So that happened.

As dawn broke over the land, or at least what passes for dawn here, we awoke to the sound of an echoing church bell. We gathered our things and continued on towards Krezk, talking about our plans amongst ourselves as we went. Truth be told, I largely ignored what was being said, instead still reflecting on what had happened the day prior. In hindsight, I probably should have been paying attention, but what can you do. When we arrived at the gates of Krezk, we were met by a guard who denied our passage. It was Kasimir who spoke up and suggested speaking to the Burgermeister, followed by Bryndon spouting off some nonsense of being a noble and requesting an audience. Soon we were greeted at the gate by the Burgermeister himself. When we asked for entry, he stated only those who have proven themselves friends of Krezk could enter. Of course, we asked the obvious question and were told that the Burgermeister wants for wine for his city, for they have not seen a shipment in some time.
 
It was at this point we related what we knew about the Wizard of Wines being attacked by a group of druids being the reason for his lack of wine. During the discussion Moira was brought up, and the Burgermeister acknowledged the Hero of the Land Boat, and that she was here already. We asked that she be summoned, as she could vouch for us and our allegiance. She appeared and did indeed vouch for us, even going so far as to tell the man that we could help with his "child problem". Not wanting to explain further, the Burgermeister granted us entry into Krezk. A group of guards surrounded us all and began escorting us through the fog-blanketed city of Krezk. Not "the mist" as we know throughout the rest of Barovia, this was simple fog that rolled down from higher cliffs and covered the city. Hearing a howling, I used my senses to track any beasts and quickly discovered HUNDREDS of beasts swarming all over the city.
 
We were told it was "The Culling" and it happens around this time every year. It turns out the "child problem" the Burgermeister has was that all of his children had died of a sickness, something called "Consumption", and yet claims that the Abbot rid the city of disease some time ago. The Abbot.. this was clearly someone we needed to speak with. But for a city such as this to be as "safe" as it claims, for as long as it claims, what kind of power could this man have? Was it someone Strahd dared not cross? We were told that to survive the Culling, we would need to survive on the streets of Krezk for a night and a day, and then we could see the Abbot. Unable to see or otherwise navigate our way through the fog-laden city, a guide was summoned for us. He was an older man, not quite of old Van Richten's age, but getting up in his years. Impressive, if he lived for so long in a place like this.
 
However, as soon as the old man crossed the threshold of the doorway to lead us out, a beast of some sort sped past the old man, and splattered him across the ground and door like a runaway cart over a tomato. Like the murderhobos our little group has become, they all piled out through the door to confront the beast, steeling themselves for combat. I decided to hang back, and ensure that Marushka stay safe instead. I tied a rope around my waist and and offered her the other end so that she may do the same. I did not want to chance us getting lost or separated in this fog.
 
I wonder if I'm beginning to lose my edge, honestly. Reflecting back on how I was, I was always on the front line of battle, ready with my trusty whip to intercept the foes that threatened my friends. But now.. they have grown in their own right, and I no longer feel the pull to be at the forefront. Whatever we are, I have come to feel the need to make sure Marushka stays alive. Not simply because she's attractive. And talented. And has a good sense of humor when you can draw it out of her, few and far between those times have been. But I truly want her to see the world beyond this pit of Hell. I want her to know that she won't become a hag. It doesn't matter what her lineage is. She's lived in this piece of land like an isolated island unaware of the rest of the world surrounding her. So much for her to see and experience. I want that for her, truly.
 
We confronted a pair of beasts in the street, and dealt with them swiftly. As we proceeded onwards, we decided to check a few houses to see if any were empty, so that we could wait out this "Culling" in relative peace. We found someone who bartered some items for coin with Bryndon, but the boy was short on coin. I deigned to chime in with any coin I had, and so did several others. Someone ended up giving him the money, but I don't remember who. We continued on our way with little impediment, and found ourselves outside of the gate that blocked the path to the Abbey. I had honestly decided that we would wait out the rest of this Culling here, as the Burgermeister stated, but it seems Piddlewink had other ideas. The little flesh muppet took some rope from Oswald and slipped through the bars of the gate, anchoring one end before tossing the other end over the gate. Given the Burgermeister stated there were no "rules" for surviving this Culling, we decided to go with the Fluppet's plan.
 
