Adventure 2 - In which our Heroes Spring the Trap…
As our Heroes entered Barovia proper, they saw the world open up. The dense fog from before is now behind them. Resting on the other side of the walls and the mountain forest. The heroes continued along the Old Svalich Road, the Visanti horse leading them home.
Magnolia who could speak with animals found the best unhelpful. It declined to give straight answers and denied any obligation to help them. But he was their best lead into the new land - either to find where the Brothers Luvash and Arrigal had come from or to find out who Rahadin was.
Those questions had to wait however, it wasn’t an hour into their long walk that they came across a body on the road. Garrik offered a brief prayer and a sprinkling of dirt for a man abandoned to the wilds. Inside the corpses clutches was a letter.
“Hail to thee of might and valor…” it read. Signed by the Burgomeister of Barovia. Down the road the horse wandered off. The heroes paused for a moment to consider this new revelation. Whatever their separate causes for arrival, this letter was a call out through the mists. Ireena Kolyanovich was apparently ill and in need of aid. Perhaps something fortunate was to be found in their haphazard arrival. The heroes proceeded to the Village of Barovia.
Barrovians are not a joyful lot. They live hard lives in a cold land, they see few visitors and hold few comforts and keepsakes. No warm welcome was given to our arriving heroes. The Townsfolk matched the town - drab, blue and grey. Some buildings slowly sagging under the near constant rain and overcast humidity.
When they passed the first row of houses, Zeff spotted the horse eating some weeds in the garden of a house. A mailbox on the roadside read “Rahadin.” He, Magnolia, and Kai thought this prompted a quick look. Garrik elected not to pursue Rahadin’s mystery, but instead to meet the Burgomeister.
At Rahadin’s house two children answered the door and told the heroes that their father was upstairs. While they might not expect any money for finishing a job he gave to another man, meeting the man whose name sparked terror certainly seemed interesting. They followed the children inside and up a few flights of stairs.
Meanwhile, Garrik continued into town, pausing at the “Blood of the Vine” tavern for some directions. The bartender wasn’t very talkative and his prices high - still he pointed down the road to the large manor house of the burgomeister. Garrick trotted along to ask about the letter. A maid brought him inside to meet the Burgomeister who indeed needed some help bringing his treasured Ireena someplace safe. There were some strange people coming into town late at night. These days Ireena has had some strange callers - people who should not leave alone in the parlor. Garrik was asked to help deliver Ireena to Castle Ravenloft in safety, surely the count can protect her.
But might Garrik need help? Did he come all this way without any friends?
Back to the house he rushed, only to find it boarded up, the windows covered in with brick and iron bars on the front door. From inside Garrik heard a scream as Kai discovered a pair of corpses in the master bedroom. Bodies that did not lie still in what was now an apparent haunted house!
Garrik, unable to enter from the front - not even with Magnolia’s help on the other side, rushed around the back to find another entrance. He ripped up the cellar doors and descended into the dank below. The other three heroes fought their way into the basement and Met Garrik on the underside. Each of them hacking and blasting the whole way at dead bodies that refused to lie still.
Soon enough they prevailed and had a closer look around. They found some cages where the corpses had come from, and several more piles of the dead. Each of them an apparent hero that must have been led here over the years and dropped into a sorry fate.
Most peculiar of all, they found another copy of the same letter they discovered earlier. It seems that the Burgomeister has needed help for quite some time.
Proceeding in the dark our heroes came across a room unlike the others. Whereas before the basement was earthen and unfinished stone, they now entered a proper tomb. 4 Sarcophagi lay inside 2 defiled and 2 covered up. The names on the tomb: Rosethorn. All passses away within weeks of each other 400 years ago.Out of the corner of their eyes they could see the children from before. Now plainly ghosts Sasha and Tatyana Rosethorn. With sympathy the heroes learned the sad fate of the Rosethorn family and of the trap that caught many other explorers in the house before. The children warned them of other dark forces in the house and of an “Angry Man” who was the only other visitor who entered and exited the house. Certain that the heroes had one more thing to look into they promised the children that they would play in the attic should they too fall like all the others. The heroes then advanced to the last step and walked through a winding passage partially flooded.
