Recap 2025-10-22
Regular ol' Ted murdered a bunch of children.
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The crew regrouped at the Blue Water Inn. In the night, Ted had a dream about 5 spirits coming to get him. He woke up smelling like smoke, and the floor boards around him were charred. The others were annoyed and told him to quit sleep-combusting. In the morning, Corven noticed the return of the guy that watched him a few days ago in the same inn. The man extended an invitation for the party to enjoy dinner at the home of Lady Wachter that evening.
The party went back to the burgomaster's house to do a little snooping, per the norm. Rather, I mean breaking and entering. They looked back in all the windows to see where everyone was at. Fang spidered up, and he got everyone into the attic through a window. They found some old junk in the main attic room. They found a warding spell on the door to the east room. To open this door, they tried to torch the entire house as a first attempt. Somehow, the larger arson attempt failed, but it did make a hole in the door. Fang bravely burned a few housecats from a safe distance. You can't be too careful with housecats, you know. They found some wooden children, which Ted happily carried aound for a little bit. There was a spellbook and some notes on a few other arcane things. Fang found a sweet mage's robe in a chest, but it was unfinished. Fang resolved to finish this work. They moved the rug that the cats - you know, the ones that Fang courageously killed from across an adjacent room - were on. There seemed to be a magic circle inscribed on the floor under the rug. Gwyn recognized it to be a magic circle from one of the notes in the room.
The crew snooped around the burgomaster's house. Tryphena fell was yeeted off the roof by Corven when trying to peep in a 2nd floor window.
The group saw a dining room, a den, a kitchen, and other typical rooms.
On the 3rd floor, Fang saw a pale dude in a candlelit room with skeletal cats and children Blair Witching it in the corner.
The pale individual, the one that I just mentioned, noticed Fang and drew the dark curtains.
At about this time, Gwyn finally caught the others' attention. She heard a commotion - nay, a ruckus - from the east. She heard a loud growling and people running around talkin bout they gon die. The group went to the east to a bushy area behind the houses, and they found some guards closing in on a saber-toothed tiger. Fang noticed a half elf trying to lure the tiger to the south with a fish. Ted distracted the guards. Fang magically turned himself into, I shit you not, the Sex Cat. He strutted to get the tiger's attention. It worked, but perhaps not how Fang intended. The tiger charged at the Sex Cat, and she was only stopped when the fish elf smacked her with the fish. Fang followed the tiger and elf to a stockyard to the east, where they entered a carnival wagon. The party tried to talk with the half elf, but he would not open the door. Finally, Fang convinced the elf to open the door.
Let me pause right there to remind you of something. The half elf had never seen canine-style Fang. He had only seen Sex Cat. Now that we have that addressed...
The elf thanked the party and asked them to be quiet about the situation, as he valued his safety in this location. He rewarded the Boo Crew with some gems and electrum coins with Strahd's likeness. The party began the walk back to the Blue Water Inn to take some dinner and rest.
The Boo Crew tore up the shops of Vallaki. They looked for things to waste their gold on. They found things to waste their gold on. They wasted their gold. At Bristol's Basement, a magical item shoppe, the appropriately-named proprietor offered the party a quest. He is owed 200 gold pieces by one Baba Lysaga. In return for ecovering his gold and teaching Lysaga a lesson, he promised a crystal longsword and sick bow. Yum!
The party went to the south of the town and witnessed the Festival of the Blazing Sun. It started to rain during the procession. The rain prevented a man, later learned to be the burgomaster, from lighting the wicker ball. A town militia guard laughed, and he was then dragged away to the west. The party followed them to the burgomaster's house. The party lurked outside the residence until the guard sheepishly returned to his post.
In the morning, the crew continued down the road to the west. They came to the Town of Vallaki, which was surrounded by a tall wooden palisade. The were let in by two guards who pointed them to the Blue Water Inn as requested by Ismark. They entered the inn and partied for a while. Corven noticed a suspicious man watching them from a corner of the common room. He chased the man out into the night.
In the night, Ted had a dream where he was in a smoke-filled room with fire coming at him. He fell through the burning floor into darkness. A creepy-ass child's voice spake thus: "I'm coming for you." Ted woke with a start to find sooty, child-sized footprints leading out the door and down the stairs. When he returned later, the footprints were gone.
At lunch in the common room, Ismark gave the party two bags of gold pieces. He told them that Ireena was hunted by Strahd. The party considered their next moves.
The Boo Crew™ went down the road away from the windmill, through some kills, and into a dense forest. They were waylaid by some dire wolves. All of the party members did their jobs to defeat them. The archer, the swordsmen, the healers, and the magical magicians did well. Brahm did some notable punching of wolf butts. Notable indeed.
