A Couple Sessions in Durst Manor Report
General Summary
A quick recap: The original four companions - Danior, Feldwyn, Lincoln, and Nomis - met just outside the West Gate, on the western front of Barovia the Old Svalich Road. Upon proceeding toward Danior's hometown of Krezk, the party encounters Durst Manor. Death House is the name given to an old row house outside the town of Krezk. The house has been burned to the ground many times, only to rise from the ashes time and again. Locals give the building a wide berth for fear of antagonizing the evil spirits believed to haunt it. The wealthy family that built the house practiced the dark arts. Through seduction and indoctrination, they expanded their cult to include a small yet nefarious circle of friends. When word got out, the rest of the village turned a blind eye to the house and the nightly debaucheries happening within it. The cult tried to summon malevolent extraplanar entities with no success. The cultists also preyed on visitors, sacrificed them in bizarre rituals, and hosted morbid banquets to feast on their corpses. When nothing came of these ritualized murders, the cultists’ activities became thinly disguised excuses to indulge their lurid fantasies. The ranks of the cult thinned as members began to lose interest in the debacle. A black carriage arrived at Death House soon thereafter, and from out of its black heart stepped the Count himself. The cultists tried to impress him; in response, he slaughtered them for slaying his playthings. The cultists regarded Strahd as a messiah sent to them by the Dark Powers. Drawn to Strahd like moths to a flame, they pledged their devotion for a promise of immortality, but Strahd turned them away, deeming the cult and its leaders unworthy of his attention. The cultists withdrew to Death House in despair. Centuries later, the cultists’ spirits haunt the dungeons under the house. The building itself, it seems, is unwilling to let the cult be forgotten. The party swept through the house like spirits of vengeance until they met with some real opposition: an animated suit of armor. They dispatched it, sure, but after the melee, Feldwyn the soldier descended into a melancholy from which he has yet to emerge. He follows the group now like the shadow of a ghost, neither fighting, eating, nor speaking, the shell shock of combat apparently overwhelming him entirely. After learning much of the functioning lore of the house - ghostly children, angry house, Strahd-worshiping cult, yadda yadda yadda - the group encounters another wayward soul, Melyan, who they are able to recover, patch up, and assimilate into their little bunch. They proceed through the four levels of the house, the basement underneath, and the dungeon even underneath that, and in the final analysis, they manage to sacrifice a life to appease the house and walk out in possession of a modest smattering of loot.
Rewards Granted
Characters searching the footlocker find a folded cloak of protection, a small wooden coffer (unlocked) containing four potions of healing, a chain shirt, a mess kit, a flask of alchemist’s fire, a bullseye lantern, a set of thieves’ tools, and a spellbook with a yellow leather cover containing the following wizard spells: 1st level: disguise self, identify, mage armor, magic missile, protection from evil and good 2nd level: darkvision, hold person, invisibility, magic weapon [12:26 AM] Lincoln: Lincoln would like the Alchemist's fire and one potion of healing [12:28 AM] Nomis: I say we each take one of the potions that heal the body. [12:28 AM] Lincoln: Agreed [12:30 AM] Nomis: I will ask for that Cloak, it would serve me well in close combat. [12:34 AM] Danior: Danior will take the lantern [12:36 AM] Milyan: i shall take the thief's tools [12:36 AM] Lincoln: Lincoln will also take the spell book. [12:40 AM] Danior: Danior would like to take the chain shirt too 25A. This room’s chest contains 11 gp and 60 sp in a pouch made of human skin. 25B. This room’s chest contains three moss agates (worth 10 gp each) in a folded piece of black cloth. 25C. This room’s chest contains a black leather eyepatch with a carnelian (worth 50 gp) sewn into it. 25D. This room’s chest contains an ivory hairbrush with silver bristles (worth 25 gp). 25E. This room’s chest contains a silvered shortsword (worth 110 gp). (Melyan claimed this) • A small, mummified, yellow hand with sharp claws (a goblin’s hand) on a loop of rope • A knife carved from a human bone • A dagger with a rat’s skull set into the pommel • An 8-inch-diameter varnished orb made from a nothic’s eye • An aspergillum carved from bone • A folded cloak made from stitched ghoul skin • A desiccated frog lashed to a stick (could be mistaken for a wand of polymorph) • A bag full of bat guano • A hag’s severed finger • A 6-inch-tall wooden figurine of a mummy, its arms crossed over its chest • An iron pendant adorned with a devil’s face • The shrunken, shriveled head of a halfling • A small wooden coffer containing a dire wolf’s withered tongue The chest contains three blank books with black leather covers (worth 25 gp each), three spell scrolls (bless, protection from poison, and spiritual weapon), the deed to the house, the deed to a windmill, and a signed will. The windmill referred to in the second deed is situated in the mountains east of Vallaki. The will is signed by Gustav and Elisabeth Durst and bequeaths the house, the windmill, and all other family property to Rosavalda and Thornboldt Durst in the event of their parents’ deaths. The books, scrolls, deeds, and will age markedly if taken from the house but remain intact.