It was no task getting us all over the gate, and then we made the trek up to the Abbey without incident. There was no fog here, I noticed. Not too surprising, given that fog is heavy and tends to stay low, but it still made this place feel ominous. Oswald, being the beacon of goodliness as he is in this hellhole, approached the doors of the Abbey and knocked, requesting entry. The doors opened a few moments later by a couple of small children from inside. They ran up to Oswald and greeted him warmly, not really regarding the rest of us. It should come as no surprise by now that nothing here was as it seemed. The children led us within to the "Abbot", who was a very young looking man with a small group of children surrounding him, drinking of his blood directly from his arms as if they were vampires. Unlike the types of charms and compulsions we'd seen so far utilized in this land, the children showed no outside sign of being influenced compulsed into this act.
 
We asked for passage onward below the Abbey to find what it was we sought, and the Abbot made no attempt to stop us, thankfully, despite Bryndon's barely restrained resolved not to attack him. As soon as we were out of earshot, or at least we hoped we were, Oswald revealed to us that this "Abbot" was actually a celestial being, called a Deva. I'd faintly recalled such a creature in my studies; not all beasts are creatures of the night, after all. As we made our way further down below, into what used to be the old orphanage and below, the stonework began to change, subtly at first, but it started to resemble what we'd seen in ruins from Faerun. Littering the entire way was the skeletons of children, uncountable at a glance, and it was quickly clear to us that these skeletons were a legion of undead. We thought to leave them undisturbed as much as possible, but Adrostos decided that this would be the perfect time to demonstrate to us his ability to take control of the undead. He ended up taking control of 32 undead children, using them as meat shields and trap-springers as we made our way through the rest of these catacombs. Some fucking paladin he is. Its easy to see why Oswald has such disdain for him as an oathbreaker.
 
As we neared the bottom of the catacombs, "Elaine" detected 3 different traces of magic nearby. An abjuration aura, and 2 sources of divine magic, one vastly more powerful than the other. We deduced that the stronger divine trace was likely that of the Sun Spear, Sergei's famed weapon. Before we proceeded on, Kasimir brought up that if we were to gain possession of the Sun Spear, which we've learned contains the soul of Sergei himself, that perhaps we should have Ireena here with us. We agreed. I.. probably should have mentioned before that the reason Moira was in Krezk at all was because "Elaine" had sent her a message asking her to bring Ireena to Krezk. Marushka wished him safe, and he went off to bring her. As we were deciding on whether or not to simply wait here for the two to return, an ominous voice echoed to us all, saying "Yes.. stay in one spot.."
 
Fuck that.
 
Assuming that the large divine magic presence was in fact the Sun Spear, we decided to check out the other paths while we waited. The path towards the arcane magic was littered with traps, which Adrostos used his small army of undead children to trigger. While I can't argue with the results, I didn't care for the means. What kind of man needs to use undead puppets to do simple tasks such as this? One incapable, in my opinion. But I digress. The end of the pathway lead to a dusty chest, within which we found a large fragment of Mordenkainen's staff. Though separated from the rest of it's form, the staff fragment still contained potent magical power. With the assistance of an Identify spell, we learned that the fragment could be used to cast the Fireball spell once a day. We decided pretty unanimously to have Marushka hold it. Personally, while I don't doubt her ability to use her rapier or defend herself, no one really expects a Bard to let loose a Fireball. I wanted to make sure she had more tools at her disposal to protect herself if something should happen to me.
 
We backtracked and went down the path towards the lesser of the divine magical auras. We found a long hallway of mirrors, not too unlike what he came across inside Argynvostholt. Bryndon learned, this time, and kept his eyes away from reflections, as did we all. The doors at the end of the hall opened, and a small amount of torchlight broke the darkness and began reflecting off the mirrors. An image was being cast through the light, that of an ancient version of Oswald's holy symbol, and the image cast itself upon Oswald's chest. Feeling this was not something the rest of us non-holy folk should bother with, especially not Adrostos, we allowed him to enter alone at his request. Oswald returned shortly with a golden shield held on his back, and it seemed to be causing him pain. It didn't seem to disturb him really, and given what I know of the man for all the time we've been traveling together, this was his religion's sort of thing anyways. Probably why he needed to be the one to retrive the item.
 
When returned to the main chamber, the final path towards the Sun Spear had been taken up by a large... creature? There was enough of a gap to pass by it, but not much. As I stared, trying to get a measure of the beast, it spoke to me in my mind, unheard by any other. It asked me if I wanted to be a great hunter. The greatest hunter, even. With the power to do as I will. While I cannot deny that I want for a power that can rid the world of Strahd and cease this unending nightmare, my experience in this place tells me that such bargains are not what they seem. I asked if I could have some time to think on the decision, to which the creature agreed. It bade me speak to it again in the Amber Temple, and in exchange it would allow our party to pass without harm. I agreed. Not wanting to alarm the others, I simply told them that the creature was asleep, and that we could pass harmlessly. No one challenged my claim, thankfully, and we all passed uneventfully. Except Eerika, who is such an oddity. She left an offering of rations for the creature/statue, and it spoke to her, though she decided to share this with the rest of us, unlike me.
 
