword. Giselle fires a volley of arrows, and – most certainly not turned into a toad – Theo Eldritch Blasts the Hexed Offalia. When Ricken fires off a series of Scorching Rays, the hags’ doom is sealed. Morgantha abandons her fallen sisters and takes an Invisible Passage to sneak out of the windmill. Theo tells Amon to follow the hag using its blindsight and, marked by the crawling claw, Ricken is able to Faerie Fire her location. Exposed to all, the chief hag is finally brought down.
The freed children don’t want to return to their useless parents. They plead to be taken to Ismark and Ireena, who they remember from Barovia village.
They find three elixirs in a cupboard but one marked ‘Youth’ disappears when everyone’s back apart from Giselle’s is turned. Pankas stashes the elixirs of ‘Laughter’ and ‘Mother’s Milk’.
The heroes head up to the top floor of Old Bonegrinder and seize a modest amount of loot from the hags’ filthy beds. Pankas climbs to the roof of the mill and spots a ring of monoliths nearby.
They visit the four monoliths which are decorated with crude carvings of cities associated with the four seasons. A raven picks at the remnants of a dream pastry. Ricken finds a pile of children’s teeth left as an offering for the wicked archfey, Ceithlenn of the Crooked Teeth. He gives them a decent burial.