Sunny Barovia

 5/9/23 While I’m happy (and a little surprised) that we dropped Morgantha, we still had two more hags to deal with.   I ran in closer so I could spear Bella with a witch bolt.   She turned, and I saw fear replace the fury in her eyes.   She made a quick gesture with one hand, then started screaming obscenities in my direction.   Just behind me I heard Muriel chuckling, “Got you know you bitch.”   I suspect that Bella had attempted to go Ethereal, but somehow Muriel prevented it.   Unable to magically escape, Bella turned and started to run.   Wolfram and Oloch both got solid hits in, while Ireena just barely missed with her strike. When she was about 30 feet away, I could feel the Witchbolt spell drop.   Fortunately, Oloch kept pace and laid her out with a might swing from his sword.   I saw him swing again at her now prone form.   He looked at Connell who shrugged and told him “If it were me, I’d want to make sure.   Ju...

 4/25/23 I gazed across the field at the three.  Through the mist and drizzle, I could only make out their silhouettes. A song came unbidden into my mind.   A tune I hadn’t heard or even thought of since I was a child. Three little witches coming down the lane, Hiding from the sunlight, clinging to the rain. If their fingers touch you, your dreams will turn to pain, Three little witches coming down the lane. In my mind, I could hear the other children singing it.  So long ago….. A voice broke through my reverie.   “Carl!   CARL!”   I turned to see Connell shouting at me. “You ok?   We need you HERE!” I looked up and the hags were now much closer.   When did they move?   More animals. Oloch was surrounded by wolves and giant centipedes.   He didn’t seem to be smiling anymore. Hell, I was surrounded, and about to get pulled down! I felt a wave of arcane energy move through the air.   It didn’t seem to have any...

 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...

 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...