Sunny Barovia

 1/24/2023 On the way back, we quizzed the boy on how he came to be with the werewolves.   He said he remembered waking up in the middle of the night hearing snarling.   He was grabbed by something, then woke up alone in the wood.   The werewolves came across him and took him in.   He really didn’t remember much more than that. He didn’t see much else in the cave either, and doesn’t know if there are other children there.   However, it seems the werewolves weren’t interested in harming him.   At least not yet. As we approached the village, the gates opened, and Baron Kreskov came running out.   Ilya went running towards his father and they met with a deep embrace.   Both were clearly overwhelmed with the return. We were ushered in without having to undergo any sort of palm cutting to prove our mortality. Curious. The Baron thanked us repeatedly for bringing Ilya home.   We got to his house where Ilya was reunited with his mot...

 1/17/2023 I don’t really have a strong memory of what came next, as I was feeling pretty dizzy. Much of what I’m putting down here came from the others filling me in once we were safer. But I will do my best. I remember casting Slow on the vampires while the battle continued. One of the vampires still had Dasco grappled, but Dasco was getting in some good shots with the bloodspear, while Wolfram was whacking it with that Terror Mace. Laz stabbed one of the direwolves who got a good bite on him, then threw him to the ground. Walter killed it a moment later. Meanwhile, the other vampire slashed his claws across Oloch’s neck, and down he went.   I remember yelling and launching a firebolt at the one who killed Oloch. But Oloch wasn’t dead, because he got back up looking pissed. I heard Dasco yell, “What the fuck?   Seriously?” as the vampire was trying physically drag him away.   Wolfram yelled something about the “Power of Greyskull” before hitting the v...

 1/10/2023 We left the den, but it was clear that several of them were following us.   We got to the clearing where we had battled their mates earlier and thought to take a short rest.   I walked a few feet back down the trail, offered a few rations and called back, “There’s some food if you’re hungry.”   Part of that was a genuine offer.   But it was really more of a way to let them know we knew they were there. The boy, whose name is Ilya, started getting really nervous that we had stopped.   We heard a howl in the distance, and Ilya suggested that we should probably keep moving until we were out of that clan’s territory. As we got closer to the road, we could see another werewolf standing alone in our path.   After a few more moments, we could see it was Whiteclaw and some of her wolves.   Laz warned us that there was “something” in the trees as well, but none of us could see anything. We greeted her and started to approach.   She ...

1/3/2022 After Whiteclaw left, we retraced our steps back to the road, then headed east. Around 2:00 we saw the landmarks Whiteclaw had told us to watch for, and cut north into the woods.   We followed a game trail which brought us up a steep rise.   Soon we came to a clearing which gave us a really spectacular view of Lake Baratok.   The dark water, darker trees and ever-present cloud cover would normally have made it look foreboding. But dammit, it looks like that everywhere here.   Maybe I’m just getting used to it, but to my eyes it was actually somewhat peaceful to look out upon that scene.   I was discussing this relative perspective with Oloch who maintained that a creepy lake was a creepy lake no matter how high above it you were, when I realized the rest of our party had drawn weapons.   I heard Dasco call out that we were here to talk but would fight if we had to. I looked up and saw that five of those big wolves were around us.   W...

 12/27/2022 When we woke the next morning, we found a boy of maybe 12 or 13 helping the Baroness in the kitchen.   Fortunately, he was not naked.   The baroness had provided him with some of her son’s clothes and he had a blanket wrapped around him. Walter greeted us warmly as we tried to figure out how best to interact with him.   This was accomplished initially by pretending that nothing had changed.   But as breakfast was served, we did broach the subject. Walter explained that he didn’t remember the sacrifice itself, but he did remember existing with and within that creature we eventually killed.   While it has been some 300 odd years, he was not really conscious for much of it.   He would wake when the creature did – usually when some party of explorers found themselves trapped in the house.   He did remember talking with the ghost of his mother, whose death apparently didn’t keep her from teaching her son as much as any mother would. ...