Todays victim
Alright, so the vinegary was back in the possession of the Martikovs, but all isn't well. 3 magical green gems have been taken from the area that enabled the grapes to grow and the Martikovs need the teams help to find them. They agree, but first they have to take Ireena and Ismark back to Kerzk with a wagon load of wine to get into the town. During the travels they are ambushed several times by wolfs and dire wolfs until they almost reach Kerzk when they tired and worn meets three vistani travellers having a good time. Also a skeletal rider has two times crossed their path. They finally enters Kerzk as the sun begins to set. They stay at the burgomasters house, but once again the monk and rouge decide to enter the night. They search the house and finds a fifth room that seemed to have been occupied by a teenage boy, but there is no one living there anymore. They sneak out and finds a family graveyard at the back where they can find desecrated graves, except one that have been made recently. Reading the gravestone they deduce that the burgomaster have lost four children, the latest just a few days ago.
Suddenly they hear the door from the cottage open and close. They follow the sound and see a cloaked figure move to the north as in a trance and they follow behind. At the pond near a gazebo the figure stops and a shape takes form in the water, a man who shines up as he see the figure and speaks to it and they hear the figure answer, but with two voices, hearing the names Tatyana and Sergei. The water forms a hand that stretches out toward the figure they realises are Ireena so they run after her to stop her from being dragged down, but the monk stumbles and accidentally pushes her into the pool. As she is dragged into the water the cloud gathers and they see the red eyes in the clouds and a angry voice crying out in the night and a blue bolt of lightning strikes the pond, pushing them back and destroying the gazebo. Shocked and despaired they sneak back to the cottage as the whole village have awakened and goes out to the pond. Sneaking back they entered their room from the window and then goes with everyone else to the pond where they can witness Ismark entering the pool and finding his sisters cloak. This is both the fun part of being a DM and the boring one. Playing I might have gotten the same idea as they that Ireena have been taken by Strahd or something, but as a DM I know she is perfectly safe, but how am I gonna tell them that in game? So I put them toward Madam Eve again. Also they have a new mystery on who Sergei and Tatyana is. So the night ends at midnight as the abbey's bell toll.
In the morning they send Ismark home with the two Martikovs that followed with the wagon while they took of to the destroyed village of Berez where the Martikovs believe one of the so called seeds are. They feel unnerved at once entering the ruins. 7 scarecrows stands in the ruins, a pen of goats with human skulls and across the river they see a light near some stone menhirs. They search the ruins and finds a strange tree in the middle with a floating skull near the front that they avoid, finds the burgomasters mansion and a statue of a girl named Marina that looks exactly like Ireena. They enter the burgomasters mansion and encounter the spirit of the dead burgomaster that tells the story of the village. Marina that was about to be taken by Strahd and the burgomaster and the priest killed her in order to save her soul and that Strahd destroyed the village shouting out that no one would take Tatyana from him, reminding them of the name image in the pond called Ireena. And that another threat have arrived in Berez, the hag Baba Lysaga that a few days ago came back with a green glowing gem and took it into her hut. They realise they need to take out Lysaga, but before forming a plan they head over the river to the menhirs and find a farmer girl who was sent out by the Martikovs to keep track on Lysaga, named Muriel. She tells them about Baba Lysaga as well, but she won't help them since she fears the hag more than anything else. So they start to think.
