Jasper's Journal: The Tsolenka Pass

8th of Utkar, 1491 DR
 
For the first night in some time, we actually got some rest thanks to the safe walls of Van Richten's tower. We packed up our belongings and headed out, but on the way down the path we helped ourselves to some supplies from Ezmerelda's cart, as she told us the night before that we welcome to take anything we needed.
 
We began walking back to the Vistani encampment, to briefly see my family and to retrieve our dusk elf companion Kasimir who we agreed to accompany through the Amber Temple. When we arrived, my darling sister Arrabelle came running out to meet us, and we took some time to take a short rest and enjoy a meal with my family. In this time, I managed to convince my father to let me purchase a wagon from him. I generously gave him 500 gold pieces, enough to cover the wagon and horses, as well as provided money to the family for some time. After all, my little business schemes have always been to help my family live a comfortable life!
 
With the wagon, we head down the hill to collect Kasimir. He probed us for a few moments to see if we were prepared, but it was no issue to convince him. He warned us of the cold on the mountain, and gave us all cold weather gear to protect ourselves on the trip. And then, we were off!
 
It took some time to make our way down to the mountains in the south, but after many hours we reached the Tsolenka Pass, a massive ravine separating the mountains from the river below. As we began to cross we encountered a large stone wall with statues of birds on the ramparts. A large tower on the other side sat along the edge of the cliff. A portcullis lit with green flame was unfortunately blocking our path. We discussed for some time about we to do, and decided to send me to scale the wall and look for a way to raise the gate.
 
Upon reaching the top of the wall, the stone statues of the vultures began to creak and move. Rubble broke off it as it animated and began to charge me! I pointed a finger at the beast and began to mock it, I started to say "You are one ugly son of a -", but suddenly I froze and was unable to do anything for a moment. It was as if time froze for a moment, and I knew that I was stunned by some sort of screech the beast let out.
 
As I come to, the rest of my sentence bursts from my lips as I shout "bitch!" Though, I was surprised to see that the Vrock no longer was within my line of sight, and I had a small monkey paw shaped pain on my face... No doubt little Piccolo tried to wake me from whatever stun the creature inflicted me with. After looking around, I saw that the Vrock was flying off to my right, so I dropped Piccolo off at my feet and rushed forward, delivering four easy strikes to its face and beak. I hear bone crunch as it began to bleed from the weight of my punches.
 
However, it quickly counter attacked! The beast flew over my head and around to my other side, biting into my shoulder with its beak and clawing at me with its talons. After a quick breath, I spun on my feet and delivered two blows to the creatures face, sending sunlight through my fist and into its body, stunning it on contact. In its daze, it froze and fell 30 feet down to the ground, and as it impacted I quickly hopped off the wall, landing with my foot on its beak, immediately shattering it on impact. Then, with one final blow, I brought my fist down and shattered the skull.
 
After dusting myself off, I reached up to the sky and caught my little monkey as he hopped off the wall after me. I discussed with the group about what to do next, and they agreed I should check out the other side of the wall, so Piccolo and I scaled the wall again and hopped off the other side. After realizing there was no way to raise the gate from this side, Sergei scaled the wall - he is quite spry considering his age! - and set up a rope for the less athletic of our group... But, as Ander gets to the top, he uses some magic to stifle the flames for a moment, just long enough to allow the cart through before the flames burst back into existence again.
 
Once we were all through, Sergei mentioned that he wanted to check out the tower. We all followed but found that the door was locked. I mentioned I could easily pick the lock but did not have tools on me, so Morric pulled out his tools, and tried and failed to open the door. No surprise to me! That elf is a bit too cocky for his own good, and he thinks I am cocky! I take the tools and within less than a minute the door swings open, as I let out a wide gesture to show my success. We enter the tower but find it empty; Sergei mentions that the fireplace in the room was used by wizards teleporting into the tower a long time ago. Very strange indeed. We proceeded upstairs and found a fairly similar room as below.
 
In the top room, Sergei noticed a dire wolf head mounted atop the fireplace, but its eyes were replaced with massive stone sized sapphires! Obliviously this piqued Piccolo's interest, and he hopped off my should and climbed up to Sergei's shoulder. But, Sergei made a wolf noise and scared him, causing the monkey to grab ahold of Sergei's face while the old man tried to grab the gems. It trigged a trap, and if not for Sergei's psionic powers Piccolo likely would have been killed again by trap... Thank goodness! I knew I liked that old man!
 
Funny enough, while Sergei was shocked, Piccolo snatched one of the gems and ran away to the corner. It took me some time later to coax the little monkey to give me the gem. While I was doing this, Sergei managed to also find an emerald necklace hidden inside the wolf's mouth.
 
Morric then called us to inspect the roof, a roof which had many statues that he claimed to have moved. Everyone wanted to stay and look, but I told everyone we should just leaved, especially considering what happened with the Vrocks... But it took until they heard the stones cracking for them to start to move! Luckily, we made it out of the tower without any of them animating and attacking. However, as we got in the cart and started to head for the bridge, we noticed only one statue remained on the roof, and it was pointing its sword towards the bridge, a bridge with numerous statues on it...
 
But, as we looked down the length of the bridge, I saw a black horse with flames licking its feet... Bacephelous, the mount of the devil. And sitting mounted atop was a hooded rider, and under the hood I saw the devilish face of Strahd himself, smiling at us. It is going to be a long evening...
 
~ Jasper Solavich