Session 1: Introduction to Barovia Report

General Summary

The party was doing a mission for Duchess Morwen of Daggerford, delivering gold to the city of Waterdeep. They made their camp and the fog rolled in and the woods “changed”.   The wandered to a road and then to a large gate with headless giant statues on either side of it. The gates opened to admit them and then closed slowly behind them. Once through the gate, a road was crowded on either side by dark and tangled trees. As they made their way down the rutted road, they heard the howls of a wolf in the distance behind them.   The sight of farmlands was a welcome sight before they exited the claustrophobic woods behind them. The road before them lead through rolling fields. On the northern side of the road, the dark and foreboding wood from which they emerged continues onward. On the south side of the road, rolling crop-bare dirt patches continue into the mists and out of sight. They could barely make out what appears to be a dilapidated village in the misty distance.   As they made their way through the farmlands of tattered kale and spindly root vegetables under the leaden skies, they saw a farm on their left. There was a house standing tall amidst the barns and outbuildings that have long since sagged over or fallen in on themselves. In front of the house, are two small children holding hands. One is a girl of about ten and the other, crying, is a small boy about seven who is downcast and holding a tattered doll in his hand.   The fog followed them down the road and they agreed to help the children find their brother, baby Walter, and investigate the claims that there was a monster in the basement. As the party debated, the fog pushed them inside.   The party explored the house, which was richly appointed and surprisingly clean despite the squalor surrounding it. There was a rich reading room with wolf sculptures, a conservatory, a kitchen with a dumbwaiter, a well-appointed dining room and a library where the group found a secret room with a note clutched in a dead man’s hand, poisoned by bolts shot from a trap in the chest which he was hanging half out of.   The party climbed the stairs to the third floor. The temperature dropped as they went upward and noticed, in the gloom, that the items on this floor are desiccated, moldy, covered in cobwebs. This floor is also much darker, with no lit light sources and boarded up windows and unlit oil lamps on the stair’s landing.   Gorobey hears a creak and turns to see a cobwebby suit of armor has come to life and has aimed a punch directly at his head!