Post by gavmeister on Apr 9, 2018 11:27:23 GMT
The Cleansing of Yester Hill
The adventurers head into a sickly copse of dead trees. A human skeleton lies beneath the branches of a sinister tree. A shining battleaxe, its handle carved with leaves and vines, is buried in its trunk. Shadowy figures skulk under the branches - needle blights. Bran charges them but is immediately swarmed by lurking twig blights. They find it hard to penetrate the paladin’s armour, so two needle blights are also drawn into the fight.
More twig blights ambush the others. Ricken wades into the centre of the chaos and channels Radiance of the Dawn to terrible effect, incinerating the creatures. Three vine blights turn the ground into a mass of writing brambles, then attack. One of them grapples Theo but is chastened by a Hellish Rebuke.
Pankas dives for the huge misshapen tree at the centre of the clearing. He pulls the battleaxe loose and starts hacking at the trunk. Tainted blood spurtsout – a Gulthias tree! The others finish off the blights; Bran joins Pankas in hacking at the tree while Ricken cleanses fires off a volley of Sacred Flames. Soon little is left but a bloodied stump.
Giselle arrives; Muriel has carried her back from Krezk in wereraven form, but is exhausted by the effort. She joins Giselle and Theo for a restorative brew before flying back to Vallaki. The reunited adventurers head back to the Wizard of Wines but run straight into a group of druids and berserkers returning from the Svalich Woods. Theo casts a Hypnotic Pattern to confuse the attackers. Bran’s aura protects his companions from an Entangle spell. Ricken again heads to the centre of the battle to channel Radiance of the Dawn. The fight is short but bloody; the last of the druids and berserkers are cut down.
They return to the Wizard of Wines. Davian Martikov is overjoyed at the return of the green seed gem. They take a long rest. Theo dreams of a man dressed in rags, soaked to the skin, trapped in a prison cell. The man transforms into a werewolf. In the morning the warlock’s Dream Journal has a new entry.
Pankas hears a voice in his dreamThe Burgomaster recognises them as the heroes of the battle at the Wizard of Wines, and they are finally admitted to Krezk.s: “Long have I waited for one who is worthy. My spear hungers for blood. Retrieve it and rule these mountains in my stead, just like the mighty warriors from the early days of the Whispering Wall.” He wakes to find the Blood Spear of Kavan clutched in his right hand.
Bran tries out Find Steed. Binky, an intelligent zombie horse, arrives a few seconds later. Bran pauses momentarily before concluding this must all be completely legal for Barovia, and saddles up.
Next morning Ricken officiates at the Ceremony to re-plant the magic seed gem in the vineyard. The vines quickly begin to recover their vitality. They head back to Krezk. The adventurers pause outside the 20 foot high stone wall surrounding Krezk, while the nervous guards fetch the Burgomaster, Dmitri Krezkov. Two archers in the gatehouse towers nock arrows cautiously.
Krezk
They are offered shelter in an abandoned cottage at the foot of the track leading up to the Abbey, but Krezkov warns them they will need to help the villagers out with chores. Ricken notices the Burgomaster is distressed. Dmitri and his wife Anna are grieving the loss of their last surviving child, Ilya, who died last week, aged 14. The family’s graves, including those of all four children, lie behind their cottage. Ricken mutters a few well-meaning words and the Burgomaster breaks down in tears, inconsolable.
The mist-shrouded village is no more than a scattering of humble wooden cottages; dirt tracks that wind between stands of snow-dusted pines. The villagers keep pigs, chickens and hares, and grow beets and turnips. One or two have a mule or cow as well. Ricken buys a hare hutch for reasons which are not clear. A villager cuts the head off an old chicken with an axe, splattering blood over himself and his young son. Neither seem bothered.
The village midwife, Kretyana Dolvof brings them jugged hare stew. They break open a bottle of the Martikov’s Red Dragon Crush. Kretyana tells them the village is self-sufficient – but none dare leave due to the threat of wolves, dire wolves and werewolves.
