Sunny Barovia

 Note the following was written with generous help from AI.  I cobbled together the best responses (in my opinion) and filled in blanks myself.   7/22/25 Day 43 Wolfram and Oloch were looking worse for wear after their fight with the ghouls and needed a short rest. Not a long rest — that would require something approaching safety — but a short one to stop the bleeding and gather ourselves. We debated where. I suggested we not camp in piles of bat dung. Basic hygiene. We couldn’t all fit in one crypt, so Oloch and Wolfram sat down in one, with Dacso as overwatch. The others kept watch in the halls and I went back into Wizard Nimblenobs crypt to better examine his staff.   Looked enchanted. Carvings. Ornate design. I cast Identify on it.   Turned out to be wood. Just... wood. Nimblenob’s Staff of False Hopes, evidently. I put it back. No comment. Our rest went uninterrupted. Fighters look better. Irina kept watch. Good woman. Capable. Doesn’t talk to...

  5/13/25 Day 43 Before I could fully drop the Eagle form, an arrow cut across one of my wings.   I reverted back to human form which, fortunately, let me seek cover behind one of the crenelations. Several undead, including at least one vampiric archer, came charging across the short bridge that separated the two towers. First across the bridge were a couple of ghasts – recognizable by their sickening stench.   They were followed by a handful of wights.   Ghast.  You'll smell them long before you see them. Dacso hit one of the ghasts with a well-placed arrow.   Oloch finished it off with a couple of firm blows from his mace.   I took a moment to cast Mage Armor on myself. Laz snuck up on one of the ghasts and did significant damage with his green flamed blade.   Wolfram drew his Sunsword, and we were all bathed in daylight.   He finished off the ghasts, then turned to face the wights. More undead rushed in – ghouls, I think. ...

  3/18/25 Day 42 – Late afternoon, early evening I’ve written before that fog is a constant companion here in Barovia.   Sometimes thicker, sometimes thinner.   In this case, the fog had thickened outside the fane to the point that we really couldn’t see more than 20 feet or so past the standing stones. However, a new fog started to materialize inside the protected circle.   Coming up from the ground below was a sickly, yellow gas.   It wasn’t thick enough to restrict vision, but it had a foul sulfurous smell making it difficult to breathe. Arabelle ran through this fog right up to where a ghoul was engaged with Wolfram.   She activated another rune, and there was a burst of blue light, maybe 40 feet in diameter.   Three of the undead were caught in the blast.   It destroyed one of them and injured two more but had no discernable effect on any of us. As I turned away from the flash, I saw a floating orb of light approaching Dacso. ...

  11/11/24 Day 40 We stood there in the mud and blood, burned and tattered bodies all around us.   Small, smoldering fires, left over from the fireball scattered about. I looked at my companions, all with various degrees of injuries and all (save Dasco and myself) were soaking wet from being drug into the lake. I knew this was a problem, but I couldn’t process why.   My brain was still pre-occupied with the battle we had just one. So I just stood there staring at them, with that same sensation you get when you walk into a room, but forget what you were looking for. Finally, it hit me.   It was freezing cold here, and they were soaking wet.    I glanced around, then started gathering wood from the remains of the gazebo.   “Listen up,” I said, “we’ve got to get you guys dry and warm sooner rather than later.   The way I see it, we can try and hole up in one of these cabins and build a fire or perhaps we can make it up to the Abbey and seek...

 7/9/24 & 7/16/24 Day 40 While Wolfram had reduced their numbers by almost half, there were still many more in the fight.   I was surrounded; hands reaching, grabbing. I flew up 15 feet, out of the fray, then zoomed over to the cover of trees.   More undead approached.   Once climbed up the tree next to me, but I simply flew out of his reach and observed the battlefield. Chaos.   Undead literally exploded around Ireena and her protective circle.   Oloch, Wolfram and Laz were dragged back into the pool by the crayfish creatures but a flurry of blade strokes told me they were cutting their way free. Dasco was stabbing wildly about himself but was being overrun. “Fireball!!   Fireball!!” I heard him yell. Yes.   Fireball indeed. Hovering above, I shot a fireball down into the thick of them. More bodies exploded out. Trees caught fire. No matter. These are just delays.   Distractions to be dealt with.   Our real...

 7/2/24 (Note Abe provided significant narrative to this entry - I could have never remembered this much detail.  Thanks Abe!) Day 40 “We should leave,” Kasimir said.   His tone was one of absolute certainty. “Yeah, well, you know we can’t do that,” responded Wolfram. As a group, we moved forward.   The bodies were hanging from hempen ropes from the battlements.   Wolfram and Oloch moved through the gate first, the rest of us following.   Inside the vestibule, in a bit of grim irony, blood was dripping down from the murder hole above us. We passed through the barbican and gatehouse.   Once inside, we saw dozens of Krezkans: men, women, children, are impaled on thick sharpened branches taken from the many trees of the village. The impalements took many forms. Through the chest, through the back and, most prominently, up through the nethers. Among the displayed corpses, Oloch spotted Lucas, the hard-working old pipe-weeder who shared his garden...

 1/30/24 After dispatching the specters, we took a short rest in one of the empty bedrooms to gather ourselves.   Sundown was in about an hour, so rather than rush back to town we decided we’d explore the last of the grounds, then overnight here. On the second level, we headed for the yet unexplored eastern wing.   There were two doors which (we later discovered) led to a balcony area which oversaw the cathedral / altar below.    In the center of this balcony was another thronelike chair, it’s back towards us. Wolfram was first through with Oloch and Dasco close by.   Laz and I observed from the other door. Another armored skeleton was seated on the throne, unmoving.   Wolfram must have recognized or sensed something about it, because he moved to the front and greeted it directly.   The creature turned its head and the two appeared to exchange greetings.   (I was too far away to hear what was being said). Apparently, Wolfram recogni...

1/2/24 The visceral terror that spontaneously erupts upon first seeing a giant spider was forced aside as we lost ourselves in the discipline of combat.   Blades, arrows and arcane energy dug deep into the advancing arachnids, until one wounded survivor scuttled back over the broken edge of the floor, returnig to it’s lair below.   None of us received more than minor wounds. We caught our breath, and it was noted that the rapidity at which the spiders had appeared meant that Laz really hadn’t had a chance to search the room, and perhaps we should try again. Laz himself agreed, and gave his full moral support to whoever decided to go do that.   He’d be waiting back here in the hall to congratulate whoever returned. Wolfram and Dasco elected to go in.   We roped off Wolfram, but Dasco declined any such safety line.   They emerged a few minutes later, indicating there was nothing of value in the remains of that room. We went to the other (presumably) bedroo...