While obviously evil, this last room wasn’t what they expected. Not a dark laboratory or workshop of a grave robber but a simple stone altar in a flooded rock cave. There were no souls to be seen and more walking corpses. They puzzled around for a little while, the Altar was obviously magical and they were still locked in the house. It appeared to be a dead end. Each knew it to be a trap, but it seemed the only choice left was to spring it - what could they do but face the evil head on?
Magnolia threw a rock at the stone altar.
Something awoke from the flooded floor. A muddy mass rose up from the ground, standing like a man, covered in moss and mushrooms. It reached its slimy arms to the one who distrubed the stone altar. Magnolia tried her best to resist its grasp trying to wrench herself free from the embrace of earth and slime. She might have succeeded if the monstrosity were not relentless. It ignored the cries and attacks from her teammates. It's dark heart possessed with one wicked intent. Magnolia was to be its sacrifice on the stone - it approached her and wrapped her inside of its grimy hands until she could barely be seen. Then it slowly walked to the center of the room.
Desperately the remaining heroes railed against the living heap of slime and muck. They stuck it with everything they could think of. Garrik cursed it with radiant holy light, Kai blasted it with crackling lighting from his fingertips, Zeff scorched it with fire! Almost none of these effects seemed to work . Zeff had a brilliant idea of throwing a lob of acid to melt the beast - it seemed highly effective, but could be done only once. One good idea didn’t seem to be enough, the monster continued it’s dark progress towards the unholy shrine at the center of the room. Still our team refused to abandon Magnolia and they fired over and over until they had exhausted all reason and options.
Eventually their fortunes turned.
The monster melted away into the earth leaving Magnolia behind. Garrik immediately used all available knowledge of medicine and prayed to the gods that she be allowed to live. Hoping that their way was now miraculously clear, they immediately fled. Clear it was - and no time to stop and examine the house further - they exited out the cellar door. With just a few steps outside they saw the house behind them close up again. The sturdy doors slammed shut, the curtains pulled tight and the house sighed with relief. Finally rid of the menace that found its way in. With only one last look at the house, Kai saw the young Sasha wave goodbye.
With great care Magnolia was brought out of the house and carried to the “Blood of the Vine Tavern.” After paying the exorbitant cost of 10 gold a person for a night’s rest they all hunkered down for the evening.
Late at night they saw a ghastly parade pass through town. From the graveyard to the north of town numerous ghosts and apparition of long dead heroes rose up and marched to Castle Ravenloft. None of these spirits caused any harm to the town, but silently made a midnight crusade along the Old Svalich road. Their target, an immense castle clearly visible - looming over the village from its cliffside perch.
Our heroes did not concern themselves with this, focusing instead on getting their rest. In the morning as fresh as could be managed, they considered their options. Luckily they had a rough copy of a map to consider. Taken from the Death house they had a rough outline of key sights around town and still had no answers. Perhaps they should visit the Burgomeister again and press him into revealing more about his plight, or they could try to visit the church in daylight and see what made the ghosts so restless. Of course there were still those two brothers who brought them here in the first place…
Taking Garrik’s suggestion to visit the Visanti camp first our heroes followed the Old Svalich Road out to Tser Falls. Leaving the cobbled path they proceeded along a dirt trail to spot the colorful wagon of the Vistani. Quite conspicuous and a far cry from the drab blues, grey, and purple of the Barovian Villagers. The Vistanti wore bright colors and walked about with a merriment in their step our heroes hadn’t seen elsewhere. A young man whistled as he stoked the morning's fire, and an old woman, who the visanti called “Grandmother to them all,” skipped along fetching water from the pool below the falls.
Our heroes made themselves useful, bundling up firewood and helping to fill a cooking pot for the day's meal. They spoke with the Visanti briefly about all that they had seen, and how they had helped Luvash and Arrigal on some earlier business. It turns out that this small camp was just a temporary stop for travelers coming in and out of the county. The brothers were out west in Vallaki beyond the borders of the map they found earlier…
Suspicious of their questions, the old woman, Madam Eva, asked about their business. She remarked at all of their unusual arrival. Each of them were called to Ravenloft for strange reasons - often beyond their control and against their will. Kai came to satisfy a vile debt, Zeff and Magnolia looking for something better only to find a terrible choice, and Garrik is a pawn of the gods. With their fate apparently outside their own hands, the Madame offered to share some of her wisdom...