The Death of a Mother's Heart

We spent that night in the relative sanctuary of Strahd's mother's tomb. I slept fairly well, all considering, but I don't know how much of that was being in a relatively safe sanctuary, and how much of it was the fact that I nearly died yesterday.
 
I still find myself having a hard time wrapping my head around the events of yesterday, particularly those surrounding Brynden. I mean don't get me wrong... I have been half e pecting him to betray us at some point, but it was still a blow. He just so nonchalantly threw Trevor at Strahd feet to kill. Yes, I do know that it could have very easily been any of us, and I'm glad that it wasn't me, but still... Trevor dedicated himself to keeping the Chandler twins alive and as safe as he could.
 
Yes, he totally failed in that endeavor, but it still doesn't change the fact that he did his best. And in the end of everything, our best is all that we can do.
 
So, when Brynden so casually offered Trevor up as a sacrifice to Strahd, it still came as a shock. He was so callous. Yes, I know, he lost all of his emotions when he became a lick, but he didn't need to slap us in the face with it so hard, either.
 
But, since Brynden disappeared, probably dead somewhere, or lacked in a different plane of existence, it has been bothering me.
 
Trevor and I took second watch... something I was grateful far as it gave me one of the few chances I would get to be able to talk to him in relative privacy.
 
As soon as the others fell back asleep, I began interrogating Trevor about his newfound lycanthropy. I asked him how exactly it works, and he gave me some generic bullshit answer that didn't tell me anything that I hadn't learned by the time I was five years old.
 
What an ass! I am so tired of Trevor's vendetta against every other hunter in Barovia, it is going to end up getting me killed.
 
I demanded to know if Trevor had even paid attention to anything that the ghost of Stoyanovich said and warned him about. Of course, he denied it, saying that of course he listened to the ghost.
 
I told him that if he turns into a werewolf and kills me, then I will haunt him forever. I will be sure to follow him through all of his reincarnations and haunt him.
 
Trevor said that he isn't going to kill me, what he was actually told was that the flesh of one beloved to him would be the most succulent that he's ever tasted. It really presses me off, frankly, that he is blowing off this whole situation so much.
 
As we were talking, we spotted one of the vampires we fought two days ago, watching us from the top of the stairs. She made no move to approach or attack us, but that was almost more disconcerting. The vampire stood there for a time, before turning around and walking away back into the bowels of the castle.
 
We decided to let the others sleep, keeping a very wary eye out in case the vampire came back, potentially with reinforcements.
 
After that, our conversation was a bit more subdued - until Trevor snapped his head around and shouts rang in the air.
 
When I turned around, there was a creature (I don’t know what it was, but it was terrifying), wrapping a garrote wire around Ezmerelda’s neck. Before Trevor and I could jump into action, Oren sank his dagger into the back of the creature’s spine and it was sucked away - back into Oswald’s bag of holding!
 
I knew there was something wrong with that bag! No one would sell a magical item like that for a mere fifty gold. There was always something wrong with a deal like that…
 
Elaine grabbed the bag of holding and turned it inside out, dumping the contents onto the floor. There were the things that Oswald and Brynden had put in the bag, a Blinsky doll that looked like Van Richten (which Ezmerelda promptly swiped), as well as some money, and a few dead bodies. What came tumbling out of the bag last though, were four tiny black kittens!
 
I don’t know if the cat who sold us the bag put them in there, or if someone else did, but for whatever reason, we now had a litter of kittens! Trevor and Ezmerelda weren’t too keen on them, but Oren immediately scooped up the little girl and tucked her into his armor. It was so cute, the big, hulking dragon-man walking around with a tiny little kitten poking her head out of his shirt.
 
I tucked one of the kittens into my belt pouch (that’s how little they are!), he just curled up and made himself right at home. He’s adorable. I think I might name him Strazni, but then again, I am half tempted to name him after one of Barovia’s greatest hunters, something that will irritate Trevor, just because. Haha, I should name him Kiril, or Szoldi or something like that! What? Trevor really irritated me with how he completely blew off my concerns earlier…
 
Anyways, we set out in earnest, searching for the heart…
 
Someone set off a trap that sent a boulder rolling down the corridor, and would have crushed at least one of us, were our reflexes not up to snuff. We found Strahd’s accountant, an elderly man chained to a desk, obsessively counting money on an abacus.
 
The next room that we entered was filled with mist. It felt like the mist that envelopes the valley, and Ezmerelda, being Vistani (I’m so jealous) is the only one among us, since Kasimir disappeared, who can safely navigate the mists. She walked out into the room, and was attacked. I couldn’t see what was going on, but she was fighting a vampire in the mists. The vampire fled shortly thereafter, through a hidden door in the wall, and we were able to explore the room (as the mist had dispersed).
 
There were so many papers, journals dating back from the war with the Order of the Silver Dragon, a series of deeds (including one to the city of Krezk…?), and the thing that particularly caught my eye… a bit of sheet music… a melancholic violin piece, that I could tell would be hauntingly beautiful when played. I couldn’t resist… I took the music, figuring that I would play it later. (Just in case it would attract Strahd’s attention or something - I didn’t know who wrote it.)
 
Ezmerelda cast a spell that sent a disembodied eyeball following the vampire who had attacked her. She said that Strahd himself was on the other side of the secret door, in the next room over. He was wearing his armor. Well, shit.
 
Oswald and Oren led us up one of the spires - it was nerve-wracking because with the tight spiralling staircase, I wasn’t able to see what was going on up ahead… all I could do was listen for it. I heard a scuffle up ahead, and the voice of that vampire bitch who enlarged herself, started threatening Oswald. A massive explosion rocked the stairs, and the acrid scent of burning flesh rent the air.
 
