Sunny Barovia

  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...

2/28/23 The Blue Water Inn.  Busier on the Inside. The Blue Water Inn was hopping, as the kids say.  We only recognized about a third of the faces there.  Another third were Vistani and the rest were strangers to us.  Music was being played, boisterous conversations, the sounds of laughter and the clunk of wooden mugs.  We are recognized, and I see multiple people give little nods of acknowledgement to Nikoli. Drinks are ordered and I find my way back into the kitchen to find Urwin.   The small staff is very busy, but Urwin motions me back.   He’s busy filling stew bowls and cutting hunks of meat and vegetables for another batch.   I tell him I won’t keep him long, but I thought he should know that Muriel lives.   He is happy, but not as happy as I expected, given his reaction right after she fell.   I mention this to him, and he tells me that while he’s happy she lives, she is lost to them.   He doesn’t explain further, and I let...

 8/16/2022 Tser Pool Encampment at night While it was nice to rest with a goblet of wine for a bit, there was work to be done around the Vistanti camp. Dasco, Wolfram and I went out with a couple of Vistani brothers named Stefan & Grigori Vasille to gather firewood.   While the woods have proven to be fairly dangerous, it was clear that these Vistani felt quite safe.   They didn’t even bother to bring weapons. We gathered a bit, then the brothers felt my skills would be better put to use by keeping watch.   Which I was happy to do.   There was one slightly tense moment when I saw 4 or 5 of those big dire wolves coming through the trees.   But they appeared to have no interest in us and moved on. We came back to the camp with enough wood to last several days.   Dasco found a fellow wine hater in the personage of Lee Funar.   Good. They can discuss the relative merits of lake water versus river water.   Well, Lee can.   Dasco...

  8/2/2022 The morning came and we treated ourselves to a well-earned breakfast.   After which, we gathered our things and headed to the house of the former Burgomaster.   A makeshift guard had been set up, and we were led in to see Victor. He was chained in the same cell that his father had used for political opponents.   When the gag was lowered, he croaked for water.   We gave him some and any sympathy I might have had for him quickly evaporated. All in all, he was a pretentious, unlikable little shit.   He didn’t believe that Lady Wachter would give him any significant punishment out of love for his own mother.   He figured that eventually he would be sent to Strahd like his father and Izek.   He was under the belief that Strahd actually liked those who used magic and felt that he could eventually thrive under the old bloodsucker. And he may be right.   He offered no meaningful insight on how to cure Stella Wachter.   He ap...