Of Fire, Mist and Countless Screams

Well, I quickly learned what the commotion outside Madam Eva's wagon was all about... one of the guys opened the door and stuck his head out to see what was going on. I could see the Vistani gathered around, but didn't see more, so I slid out the door to stand with them. Most of the Vistani camp was standing outside Eva's wagon, in a semi-circle facing the dark mist that was rolling in. I moved to stand with them where I could see better, as well as blend in. We could hear approaching horses, although there were no hoofbeats. A black coach pulled up, pulled by eight black horses that looked as though they weren't quite touching the ground. Screams echoed in my ears. I could hear the screams of hundreds of people dying... A figure emerged from the coach, an elf, judging by his pointed ears. He was wearing black armor, and his gaze immediately sought out Irina. "You haven't done what he asked..." his voice rang out. As he spoke, Irina began walking over to him. A couple of the others grabbed her, but it wasn't until Ismark grabbed her that she stopped. He must have charmed her or something.

As the figure took a step closer, his face haughty and arrogant, it hit me again... the screams.... hundreds of people dying... my entire village, burning and slain. Myself as a young child standing next to the corpses of my family, watching this same figure stride across the field. He stopped and glanced at me, dismissing me as worthless I suppose, before stepping back into the very same coach and disappearing from reality... only to return haunting my dreams most nights...

The elf said something that I didn't quite hear, my mind was focused on my nightmares. A hooded figure moved through the Vistani to face the elf. He pulled back his hood to reveal Elven features, except his ears had been hacked off. The elf from my nightmares spoke, disgust permeating his voice. "Ah, so they have been harboring you?"
 
The hoodedelf didn't answer. He stepped up in front of the Vistani. "Kinslayer." He spit out as he pulled his sword.

The armored elf answered his accusation, saying, "My people were not killed by Strahd."

With that, the hooded elf, we later learned that his name is Kasimir, attacked.

Trevor was behind me, I heard him say something about beasts approaching. A few seconds later, real screams began to join the ones in my mind. A pack of wolves had descended on the outlying Vistani, and were tearing apart a group of them, mostly women and children, who had not been fast enough in their escape to Madam Eva's wagon.

A massive werewolf appeared on a wagon off to the side. It looked like he was about to leap down onto someone, when he began floating up into the air. I looked around and Bryden was concentrating hard… he cast a levitate spell or something… that guy certainly comes in handy in a fight. He goes down very easily, but between me and the big paladin, we can heal him pretty well, at least enough to keep him alive.

Trevor and Elaine handled the wolves, Trevor held them with his whip (I’ve never seen anyone do that!) and Elaine burned them as they approached. Kasimir was joined by in his attack on the other elf.

Everyone jumped into the fray. I was playing a quite inspiring tune (I could feel the magic rising through me), if I do say so myself, and whenever something came close enough to me, I fought with my rapier. I took down a wolf and injured another. The fighting continued… the armored elf was finally injured quite badly, and he moved back into his coach and left… I wish we’d be able to stop him… I have a very bad feeling about what will happen if he makes it back to Strahd and tells him about this fight… the elf left bloodied, I don’t know how badly he was hurt, but it was bad enough that blood was smearing his black armor and he left a trail of blood behind him – for once it was his own.

The werewolf was a bigger problem. Brynden went down and it must have broken his concentration because the spell holding the werewolf aloft was broken. He leapt down in the middle of us and went into a frenzied rage. One of his claws swiped me hard and I don’t remember much after that… I woke up what I assume was a few moments later, with the others leaning over me and Brynden, for he was knocked down again. The werewolf was dead, and Irina was still with us. So, at least there’s one good thing out of all this… Strahd does not have her today.

The hooded elf joined us for a time. Elaine talked him into answering some questions. Apparently, he was one of the leaders of the dusk elves hundreds of years ago. The black armored nightmare spawn is named Rahadin von Zarovich. He is a kinslayer, but even worse, he betrayed his entire race, not only his kin. He was adopted by Strahd’s father, and even took their name. Rahadin was instrumental in carrying out the dusk elf genocide all those years ago, and had been serving as Strahd’s right hand man since he came into his
inheritance at Castle Ravenloft.

Kasimir confirmed that Strahd wants Irina because she’s the reincarnation of his lost love, Tatiana. Apparently, she is the third such reincarnation. It is so important to Kasimir that Strahd never gets what he wishes for that he even executed his own sister when he discovered that she was the second reincarnation. Elaine tried to get him to come with us to Vallaki. I could have told her that it wouldn’t work, but he made that very clear himself. Kasimir was going hunting for Rahadin. He disappeared shortly
thereafter, following the bloody trail.
 