Apparently, one of the vampires had some explosive device that had been set off. There was nothing left of any of the room’s occupants. The furniture, vampires, and any other contents of the room had been turned to ash.
 
We passed through that room, and found a disconcertingly creepy old man in the top chamber of the tower. Dead bodies were everywhere and he claimed that he doesn’t know anything of a heart - he simply rents the top of the spire for his work. I did not know that the Devil rents rooms to people… and if this man sought out Strahd von Zarovich for a landlord, then he must be a horrible person indeed… I find myself incredibly grateful that we moved on and Oswald didn’t start a fight or anything…
 
After that, we found ourselves on the main floor of Castle Ravenloft. Strahd appeared in our midst, asking us how long we think we’ll be able to survive on this floor. Not ominous or anything…
 
Elaine took Eerika and dimension doored to the main door, where the sounds of fighting were thickest. I don’t know what they did over there exactly, because I was too distracted by Strahd standing ten feet away from me. Trevor had a genius plan though… he flung his waterskins of holy water (that we had filled from Sergei’s pool beneath Krezk) and cast a spell to summon a swirling wall of wind to surround us and turn the holy water into a vortex. The droplets were stinging, but judging by Strahd’s reaction, they were far more painful to him than they could ever be to the rest of us.
 
He tried to teleport away, but I managed to counter it. Did you hear that? I countered the Devil’s spell again! If anyone had told me a year ago that I would have discovered I had a surviving brother, was promised to Baba Lysaga, was married to a hunter who claimed to have arrived in Barovia on a boat, and had successfully countered a spell cast by the Devil Strahd himself, I wouldn’t have been able to believe a word of it!
 
Anyways, Strahd did something where he was able to trade places with Oren, and thus was freed from the grasp of Trevor’s spell. He then turned into mist and fled. Elaine and Eerika came back to the party, with a severely injured Moira in tow. Apparently Kasimir had been taken into the sky by some massive, winged beast. I hope he is okay…
 
We rested for a time in one of the storerooms off to the side, and I decided to play the music that I’d found. Trevor said that it had been written by Blinsky… I guess he must have recognized his handwriting or something – I wouldn’t have known that.
 
It was as beautiful a piece as I knew it would be. The notes blended together to form a melancholic ballad that almost sounded like a dirge. A spirit appeared, as though summoned by the music. At first, I was rather nervous, but then it was revealed to be the spirit of one of Piddlewink’s predecessors. He said that there is a great treasure in the catacombs for any who wish to create their own Piddlewink… I do not think that this is something that we will do… for even though it was nice having the little fleshy creeper around, it isn’t within our skill (nor interest, I think) to create one of our own…
 
We left Moira in the storeroom to recover and to hold down the layout of the floor, while we ascended to the top of the next spire (after the guys raided Strahd’s throneroom for treasures – apparently the staff fragment they found is the sister to the piece that I have)…
 
By this point, everyone was concerned with keeping Trevor out of the moonlight, as it was streaming in from the windows throughout the throne room, and again on the next set of stairs. So, we wrapped him in cloaks, and anything else we could find to keep him completely hidden from the moonlight… I know it was probably driving him crazy, but I’m glad that he at least didn’t complain too much about it.
 
This next tower was more terrifying than the first… for, when we reached to top of the first landing, the room before us was one completely black. Oswald said he couldn’t see within it. Everyone with the ability to sense the presence of enemies was uneasy. Trevor said that it wasn’t ordinary darkness (no shit), it was instead some form of ethereal creature that would feed on us if we stepped into the shadow. Because of this, and that it is better to be safe than sorry, everyone who could cast Light, did so, on everything that we could, and we moved through the room.
 
We ascended more spiraling stairs, which were dabbled with shafts of moonlight coming from windows along the way. I was very careful to keep Trevor away from those shafts – the last thing that I wanted was for him to suddenly turn into a werewolf and then attack us, while we are currently in the middle of trying to locate Strahd’s mother’s heart.
 
We came upon a nursery. I could hear a woman singing, and an empty cradle was rocking… Ezmerelda and I admonished everyone not to touch anything, lest it trigger the ghost to attack or something. We carefully made our way through the nursery, and again ascended the stairs.
 
A hall of mirrors was before us, and I felt a panic begin rising in my chest. I didn’t know if we would be able to get across without Trevor losing himself and transforming into a werewolf. Elaine and Oren solved the problem though… they opened the door and inspected the layout. There was a glossy substance coating the floor of the chamber, it looked like blood, but I wasn’t sure why there was blood on the floor. Trevor said something about it being an Oblex, whatever that is… apparently it’s some form of monster that feeds on peoples’ memories.
 
No fucking way. I like my memories right where they are at, thank you very much…
 
I could see the heart through the doorway. Elaine laid down a wall of force, and Trevor silenced the area around the heart. Oren and Elaine moved in and they succeeded in stabbing the heart – I don’t know what took them so long, but I didn’t have to go in there, so can I really complain?
 
The mirrors all shattered, and the entire tower began to tremble. The viscous liquid on the floor began moving towards us. Eerika threw up a door that she pulled from one of the patches on her robe. And we ran… and ran… all the way until we found ourselves back in the sanctuary of Strahd’s mother’s crypt. Surprisingly enough, the crypt was still offering sanctuary…
 
We set up watches, and now are trying to get some rest… for I am filled with dread anticipation for what tomorrow will bring…