She tells them of Saint Markovia’s doomed revolt against Strahd. The abbey was a hospital and convent, but fell on hard times. Some of the clergy fell prey to Strahd, others went mad and either starved or turned to cannibalism. A century ago a new Abbott arrived – he hasn’t aged a day since. He occasionally visits the Shrine of the White Sun and orders wine for the Abbey. None of the villagers trust the Abbott, and many believe he is an agent of Strahd, or even the vampire himself in disguise. No-one visits the Abbey; the bell rings at odd hours of day and night and inhuman screams and laughter are heard.
The Abbey of Saint Markovia
Next morning they visit the Shrine of the White Sun, beside the shimmering, sparkling pool which provides the village with clean fresh water. In the waters, Giselle glimpses the face of a handsome, yet sad, young man bearing a passing resemblance to Strahd. An old wooden statue of the Morninglord stands mournfully in a crumbling gazebo.
They climb the switchback gravel track up the cliff to the Abbey. The air grows colder as they ascend; a light dusting of snow covers the pines and rocky earth. A gatehouse is set in the five foot stone wall which surrounds the abbey grounds. The rusty iron gates are unlocked and squeal open when pushed. The gravediggers, Otto and Zygfrek Belview, emerge.
Otto has a wolf’s snout and can barely be understood. He prances around, posing on powerful leonine legs, and is annoyed when Theo fails to show sufficient admiration.
Zygfrek has cat’s eyes and paws, and half-scaly, half-furred skin. She accuses Bran of judging her and takes quick offence.
The gravediggers agree to take the party to see the Abbott. They pass the edge of an extensive ancient graveyard overlooked by stunted pine trees. Away to the east, a gatehouse stands at the entrance to the Abbey gardens.
A fifteen foot curtain wall surrounds the two wings of the abbey. Perched atop it are two scarecrow ‘guards’. A tarnished copper plaque on the wall reads: “Abbey of Saint Markovia. May her light cure all illness.”
Otto and Zygfrek open the stout, reinforced wooden gates and show them into the courtyard. Thick fog swirls as if eager to escape. A stone well with an iron winch is at the centre of the yard. Along the perimeter are several stone sheds with padlocked wooden doors, from which occasional screams are heard. Three shallow alcoves contain crumbling wooden troughs. More screams, accompanied by hysterical laughter, can be heard in the Abbey’s east wing. More members of the Belview family, Zygfrek tells them.
Marzena Belview is chained to a stout wooden post. Long stringy black hair partly hides her face, but fails to conceal her spider mandibles and mouth. She tries to fly off on bat wings, only to be pulled short by the chain attached to the post. She flutters about madly, screaming nonsense. Sensing a fellow troubled misfit, Theo soothers her with kindly words. He whispers a promise to find a way to free her.
They approach the north wing of the abbey and belfry. Arched windows look down with cracked panes of leaded glass. They hear the sound of a viol being played within. They enter and find themselves in a large 50 foot square room. A cauldron containing rabbit and turnip soup simmers above a fire in the hearth. On the wall is a golden disk engraved with a sun symbol. In one corner a wooden staircase leads up; in another, stone stairs head down. There’s a long dining table set with wooden dishes and golden candelabras.
The Abbott is a handsome young man in a clean brown robe with a calm, pleasant demeanour. Hanging from his neck is a painted, wooden holy symbol of the Morninglord. He gently guides a young woman, Vasilka, who is dressed in a torn and soiled red gown. Her powdered alabaster skin and auburn hair are striking. The Abbott is teaching her to dance; she obeys his every command. He moves with the grace of a saint.
Clovin Bellview sits on a stool, accompanying them on a tenor viol. With a crustacean, clawlike appendage he grasps the neck of the instrument while running a bow gently across its strings with his human hand. He wears an ill-fitting monk’s robe. Clovis’ right head is goat-like, his left-head only partly formed and half-covered in scales.
The Abbott admires Giselle’s hands and asks if she would care to donate them to the Morninglord after she dies. She would not.
Epilogue
The roots of the Gulthias tree stir into life, deep below the blood-soaked ground of Yester Hill…