The Beast of Mount Baratok

We left the village that same day, not wanting to waste any time at the abbey. Not to mention, we didn’t want to stay in the same spot in case Strahd came looking for us… not that moving will help at all, but I think it helps some of us at least feel better about the situation.
 
I tried to get the others to at least grab some supplies or warmer clothing before setting off up Mount Baratok. Trevor was adamantly against it though, more so than many of the others… which I though odd, considering he should have a better idea as to the weather that we would be walking into… but then he said something about the people of Krezk and their reactions to learning of their abbot’s death. Well, banishment, but I don’t think they would recognize or care of the difference.
 
I think Trevor must have thought that my want for more supplies was purely based on my own intolerance for the climate, because he pulled off his furred cloak and draped it over my shoulders. I would have been able to manage on my own, no doubt, but I sincerely appreciate the gesture. It was sweet. And, his cloak is incredibly soft and warm… it smells of the woods and a bit of ale, but it is not unpleasant.
 
I found myself daydreaming as we walked up toward the mountain… it was hard going as we got farther up, but I found that the exertion leant to much reflection and little conversation among the party… sometimes that is nice. I wonder if any of the others think about the fates of Sergei and Tatyana… how did Ireena fare in that whole situation? It seemed as though Tatyana’s soul just completely took her over and she then ceased to exist… while I know that it is for the best, and I cannot fathom a more fitting end for a love spanning centuries, it still makes me wonder… do I have a piece of someone else’s soul within me? Is there going to be a time when I become whomever that person is and cease to be myself? I don’t know how I feel about that…
 
The path up the mountain was treacherous. We walked along a narrow trail, the mountain face to our right, and the sheer drop of a cliff to our left. I hugged the wall as best as I could, and tried not to look down and not to fall. Finally, Trevor found us a spot that he said was going to be our best chance of a camp - but it was completely exposed.
 
Elaine cast her shelter spell and we hunkered down for the night. Trevor and I were set to take the third watch, so I tried to get some sleep… before I did though, I tried to talk to Kasimir a bit… he is always so brooding and moody. I get it, he lost his entire race to Rahadin’s genocide, and then he killed Rahadin. But there has to be some hope if we defeat Strahd that he would be able to leave the valley. Trevor says that there are whole civilizations of elves where he comes from… surely Kasimir would be able to find a place with them… maybe even a lover? He completely shut me down when I so much as suggested it, saying that his people are dead, there is nothing for him here, and none of the “elves” in that land would accept him. Furthermore, he has no interest in a relationship of any kind.
 
Oddly enough, I believe him. I wish I didn’t. I hate to think that there is a point in someone’s life when they have been beaten down so badly that they don’t have any hope of anything left… when the world is so dark and forbidding that they don’t, or won’t, let any light touch them. How could he still think this way after what happened underneath Krezk? Oh well, I suppose I will never know what it is like for someone who has lived as long as he… even looking at myself… I know how much I’ve been ground down in my lifetime… and I only remember the past twenty years… I cannot imagine having memories and nightmares from the past five (?) centuries…
 
Elaine and Brynden woke me up when it was time for my watch. They were frantically talking to Trevor about some goats or something. It’s a mountain… there are goats… what is so weird about that?
 
I don’t know if it was brought by the presence of the goats or what, but no sooner had I climbed out from under Trevor’s cloak, then a roaring wind sounded and our little dome was covered in an avalanche of snow and debris. Trevor said something about a roc. Then I saw it… the bird was huge! It had to have at least a two hundred foot wingspan! Every beat of its wings left a disastrous gust of wind in its wake. It was one of those gusts that prompted the avalanche that currently buried our magical hut. I don’t even know how one would hide from such a beast.
 
The rest of the day was a blur… I pretty much just followed Trevor’s and Kasimir’s lead… anything they said to do, I did… we dug our way out of the hut, and we built a sled out of the debris. Trevor was in a trance, using his senses to reach out and track the roc’s movement, hoping to give us enough of a warning to hide before it circled around again…
 
It came again, obviously… Elaine flew off the back of the sled, but managed to teleport herself back. I was holding on for dear life… I fully expect to die at a young age, but this is not the way that I want to go…
 
Finally, we stopped. I felt like I might be sick… Eerika was going on about a tunnel into the mountain. I honestly wasn’t paying that much attention.
 
After some time, Eerika announced that she found a tunnel. It led into the mountain. We went in, a bit apprehensively, I must admit, but it was safe enough… at least there was no wind in here. I offered Trevor his cloak back, but he decided that we would share it instead… not that I was complaining.
 
The next day, Eerika crashed through the wall of the tunnel, revealing an opening to the mountainscape outside. I thought it looked promising at first, but then, when I saw the wide open field, leading to a small ruined settlement or monastery or something, I thought differently. Trevor said that the roc was approaching. There was too much ground to cover to get there before we got blown away by the bird.
 
It was decided. Oswald and Adrastos rode their horses across the field, Trevor and Kasimir made their own way across, Elaine would teleport herself and Brynden across to the building, and I would cast Dimension Door to take myself and Eerika across the way.
 