The plan they concoct are that they take 70 feet of rope, cut it into 10 feet pieces and pour oil on them and tie them around the scarecrows they learned from Muriel is a living construct and a early warning system for Baba Lysaga. Then they let Katrina attack one of them and draw the others toward her and escape across the river and hide near the menhirs (which I would let strengthen her magical powers somehow) and also force Baba Lysaga from her hut so the others could enter and search it and prepare an ambush on the hag. Katrina is able to destroy one of the scarecrows with two fire bolts and hide near the menhirs as Baba Lysaga take her time coming out and flying over as the other scarecrows gather around their burning brother. The others enter the hut unseen with the monks hiding ability and as they enter they see the green glow from under a crib with a child. Hope goes forward to push it away, but her hands goes through it revealing the green glow below the floor. Toby goes forth, swings his axe and breaks through, revealing the seed. Imiral picks it up and they feel the whole hut losing power. Imiral hides beside the opening aided by his pass ability, Hope hides behind the bed, Toby in a cupboard and Cygnus in a wardrobe. Now, I must have interpreted the rules wrong since Baba Lysaga enters and looks at the broken floor and they decided to quickly execute an ambush in succession. First Imiral attacks and draw her attention by hitting her with his staff and then let her fixate on the glowing gem. From the bed Hope stabs the hag in the back and that is followed up by Toby and Cygnus striking her with all they got. In one first strike round they bring the hag down to half of a 120 HP. They rolled all pretty good initiative so they keep wailing on her and when she finally gets an attack I wondered if I was gonna use word of command stun or the crown of madness. Had the stun been for all I would probably used that, but since it was single I used the crown on the monk, but Imiral made the save and then it was pretty much over as the party slayed the hag. Within 2 rounds. I must have done something wrong. When they meet old Woodsplinter there won't be anything holding back. And they were only 4 persons.
After releasing two swarms of ravens from cages outside the hut they reunite at the menhirs and Muriel thanks them before leaving, but at the same time wonders if they are out of their mind. As they leave the village they see a raven flying above them and then they witness a vision in the mist of a battle a long time ago and a dragon flying above them toward a mansion alone in the valley. They return to Vallaki and the Blue Water Inn where the wagon from the vineyard have parked and left its cargo. Ismark is mourning in the room he had last and the party decide to lay low, but then they notice the elven like character they were looking for last time, Rictavio. The monk and rouge decide to follow him around and they see him feeding his horse Drusilla and then walking toward his wagon in storage. Unbeknownst to them he notice pretty much that they follow him, with a passive perception of 17. So he sneaks in to the shop and disappears through a backdoor with the loyal storeowners who gets richly paid for his wagon. Imiral and Hope enters and begins to haggle for a component pouch for the monk (which I need to check up if a monk really need) and some rope and oil.
They return to the inn and tells the rest of the party that tells them that maybe they should look into the room itself. They sneak up and lock pick the door and enters unnoticed. Looking through Rictavios stuff they only find a journal describing his journey and certain oddities he has found. Realising nothing is there they leave again, but notices a wind draft coming from the wall and finds a secret door that leads to the kitchen where the staff is in full swing preparing the dinner. They climb back and sneak out of the secret passageway, closes it and also locking the door to Rictavios room again before heading back. They stay and observe the different patrons of the inn and then walks to bed. During the morning routine they begin question Urwin Martikoff over the first lost seed that disappeared over 10 years ago. And all he can say that the event pretty much forced him out of the vineyard to Vallaki with his beloved and the only odd thing he can recall was that he think he heard a cat. Then they leave. And gets attacked by 14 wolves that knocks out Cygnus and Katrina within two turns and both Toby and Hope are bloodied. Only Imiral was undamaged. And Cygnus had a AC of 19. Now, part of that was my fault since I recalled 4E of Prone be forced to use an action to stand, but here it halves your speed. So we wasted actions on standing instead of hitting. My bad. Meanwhile they continue to find bundles of cloth with either wolf fur and raven feathers travelling and twice have founded some trinkets lying around like a mirror with an medusa on the back and a flag from a ship lost at sea with the sign of Strahd on it. Earlier they even had found a ravens claw, but I think they threw it away. These things the monk saved on the other hand. Closing up on the vineyard they are cornered by 3 vallakian scouts on a search quest for some missing townsfolk. As they are busy with other duties they decline to help immediately, but they will keep their eyes open. Reaching their goal they hand over the seed to Davian Martikov and follows him unto the field where he digs a whole and plant it. As he covers it up they can see a pulsating green light emitting from the stone and flowing through the earth and by some magic the vines starts to heal and actually produce grapes. The vineyard is back in business for the moment... until they meet Woodsplinter that is, hehehe!
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