Sunny Barovia

8/5/25 Day 43 For the majority of this session, Carl was attuning to his new staff while the rest of the party fought the vampire spawn and searched the tombs. Two of the spawn fled the Sun sword by retreating back down the hallway.   One instead ran into the chamber, where it was subsequently destroyed by the party.   The group elected to not chase the other two spawn. The group (minus Carl) opened the crypt belonging to the self-proclaimed time traveler. As in the other crypts, they found a skeleton on a slab.   However, they also found a set of wings on a harness that appeared to be wearable.   In one corner of the room, they found an unusual wood and metal scepter.   Searching the skeleton revealed a bag containing 20 silver marbles and a full drinking horn.   Laz took the bag of marbles and Oloch took the drinking horn.   Laz decided to join Carl in the crypt and try to get a short rest in. The next crypt belonged to Isold Yunk.  ...

 11/28/23 That evening, we dined with the Baroness, and she was surprisingly understanding about my desire to find Darius before assisting with their burgeoning textiles industry.   The evening was even rounded out with a bit of pie, courtesy of a rather large berry bush discovered by the lumber crew earlier in the week. The next morning, we headed off to the Tser Pool encampment.   It took most of the morning to get there, and we elected to shave off another hour or so by taking the footpath down the embankment to the camp, instead of the longer road around. We sent Laz about 20-30 yards ahead to scout as we approached the camp.   When we were close, he held one arm up and made a fist.   My compatriots squatted down and moved slightly off the path. I pulled out a piece of cured leather, traced a symbol in the air and spoke the incantation necessary to cast Mage Armor on myself.   A sparkle of light and a slight metallic chime told me I now had some m...

 1/14/23 The next morning, we geared up to travel back to Vallaki, with the last six children we had saved from the Werewolf den.   The hike was relatively uneventful, and very nearly peaceful.   The smaller children took turns riding on Oloch’s shoulders, which he seemed to enjoy almost as much as the kids. We discussed the sword that Sergei had referenced.   It was almost certainly the one we had seen Tatyana wielding against Strahd in that vision that wasn’t a vision.   For her part, Ireena said she remembered that Sergei had been a fairly powerful paladin and wielded that blade in the service of The Morninglord but had no idea what had become of it afterwards. As we approached the village of Vallaki, Oloch and I split from the group so I could meet with Kasimir.   The rest of the party continued on after agreeing we’d meet at the Manse. We found our way around the base of the hill to Kasimir’s home.   I briefly explained what had occurred w...

 8/22/23 We woke up fairly refreshed.   I took some time to ritually cast Identify on the goat, and sure enough, it was under the influence of some sort of Polymorph spell. Now the Polymorph I’m familiar with fades after about an hour, so this must be some sort of higher, more complex variation.   I realized it may be beyond my capabilities, but as we had nothing to lose, I tried Dispel Magic at my highest level. Low and behold, the goat transformed into a young man named Edrin, just as Connell had said.   For those of you keeping score, this is the young man the rest of the party was hired to retrieve when I elected to tag along, before we found ourselves in this accursed land. He was overwhelmed with gratitude and was eager to join us as repayment.   It was easy to see this young man was a bit of a pampered dandy and likely would only be an impediment in the field.   So, for now, we put him to work with the rest of the household staff, and he may ev...

 8/8/23 Between the zombie fight and the tour of Ireena’s past lives, we decided that we really weren’t up for a confrontation with Baba Lysaga right now, if we could possibly help it. I was exhausted, Connell even more so, or so it looked. It was getting late, but we figured we could likely make it back to Vallaki by nightfall.   I was still in the hellhound form, so I scouted forward to lead our little group, which now included the goat, apparently.   We waded back through the muck of the swamp and finally got back to solid ground. My spell dropped and I regained my normal shape and faculties. After about 45 minutes or so, we came to the part of the path where we had seen glimpses of an old castle through the fog.   Laz raised a finger as he looked about, clearly listening for something.   We paused, then from the south the sound of hoofbeats.   Many hoofbeats. Getting closer.   Soon, a dark banner designating some unrecognized military unit ...

  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...

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...

 2/21/23 Abe was kind enough to send me notes from the first encounter.   Rather than me paraphrasing, I’m going to take the lazy route and just post them (with some minor formatting changes) here.   Thanks Abe! Three men and a woman meet the party on the causeway. Additional men and women remain back at the forest and scattered along the lake shore. Lead Male Druid - “We are the People of Baratok” “You stand in the presence of Seer-Sha, Daughter of Baratok” “I am Quade, first of the Lodge of the Crag Cat. I will speak with you.” Seer-Shaw - Perhaps in her late forties, if the years were particularly hard. Pale, blond hair, beginning to transition to white.   She carries what looks like a thin stone rod, approximately the length a walking stick.   She is also wearing furs over some sort of extraordinarily thick hide armor. She is medium height with a lean, athletic build and attentive to her surroundings. When anyone looks at her, she seems to ...

 12/20/2022 Now, at this point, you may be asking, ‘What happened to Woody.’  Allow me to backtrack just a bit. Woody had been dutifully pretending to be inanimate, lest the townsfolk think he was some evil demon. (He might actually be, but if so, he’s our evil demon.)  We found some time unobserved and discussed sending him back with the Martikovs.  They agreed, but very reluctantly.  Woody himself seemed to disapprove of the idea.  Through his sign language and capering about, we realized that he wanted to stay with us.  We decided that I’d carry Walter, and, considering the construct’s weight, Wolfram would carry Woody attached to the pack on his back.  We could tell people he was a project I was working on, if necessary. I’ve already written about arriving at the Abbey.  We waited for about 10 minutes or so, until the most classically handsome man I’d ever seen came walking out.  In fact, the word handsome may not be an adequat...