I waited until the others were across… I wanted to make sure that no one was going to be buried by snow if the roc came back… I figured at least Eerika and myself would be able to help dig them out, just in case.
 
I couldn’t see much of what was going on down on the ground, but the roc came back, of course. Everything going on was obscured by the winds and whirling snow.
 
Eventually, the roc flew off, and I saw the others make it to the relative safety of the ruined monastery… only then did I teleport myself and Eerika to the doorway.
 
The whole building was decrypted… an old body, wearing what looked like some form of monk’s or priest’s robes, was laying dead at the far end of the building. On the door and wall, he had written warnings about what is to be found beyond… horrible things that must never be released…
 
Brynden, being his usual self, was the first one through the far doorway. What we found throughout the following corridor spelled disaster up ahead… drawings were etched and drawn into the walls, depicting scenes from this very building… and the horrible disaster that befell them.
 
I cast Speak with Dead on the monk, hoping to glean some more information, any more information, really… he warned us against continuing deeper, and told us that nothing but evil lies beneath, in the Amber Temple.
 
I would have liked to heed his warning and leave. But the others were dead set on continuing… I am almost ashamed to admit that I seriously considered telling them to go on without me… nothing good can come of making deals with any dark powers… look at what happened to Strahd? Not to mention, whatever it was that caused Strazni to have his demonic arm, and whatever it is about me that makes Baba Lysaga want me so badly…
 
But, no matter what reservations I have… I decided to stick with these people when I left the village of Barovia… I stuck with them through the Old Bonegrinder, through Vallaki, Argynvolstolt, Berez, and the bowels of Krezk… I’m not going to abandon them now, not when my sense of self-preservation could get Trevor, or Brynden, or Oswald, or any of the others, killed… Sometimes I wonder though… would I have been better off staying in the Blood of the Vine? Just dancing and playing and carrying on with whichever handsome man struck my fancy?
 
When I think on this for any length of time, my answer is inevitably, no. No, I would not have been better off. For, if I had stayed, I would never have had the experiences that I have… Strahd would very likely still be hunting Ireena… and I would never have known that there is a world outside of Barovia… and Trevor… I don’t even know where to begin, because we haven’t actually talked… I think I might be a dalliance of convenience for him, as he was for me in the beginning, but now? Now I am not so sure. I will probably have to find out at some point, but for now, I’ll just have to accept whatever it is, or is not, and enjoy what happiness I can, while I am alive to do so…
 
We made our way into the Amber Temple. It was terrifying… the whole place was heavy with a sense of foreboding evil. I kept looking over to Oswald and he looked like he was about to jump out of his skin, or try to smite the very air itself.
 
Elaine said that she felt a pocket of anti-magic, where the magic in the area had been dispelled. When we followed her lead, we came to a barred door… there was a rustling inside it, and voices. Vistani voices.
 
When I tried to talk to them, to get them to open the door and talk with us, one kept insisting that I was an illusion… a trick of the dark magic of the Amber Temple. Finally, Trevor spoke to them, and I guess that they admitted that the temple wouldn’t have conjured him up as a temptation (I think they are being too hard on his visage - his scar isn’t that bad… and they were not ones to judge, by the scars crisis-crossing their own bodies and faces.)
 
We stopped in the room with them long enough to take a meal, and find out their purpose in the Amber Temple. Apparently, they belong to the Vistani who live in the foothills of Mount Baratok, and to survive seven days and nights in the Amber Temple is a rite of passage for their warriors. So, they found the first fortifiable room and dispelled the magic, in order to wait out their seven days of mental trial.
 
When the others told them that we have business in the Amber Temple, they warned us against going any further… they said that the temple itself will fuck with our minds. But, even though I would have preferred to stay with them, the others insisted on continuing deeper into the temple. So, we will leave.
 
I told the Vistani man who doubted my reality that now he knows that we are not illusions, or tricks of the Amber Temple. He eyed me up and down, and assured me that he is aware. It was odd… but he made me uncomfortable. I am used to men lusting after me, hells, it is one of the ways that I have always ensured myself an income… Wait, no… that was worded poorly… I am used to men finding me attractive, and then paying me for my music and dancing, and thus providing for my income. I am not a whore.
 
But anyways, I digress… it isn’t usual for me to feel uncomfortable by male attraction - especially not among the Vistani… but lately? I don’t know… it hasn’t been sitting as well as it used to. Maybe finding out more about the world is making me jaded? Or perhaps it is just that the events beneath Krezk have rekindled the stupid dreams of youth. Or, it very well might just be that he is a Vistani who was leering at me, in the Amber Temple, which is a place that no self-respecting Vistani should ever find themselves.
 
The Vistani did offer for us to take shelter with them again, should we wish it. I appreciate the option… and would have dearly loved to stay, but I cannot leave the others to face their fates alone. Brynden says that he intends to confront Moru… Trevor has some business with one of the powers, and Kasimir wants to try to bring his dead sister, Patrina, back… none of those things will bode well, I fear.
 
But we shall see…