The party made camp in the thick mists on a hill overlooking the road. In the night, a skeletal rider on a skeletal horse appreached from the road to the south. As it began to rain, the rider quickly tore into Brahm with an evil sword. The monk's ability to divert and deflect damage played a key role in making him to be not dead. Some defensive buff spells were tossed about by the Crew. Corven tried such a buff, but it was quickly dispelled by the rider. "Nooo..." spake the rider. Undeterred, Corven tried another buff with the same result. The Crew was facing defeat with much of the party dangerously weak. The party swarmed the skeletons, but they could not bring down the rider. The rider called upon dark magicks to imbue his evil sword with a glowing power that would surely have killed Ted, but he swung too hard and fell from his steed. The group stomped upon his ass like it was a hootin' good hoedown. The sword came free from the skeleton's gauntleted hand. The former rider, now a lay-in-the-dirter, raised his arms unto the sky to call upon one final weapon to dispatch the party. But... his call was unanswered, as he used up all his magic messing with Corven. Corven drew his longbow, and with a sarcastic "Yes..." he shot the head off the skeleton. Ted cut the skeletal horse down when it tried to nibble on Ted's ear. Now standing in the rain, the bloodied Boo Crew wonder what will come next.
Regular ol' Ted murdered a bunch of children.
The group travelled down the road toward the lake to the west of Barovia Village. They got there with the help of a crappy map that Ismark held. They camped that night on the south shore next to the river that flowed back toward the village. They found a Dead Guy™ that had a note from the Burgomaster of Barovia seeking help from somebody. In the morning, the party went to the Vistani camp on the west shore of the lake. There, Madame Eva read their Tarokka fortunes:
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The group woke up in the partially-burned barn to less light than they were used to seeing this time of year. They did a little inspection of the area. There was an old shed to the west with some equipment, some of which was in usable condition. The dog house had a pallet, sone old tattered children's clothes, a doll, and some scratches on the inside wall that said, "I CAN'T SPEAK" over and over. The name on the wooden sign above the dog house said, "Tristum." The doll resembled a little boy, and its mouth was stitched shut. An image was etched into the inside wall of a boy, but the drawing stopped below the nose where the jaw would be.
The group did some figurin', some reckonin', and even a little ponderin'. They went into the woods to the west where they found a circle of burned grass in a clearing. Tryphena put her hand into a sunbeam that appeared, and she lost her ability to speak. A friggin' sun monster came down and demanded a sacrifice. The party FOUGHT THE SUN for a bit. The celestial object, rather the former celestial object, was extinguished by a punch to the… err… sun? Yeah, the sun. It got punched in its sun by Braham, who slow-motion hit the thing and posed in a brilliant rain of hot sparkles. He was OK. They bartered with a rat that Tryphena spoke to, getting some jaw bones in exchange for a femur.
The group went down the road to the south and west into an open valley. They saw the village of Barovia in the distance. They approached to the sound of wailing or crying through the empty streets. They detected only a few buildings that seemed to have occupants. They entered one, the Blood of the Vine Tavern. They met a silent and very stoic barkeep, three Vistani sisters who seemed to own the Tavern, and a man named Ismark. Ismark offered the party some wine while he asked them to help him on his quest to escort his sister Ireena to the town of Vallaki to the west. He suggested that they discuss details at the burgomaster's residence down the street. Since it was getting late in the day, the party decided to go with him to get more information.
The party was summoned to a dinner with Duchess Morwen of Daggerford, a small city outside Waterdeep. She tasked them to drive away a group of miscreants from the Trade Way, a road to the south. The group set out that night and found a group of 12 brightly-colored humans dancing and drinking around a bonfire. Fang and Corven snuck around just inside the forest while Tryphena led the rest to speak to the visitors. Their leader, Stanimir, explained that his group of Vistani travelled to find adventurers to ravel to their homeland to save the inhabitants from eternal fog and despair. The party traveled with the Vistani down the road to the south.
The next evening, a deep mist enveloped everyone. It was so dense that they could not see more than a few feet in front of them. When the fog dispersed, the party found themselves not on the Trade Way but on a rough road in the middle of a forest. The Vistani left the adventurers. The party found themselves at a double iron gate with two statues of armed warriors on each side. They passed through the gate and walked down the road.
When Ted stepped in an animal corpse which was missing its jaw, they found themselves outside a farmhouse. An old man introduced himself as Grampa Abel. He offered some terrible wine to the party. When they investigated the well, they noticed some bones under the water which they later recovered, also missing its jaw. Brahm and Fang football tackled Abel and straight up broke him to death. They backed away, whistling in the hope that nobody noticed. But we did, we all did.
In the night, the ghost of a child attacked the party. They expertly set the barn on fire, and then dispatched the little kid. The child's spirit flew away in relief and disappeared to the west.
Here's how to import a character sheet into Roll20.
!beyond --config!beyond --import [character JSON]
This golden cloak billows illusory sand around you when you walk or cast a spell. The cloak has 8 charges and regains 1d6 + 2 expended charges daily at dawn. While wearing the cloak, you can expend 1 or more of its charges to cast the following spells from it (save DC 15): blur (2 charges), call lightning (3 charges), create or destroy water (1 charge), or hallucinatory terrain (4 charges).
This dress has six pockets that can be magically shown or hidden. While wearing the dress, you can use a bonus action to cause any number of its pockets to appear or vanish from it. The pockets can be located anywhere on the dress, and needn't be in the same place each time they appear. Each pocket is large enough for a small parcel, measuring no more than 4 inches in any dimension and weighing no more than 2 pounds. While a pocket is hidden, its contents are magically moved to the inside of the dress and evenly distributed throughout it so as to not affect its delicate appearance.
Basic map of the Sword Coast: (Click to download a larger map.)
Hand-Drawn Map of Barovia:
Koylan Indirovich's Letter:
