Sunny Barovia

 4/18/23 As Muriel defeated the various spectral animals, they reappeared at their respective stones.   I noted that when they did, they seemed a little less grotesque and twisted than they had when this whole thing kicked off.   Curiously, the wounds Muriel received seemed to be healing themselves somewhat.   They weren’t gone, but somehow healed a little with each victory. I didn’t have any time to ponder the deeper reasons behind that.   We were getting overrun with these assorted forest beasts.   Woody had just gotten out of the way and regrouped behind me as we were charged by more animals. Suddenly, I heard an almost happy shout to the south.   Oloch charged across the field to where Wolfram was having real difficulty against a giant spider. With a single stroke of that greatsword, Oloch cleaved the spider in two. He continued the swing to stab out behind him, and eviscerated a black bear coming up on his flank all the while, facing a sli...

 4/11/23 The battle was fully engaged and quite chaotic at this point.   I don’t have a clear blow-by-blow recollection of things, however, I do remember some specific moments.   I remember that at one point a huge centipede had managed to remove the token from the western side.   Ireena quickly slew it and returned the token. In the meantime, I saw Woody lash out at another centipede, but was quickly surrounded by other creatures.   A couple of wolves tore into him, and I was afraid he was done for. I heard Wolfram yell out, and a ghostly, skeletal hand shot forward and touched one of the wolves, killing it.   Laz’s doing, of course.   Woody managed to scamper free.   I told him to stay clear of it all, we didn’t want to lose him. Wolfram, Oloch and Ireena continued slashing away, while Muriel was busy dealing with the spectral Elk and Owl.   I spared a glance to Walter to see he was still casting those blackened tendrils at the be...

 4/4/23 After Muriel gave us that insight on what to expect, she touched the stone.   There was a flash of sickly green light, then the Bear and the Hawk apparitions became slightly more substantial and came at her. At the same time, the spear she had cobbled together transformed into an emerald green weapon that closely resembled the Blood Spear in form.   True to her word, we were unable to interact with these spirit animals, but Muriel certainly was.   Within seconds wolves, rats and bats swarmed into the clearing.   The wolves engaged us, while the swarms of bats and rats tried to pull the tokens out of the megaliths.   Woody did his best to try and cover the openings on one of the stones while the animals tried digging past his hands.   We unleashed into the animals with blades and fire.   Then Walter did something quite unexpected. He stepped back from the skirmish, extended his hands and dark tendrils of …something… shot forward...

Written and provided by Abe: Tending to their various needs, the group has gathered near the central stone of the megaliths, seated in a semi-circle on the scraggly grass. Even Laz is there, drawn from his hide to tend to Morgantha-provided scratches with the aid of a clean cloth and fresh water provided by Lady Ireena. Miss Muriel speaks, “Thank you, gentlemen, for assisting me with this. I hope that our success will have a real impact, but regardless, I am very grateful to each of you.” “I have just a couple of things to relay, before we begin,” she says. “Our fell observers,” she says, with a sweeping gesture at the translucent, but no less savage-looking, animals who ring the circle, their attention entirely focused on her. “Will come at me in pairs. As I mentioned, they will be unsubstantial to you except at their point of attack, but even then, you will be unable to affect them. Likewise, they will pay you no heed, nor interfere with you, so do not trouble yourselves with them.” ...

  3/28/2023 We returned to the Bonegrinder and the bugs started to come out.   Surprisingly, Connell seemed to be able to communicate with them, after a fashion.   We were allowed to continue, but when we got to the standing stones themselves, we were attacked by hordes and swarms of the little biting bastards.   We manage to hack and smash and burn them all away without too much damage to ourselves, but with the battle at the bridge followed by a near jog to the Vistani camp and now here, we (well, at least I) was starting to feel more than a bit tired. We took a moment to catch our breath and I noticed Muriel having some sort of interaction with one of the ravens there. When she was done, she told us that we needed to match the artifacts we had “liberated” from the Bonegrinder, and place them with each associated stone.   Walter and I started on that chore.   We found each of the monoliths had vague animalistic qualities to them, in addition to a sm...

As I was gone, the following is courtesy of our DM.  Thanks Abe! ********* After forcing the hag to flee, the party hurried west to the Vistani camp, stopping just long enough to exchange a few words with the denizens there, quaff a proffered cup of wine, and entrust them with yet another child that the party rescued. Several party members did not fail to note the embrace and soft words that passed between the up-to-then always-silent Nina, and the enigmatic Muriel. But the hard traveling that followed wiped casual conversation from the thoughts of most of them, and experience had perhaps by now taught them that, while Barovians tend to be curious about the world outside of their shadowed valley, they keep their secrets. So, it was perhaps a surprise to some of them what happened next. “Which are your people?” Muriel asked Connall. “Baratok,” he replied. “Ah,” she answered. “I met a trio of you north of her ladyship’s village a few years ago.” Connall nods. “I wondered if yo...