Of Monsters and the Men Who Hunt Them

Everyone was in an argumentative mood when we headed out morning. I suppose it had something to do with the events of the previous night. Ireena got tired of the arguing and just started walking. Naturally, the others all fell in behind her.
 
Later that day, we came upon the remains of a Vistani wagon. There were dismembered bodies arranged in a ritual circle of some type. I haven’t seen anything like it before. There was a trail leading off from the wagon, it looked like some people had been dragged away. By what, I had no idea, so I asked Trevor. He’s always going on about how he comes from a great family of monster hunters… and while I’ve seen him in action a few times and he’s good in a fight, and he obviously knows his way around the woods, I don’t really know how he would measure up against some of the Barovian hunters… maybe that’s why he badmouths Kiril every chance he gets…
 
We followed the trail. I would say Trevor followed it, but it was a blatant enough trail that a child could have tracked it. Whatever we were chasing was huge…
 
A couple hours of following the trail later, we saw a figure slumped in the road up ahead. As we got closer, I could see that it was Kiril Stoyanovich! He was severely wounded. I don’t know how bad it must have been to best him, but he was close to death. A massive antler was protruding from his chest where it had impaled him and then broken off. His bow was broken into several pieces.
 
He didn’t know what it was, but he said that it was a massive, antlered beast. Kiril’s weapons had been ineffectual, he said. Trevor asked him some questions and seemed to come to his own conclusion of a sort. Kiril did say that the beast had a few Vistani girls with it, and that they had been still alive when Kiril fought it a couple hours earlier.
 
The party had to come to a conclusion on what to do. I didn’t want to leave Kiril there in the middle of the woods… in his present condition, I wasn’t sure that he would be able to survive. So, it was decided that we would continue on and try to rescue the Vistani, if they were still alive… Oswald set a spear in Kiril’s hands, so he would at least have some weapon to defend himself, as Trevor “borrowed” Kiril’s magical sword.
 
A short while later, we came upon a clearing. At the far end of the clearing, we could see a massive antlered creature bending over the prone forms of two young women, by their clothes, they were likely the Vistani from the destroyed wagon.
 
As we got closer, Trevor whispered that it was a wendigo. I have no idea what that means, but by the way that he said it, and the fact that Kiril was laying near death a ways behind us, it was something really bad…. We charged in.
 
The fight was pure chaos. I danced around the edges of combat, imbuing as much magic as I could into my song, bolstering the party and healing their wounds when I could.
 
Trevor and Oswald were locked in furious combat with the wendigo. I saw some of the creature’s blood spray Oswald in the face and his eyes melted. Literally… his eyes melted into his face, there must be some acidic component in the creature’s blood. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was horrible.
 
Something happened to Oswald though… when the wendigo was finally dead, we all breathed a sigh of relief, until Oswald attacked Ireena! He fucking attacked her and tried to rip her throat out with his teeth! I must admit that I thought it had something to do with him being half-orc… maybe they taste blood and go crazy, I don’t know… but it was terrifying. One of the guys knocked him unconscious, and we were trying to figure out what happened and what to do about it.
 
Trevor explained that Oswald was suffering from some form of “wendigo sickness”, where he would try to eat us… like actually, physically, eat his friends. Like I said, it was horrible.
 
Everyone was arguing about what we should do. Brynden thought that we needed to kill Oswald to prevent him from killing any of us. I could tell that the thought was freaking him out, but I think that he cares enough for the half-orc that he doesn’t want to see Oswald turn against everything he believes in due to a contracted disease. Elaine argued that we should just tie him up until we can find a way to cure him.
 
I must admit, that I was inclined to agree with Brynden… it’s a terrible decision to make, but I for one, don’t trust some rope to hold Oswald… he would tear his way out of them and kill at least one of us before we would be able to bring him down… if we could even bring him down.
 
The issue with this wendigo sickness is that, apparently, after a few hours, he would come back to life and rise as a wendigo. Then we would have another one on our hands to deal with… I asked if it would stop the rising if we burned his body…
 
I heard a voice behind us answer the question, saying that yes, it would stop him from rising again if we destroyed the body with fire.
Everyone spun around, and the Devil himself was standing there. Strahd just walked up to us as if this is an everyday occurrence for him. I can count on one hand the times that I have been more terrified in my entire life. He is the Land, so he can find anything he wants and do whatever he wants… but it is another thing to have him just appear right behind us and insert himself into our conversation.
 
He then went on to berate the group of us for putting Ireena in danger. He said that he is the one who can keep her safe, and we are just going to get her killed, motioning at Oswald’s unconscious form as if to further illustrate his point.
 
Strahd handed Ireena a letter, and asked her to please read it. I’ve never seen him be anything but unfailingly polite to her… I can see why she is tempted to go with him. What choice does she have? He could come and take her at any time, but he keeps asking her. I can understand how she must be conflicted.
 
He then warned us about the Old Bonegrinder. He said that we will die there, and under no circumstances was he going to allow Ireena to die… Strahd would see to that personally, if necessary.
 
Brynden began questioning Strahd… asking him more questions than was wise.
I really wished he would stop. I have no desire to tempt fate any more than we already are… and I definitely don’t want to tempt it in the face of the Devil himself.
 
Finally, Brynden stopped talking… I think his sister might have had something to do with it.
 
Strahd was beginning to show how thin his patience was growing. But then, he walked over to Oswald and said “here is a measure of goodwill” and cured him.
Strahd then looked back at Ireena and asked her to please read the letter. Then he walked off into the mist and disappeared.
 
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. It was audible.
 
We rescued the two girls, untying them so they could walk with us, and made our way back towards Kiril and the ruined wagon.
 
Kiril was gone. There were marks in the tree trunk that he had been leaning up against when we left, they looked like claw marks, but I’m not sure. Trevor didn’t seem overly worried. In fact, I think he was rather pleased with how the entire situation was turning out… I think he might be jealous… professional jealousy, perhaps?
 
We’re spending tonight night in the ruined wagon. Erkki managed to fashion the debris into someone of a fortification for us to sleep in. It isn’t much, but it definitely beats a bedroll on the side of the road…
 
My watch just ended. I was with Brynden this time. The guy is pretty full of himself, but he is a decent flirt, which is fun. I keep catching Elaine looking at me though… not sure which way she swings, but this could make for some fun on the road…