The Vistani gave us the use of a couple wagons for the night, a gesture that was greatly appreciated by the entire party. In the morning, I heard the sounds of men training, so I took my breakfast down to watch. I love watching the men train. Occasionally I’ll join in when I get the opportunity, but today I was content with watching. The half-orc, Oswald, was off to the side, working over Brynden, apparently trying to teach him how to fight with a sword. It was cute, Brynden and a couple of the younger Vistani were trying to show off, flexing and such.
 
A few minutes later, Elaine walked up and offered me some food. She said that she’d paid four gold to one of the Vistani women for some food, and she had way too much to eat by herself. I thanked her but pointed out my own breakfast. I didn’t need to take her food. She offered some of it to Brynden, Oswald, and the Vistani. I laughed and asked her if she was prepared for the consequences of that… many of the men would take her offer as a sign of potential interest.
 
Elaine blushed as realization dawned and she backtracked. It took a little while for some of the denser men to catch onto whatever Brynden told them, but when they did, a few of them shot her looks of scarcely hidden disgust before all moving away from the field, leaving just the two of us, Brynden and Oswald standing there. I gave Elaine a hard time for chasing them away, because she obviously hasn’t had the pleasure of watching the Vistani men train with sabers. But she just shrugged it off. I get the feeling that she is more attracted to women than men, but I haven’t yet been able to confirm or deny that theory.
 
About an hour later, Trevor emerged from Madam Eva’s wagon, obviously hung over… frankly, I wish he’d been sharing whatever he’d been drinking.

About an hour later, Trevor emerged from Madam Eva’s wagon, obviously hung over… frankly, I wish he’d shared whatever he’d been drinking.
 
Ismark went back to Barovia to take over his duties as bourgermeister. Apparently he trusts us enough to take Irina on without him now.
 
We set out towards Vallaki. It was a fairly pleasant journey, as much as can be expected. As the day began to close, I found myself wishing for the safety of a Vistani wagon, but it was not to be. We made camp that night and it passed fairly uneventfully. Aside from the usual dreams, I slept well.
 
The next afternoon, we heard a woman screaming from a cabin a little bit off the road. Errki and Oswald immediately took off running to see what was wrong. The rest of us got there a little later to find the door smashed in and the two of them covered in filth.
 
Apparently, the cabin was haunted by the ghost of a woman, centered around a cauldron that held the women's rotting corpse. As we reached them, they were arguing about how best to destroy the cabin or if we should spend the night there, because it was approaching late afternoon. Fortunately, everyone agreed to burn the cabin to the ground, along with everything in it.
 
That night we camped under a glorious full moon. I was on watch with Trevor, when he expressed concern about Errki. His comrades had been killed by werewolves, and Trevor wanted to make sure that he wasn't going to turn. So, he tied him up. We figured that if the dwarf was a werewolf, the best way to find out would be if he was completely restrained. When I was talking to him, I asked Trevor if he was a hunter like Kiril Stoyanovich. I think he might be jealous of Kiril… he gets very quiet or angry whenever the famous hunter is brought up. But, based on what I’ve seen, I think Trevor will become a great hunter someday. I hope he sticks to it and the mists don’t take him.
 
When the time came to change the watch, Trevor shoved Errki with his foot and turned him over so his face was bathed directly in the moonlight. Errki woke up and immediately began shouting for Trevor to untie him. The noise woke up Irina, who walked up to us an cut Errki with her silver sword. She shrugged and announced that he isn’t a werewolf.
 
As their arguing continued, I went and sat on a rock waiting for it to quiet down. I zoned out a bit, until everyone was looking at me weird. They said that my eyes rolled back in my head and I said something about coming out to play with the mother of the hunt, or something like that. Irina insisted that we keep moving, as my words were ominous. I felt like the moon itself was watching me.
 
So, we set off, moving through the night. We didn’t stop until dawn.
 
The following night we were attacked by a horde of giant spiders. They began their attack by trapping Trevor in his bedroll, something disconcerting because that means that they knew who they needed to take out of commission first. We killed all the spiders, but Brynden went down (again), and his familiar, the spider Moru, jumped to his rescue and killed the last spider, although he too died in the process. We continued on again that night, for none of us would be able to sleep anyways.
 
The next time we stopped, I took second watch with Brynden. He’s cute. He tries to hide his pain and abandonment issues behind a charming mask, but fails utterly when someone knows what they’re looking for. He’s rather good at flirting though, so that was fun. I talked to him a bit, hopefully he’ll start to appreciate his sister a bit more. She cares deeply about him, it’s obvious to everyone but Brynden. I wonder if Elaine ever gets out of her own head enough to have regular conversations…
 
I’m really curious about this group of adventurers… what is it that brought them here? They showed up with a dwarf, whose absence seems to be bothering Trevor the most… I wonder why? Also, how did spoiled young nobles find their way into Barovia? In the company of a half orc paladin, two dwarves and a monster hunter in training? If my intuition is correct, and it usually is, then this is going to be the story of my lifetime… it just better not cost me my life…