Session 4 — Everyone in This Town Has a Problem That Needs Solving

Session 4 — Everyone in This Town Has a Problem That Needs Solving

The Death House was behind them. The village of Barovia was in front of them, technically, as a destination upgrade, though it offered sobbing, boarded windows, and a merchant charging ten times the market rate for rope.

What Happened

The mist receded at dawn, revealing cobblestones, shuttered windows, and a distant sound of someone crying. This was the village of Barovia. It was 7am. It was already like this.

The party's first stop was Bill Drats Mercantile, the only shop in town with an open door. Bill Drats was behind the counter, going over his inventory and humming tunelessly. He sold adventuring gear at roughly ten times standard market rate, had no weapons, would buy things for roughly one-tenth of their value, and confirmed he had a son in the back named Periwimple. Merich announced he was a camel, spit on Bill's shoe, then spit on Periwimple's shoe. Celeste dragged Merich out before any meaningful commerce could be attempted. Sable purchased a map of Barovia for 50 silver and two 10-foot poles for 2 silver, correctly identifying the poles as essential adventuring equipment to a party that had been living inside a haunted house.

The map identified the Vistani camp, near a lake west of town. Bill confirmed there was a Vistani camp and that the Vistani had interesting relationships with both the land and the devil. He did not know anything about a windmill, despite the party now owning one.

Following the sound of sobbing to a two-story townhouse just south of the mercantile — windows boarded, door barricaded from inside — the party rented a ladder from Bill Drats for 10 silver, placed it against the building, and Merich climbed up to look. He found a woman alone in a second-floor room, crying and holding a doll. He pried the window open with his sword and went inside. Celeste followed through the window. The woman barely registered their arrival.

Her name, which the party asked about ten minutes later than they should have, was Mad Mary. Her daughter, Gertruda, had been gone for a week. Gertruda was beautiful and a teenager, and she had fought her mother tooth and nail to leave. She had gone to the castle. Mary handed over the doll that was all she had left. The party promised to look for Gertruda, an ambitious commitment for people currently without a hand crossbow. Sable cast Goodberry and distributed one to each party member and to Mary. Mary ate hers with tears still running down her face and said it was kind.

The door, still barricaded, was unbarricaded on the way out at Sable's suggestion. There was no longer much point.

At Blood on the Vine Tavern — which had at some point been Blood of the Vine before someone scratched the O into an N — the party found the establishment not yet open, a bartender cleaning glasses, three people in a corner, and a young man sitting alone. His name was Ismark Kolyana, known locally as Ismark the Lesser, which he mentioned immediately and preferred not to use. He was the son of the burgomaster. He was also the one who had sent the letter the party received at the start of all this. He bought a pitcher of wine for the table without being asked, which is the correct way to introduce yourself.

His situation: his father Kolyan Indirovich had died three days ago. His adopted sister Ireena Kolyana was being actively pursued by Strahd, who had already bitten her twice. He needed to get Ireena to Vallaki, a fortified city to the west, because she could not survive staying. She fought the charm when it came over her, harder than most — Ismark described restraining a charmed woman who clawed at his face and tried to bite him as a losing battle — but it was only a matter of time. When asked about weapons effective against Strahd, Ismark noted there were countless legends and countless people who had tried. Sable said bunnies had never tried. Ismark said he could hope.

The party agreed to escort Ireena to Vallaki. They would pass the Vistani camp on the way, which aligned with Sable's ongoing mission to acquire a hand crossbow.

They followed Ismark to the Burgomaster's mansion. It looked like this: iron fence, rusted. Gate on the right, torn off its hinges. Gate on the left, squealing back and forth. Weeds everywhere. Claw marks covering the walls. Great burn marks. No intact windows. All windows boarded and marked with symbols against evil. Brother Moro checked the grounds and noted a combination of human footprints and wolf prints in the trampled weeds.

Ireena answered the door after several locks were undone. She was wearing armor and carrying a sword. Her father was in a coffin in the drawing room, surrounded by wilting flowers. The attacks on the house had stopped the day after he died, which she described as strange. The party offered condolences and asked what they could do. The answer was: help carry the coffin to the church for burial, because no one else in town would come out of their homes.

