Sunny Barovia

  6/27/23 Horrorspawn Laz and I took a few moments to examine the large downed creature.  The raven had said it was a “small” one, implying that there were additional larger ones in the area.  We felt it was prudent to examine it while we could. The creature was like nothing I’d ever seen before, although it vaguely aligned with some near-incoherent texts (that I had read in my more adventurous research when I was first toying with the study of magic) of a creature corrupted by something ‘beyond the edge of reality.’ This jibed with what Laz knew of such things that were, ‘neither demon, daemon nor devil, but corrupted by pure evil just the same.’ We settled upon the term ‘aberration.’. We got the impression that it may not have started out in this form, in fact it may have once been humanoid.  But now most of its skin had been covered by chitinous features, with elongated limbs and a hunched posture. The skin still visible was darkly mottled and the whole body was c...

 Guest written by Dave Proudfoot “The Ghose of the Entrails is best not crowded,” I had thought to myself. It was intriguing to have an opportunity to sit with it.   Chat. Perhaps have tea. But now was not the time and this was certainly not the place. I moved back from the parlay leaving it to the Paladin, his Child Walter, and the Arcane Master. I had just watched Connell urge a goat to climb spider-like over a solid enclosure and that was going to take some time to clear from my head. I thought to take a quick break. I had been scouting ahead, peering into the endless fog, and wading in muck to my armpits it seemed for days that were truly mere hours. I found the beast, Oloch he is called, mooning over the woman, as usual. As usual, she was basking in the attention. It required nothing but to gaze above the hormones to see the Thing floating toward us with its minions, but I admit that may have been in part thanks to my bastard bloodlines. No sooner did I start at the rap...

Guest written by Abe Barker The Chamberlain moved through Castle Ravenloft with the assurance of one who had done so for centuries and feared no horror found within. At last, he came to his lordship’s study, noting that the blazing hearth fire was well stocked and all else was in order before he approached his lordship seated at his desk. “Good morning, my lord,” he said as he arrived, bowing respectfully. “What news?” “Much as expected, my friend,” Strahd responded without looking up, for his attention was entirely focused on an exquisite crystal ball upon his desk. “They are energetically exploring the ruins of Berez.” “Word of that reached the castle just after I broke my trance earlier. Do you mean to monitor the entirety of their wanderings?” “They are moving slowly, so no,” Strahd said. “I will finish here, then repast and repose.” “Very good,” the chamberlain nods. “Is there anything I should know?” “Oh, they defeated one of Baba Lysaga’s scarecrows. After that, they wandered ab...

 6/6/23 Before turning in for the night, we determined that we would set out the next day for the Ruins of Berez, reputed home of Baba Lysaga.   Strahd had given us to believe that my nephew Darius may be her prisoner there.   Additionally, the swamp supposedly contained another of set of these standing stones that could ultimately lead to the overthrow of Strahd. We hiked for some time, and the mists began to slowly thicken around us.   To be honest, we had grown quite used to this.   It was still clear enough to see our footing, and sometimes that’s the best you can hope for. After about an hour or so, the wind picked up and the mists parted for just a few moments.   To our west, we saw a dark castle.   It wasn’t Strahd’s.   As we gazed, the mist returned and hid it from view.   We debated taking a detour to explore, but decided we would stick with our original plan and continue on to confront Baba Lysaga. The swamp was exactly what...

  5/30/23 At the request of Lady Ireena, Wolfram and I joined her as she met with Baroness Wachter and other local notables. A fair amount of business was conducted in their native Barovian dialect, which I did not understand.   Lady Ireena was kind enough to interpret and paraphrase where she felt appropriate. However, I didn’t need to understand the language to recognize business negotiations when I saw them.   While I don’t pretend to understand the appropriate politics, I’ve made quite a few business deals.   I’d like to think that my occasional suggestion or observation were of some small value to Lady Ireena. Poor Wolfram was clearly bored.   He was trying hard at the beginning to show an interest, but eventually he returned to his role of the Dashing Bodyguard to Lady Ireena. When negotiations were finally over, we returned to the manse, poured some wine and heard what our companions had been up to. They apparently took advantage of the time to ex...

  “I’m afraid that you will find today’s negotiations extremely tedious, gentlemen, but know that I very much appreciate your company and counsel.” Having left most of the party back at the Manse to tend to their own affairs, the four of them, Wolfram, Carl, Lady Ireena and Walter (a last minute addition - ‘in case things go late, we can’t have Sir Wolfram nodding off’), approach the ‘Wachterhaus’ together, pushing through the heavy fog and steady rain that continues to drench Vallaki for a second day. Thankfully, overnight the lightning strikes had sputtered out an hour or two past midnight, and while that finally allowed them a little rest, little was all they were allowed. After spending an hour or so going over the clothes that there three of them were wearing today the night before and ‘Mending’ the various tears and rips as best as his spellcasting allowed, Carl had dropped ‘Mending’ that morning and reacquainted himself with the cantrip ‘Prestidigitation.’ Thanks to those tw...