They carried the coffin north to the Church of the Morning Lord, a sagging stone edifice with a bell tower and claw marks and burn scars on the doors. Inside: a priest on his knees in the chapel, praying in a hoarse voice. Between prayers, something screamed from beneath the floor.

The priest was Father Donavich. The scream was his son, Doru, who had gone to storm Castle Ravenloft about a year ago alongside a number of villagers, inspired by a foreign wizard who had arrived promising revolt. The revolt failed. Everyone died except Doru, who came back — in a way. Doru was chained in the basement, vampire spawn, starved, screaming for blood, and had been down there since. Donavich could not kill him and could not release him.

While Brother Moro and Sable helped dig the grave in the churchyard, Merich and Celeste descended to the basement room to investigate. Doru spoke through the trapdoor. He wanted blood. He would promise to be good. Celeste's insight roll caught the lie immediately. When asked what he knew of Strahd's plans, he had nothing. He was a spawn, not a confidant. Merich weighed offering him a blood sample; the rest of the party declined to participate. The party left Doru in the basement and joined the digging.

While shoveling, Sable asked Donavich for holy water. The priest said he would do it after the burial rites, at dawn, under the Morning Lord's blessing. The party noted this.

Night fell before they finished. The party bedded down inside the church, on the recommendation that sacred ground was safer than most alternatives and the vampire in the basement hadn't gotten out yet. At midnight, the bell tower rang, a green light filled the churchyard, and a ghostly procession emerged from the graves — women, wise men, dwarves, mages in pointed hats, all marching westward toward the castle. They had done this every night since Donavich could remember. He described it as souls unable to leave. Celeste watched from a window. The procession vanished somewhere west of town.

Dawn came. Donavich performed the burial rites. The coffin went in the ground. He blessed four vials of water for Sable, who had asked approximately three times over the course of twelve hours.

Before leaving, the party went to the Blood on the Vine Tavern to speak with the Vistani proprietors. One of them, Alenka (with sisters Mirabel and Sorvia, neither of whom were present), answered the door. She confirmed they should seek out Madam Eva at the camp — the wisest of the Vistani, possibly prescient. Madam Eva had a sweet tooth. Alenka had a perfume Madam Eva wanted: a smoky, cut-glass vial with an atomizer, crafted by a Vallaki artisan who had since left. Cost: 10 gold and the name of someone in the camp who might have a hand crossbow. Sable persuaded her. The name was Toma, a hunter who traveled with Madam Eva and fashioned his own weapons. Sable paid 10 gold.

On the way to the western gate, the party encountered a hunched old woman pushing a cart through the streets, knocking on doors and selling dream pies that promised to make the misery of Barovia briefly stop being real. This was Old Bonegrinder — or so the DM eventually confirmed was her nature after the fight. She was going house to house. At one stop, she passed something through a doorway, and a small child came out and got tied into a sack. Brother Moro followed at a distance. Merich and Celeste intervened. Sable returned from his early exit to stand at the door between the child and the hag.

The party fought Old Bonegrinder. She opened her hag form and clawed Sable for 9 slashing damage. Ismark Kolyana — drafted into action with the party's stat blocks loaded into Snapchat — went first on his turn and hit three times, dealing 27 damage. This established the fight's tone. Merich's channeled divine weapon converted his longsword damage to radiant, which the hag was not resistant to. Brother Moro broke her ribs and failed the grapple check. Celeste blasted twice, hitting once. Sable shot her for 6 piercing plus 5 psychic. Second round: Ismark hit again; Merich hit again for 17; Brother Moro punched her to death.

Before dying, the hag offered information in exchange for her life. She confirmed: Strahd had spies everywhere — some creatures, some people — and the Order of the Silver Dragon, fallen undead knights, were his enemies. She offered more before Sable shot her anyway. On her body: a Heartstone and a Night Hag's Sack. The heartstone was identified as allowing a night hag to go ethereal and to cure disease. The sack was made of stitched flesh, felt evil, and was noted to serve purposes specific to night hags. Brother Moro placed the sack on the cart and set it on fire in the middle of the street.

The party headed for the western gate. Irina and Ismark were waiting with a cart.

Key Decisions

NPCs Met

Locations Visited

Items Found

Loose Threads