Past the thing, we came to another split decision. Left or right. As we discussed, we heard the sound of chittering coming from the left, and the sound of scraping metal coming from the right. We felt the chittering to be the safer of the two options and turned to the left passage only to find a massive swarm of spiders. I immediately turned around and went back to the fork. From what I was told later, Moru was there, bigger than we'd ever seen him previously and also made an agreement with Bryndon to speak again at the Ember Temple. Once he agreed, Moru and the spiders disappeared, but I dared not go down that hallway anyway. I'm not liking how this is shaping up, with dark powers trying to gather us at the Ember Temple.
 
Going right, we found the source of the metal scraping noise: a large flesh golem dragging a huge mallet was patrolling the hallway. In its infinite wisdom, Piddlewink decided to make his presence known once more, and hopped out of Oswald's pouch, and made its way up to the flesh golem. One would believe he may have been somehow trying to commune with the construct, being one himself, but communications must have broken down as the larger golem swung its large hammer and sent Piddlewink sailing back against the wall we had just passed, splattering moisturizer all over the wall before it slumped to the ground. So of course we fought it. We soundly defeated the creature and the others rushed to Piddlewink's side. Somehow, they managed to revive the tiny flesh golem; at least, it wasn't non-functional. Around this time Kasimir and Ireena arrived and of course, wondered about the large creature/statue that blocked most of the earlier passage. We gave no real answer and just continued on.
 
As we continued downward through the catacombs, we began hearing the sound of running water, and soon saw that water was pouring in from some outside source and into the large chamber, eventually running down into a pool several feet wide. In this pool, rested a golden haft, almost 7 feet long, covered in sigils. Being the closest thing to a follow of the Morning Lord among us, Oswald was first to wade into the pool, however he did not go far. Turning, he offered his hand to Ireena, and she seemed extremely pensive to take it. Helpfully, Marushka cast a Calm Emotion spell upon her to help her clear her mind and make her true decision. Then, she took his hand and entered the pool with him. Before she got too far, she seemed to collapse. Oswald caught her, thankfully, but when she stood again, she was different. You could see it in her eyes. The knowledge and insight of several lives, reincarnated over and over, all coalesced into one person. She pulled away from Oswald with a smile, and reached out to grasp the Sun Spear. As her hand wrapped around the haft, a blinding beam of light came down and flooded the pool. Squinting under my fingers, it looked like a figure was within the light, protectively around Ireena- .. I guess Tatyana, now? Soon, the figure manifested in physical form, taking the body he formerly used in life.
 
Sergei von Zarovich stood before us, holding his famed weapon, now adorned at the end with a blade made of pure sunlight. The relic certainly lived up to its name. Sergei spoke then, asking why we have come. We spoke and he judged us worthy of his assistance. He asked that he wield the spear, and be the one to end his brother. He also offered us a choice. A request, really. We could take the weapon, yes, but he asked if we would free him from the weapon, and allow him and Tatyana to be together away from Barovia. It was a decision he would not allow a single person to make, and had us discuss amongst ourselves. Marushka starting going on about true love, and how their love was the stuff of ballads and legends. I didn't care about all of that, but it was surprising to see something she was so passionate about, outside of trying to convince us not to take up arms against every single nightmare she grew up fearing (rationally). I suppose none of us really ever took the time to ask her about such things. Maybe she only thought of me as a physical distraction, and never brought it up. Perhaps she was waiting on me to broach that subject. Either way, that's something I plan to change going forward.
 
For my part, I wanted to make sure things changed in Barovia. I believed, as I still do, that by freeing Sergei's soul and allowing him to abscond with Tatyana that we could finally break her cycle of reincarnation, and possibly put an end to this. At the least, Strahd would no longer terrorize people to convince her to come to him whenever she was reborn. No more peoples needed to be submit to genocide at his whim. It would stop this. Even if we die to Strahd after this, I'll go knowing he no longer has a way to break his curse. I will take away from him the last bit of hope that could ever possibly exist in his heart. I will make him feel the pain of his people that he has brought upon them for so long. I will make him regret ever thinking the House of Belmont would perish so easily.
 
We put it to a vote, and we decided to free Sergei here and now. Only Bryndon disagreed. Worried about needing the Sun Spear to use against Baby Lasagna, of course. The decision made, we gave Sergei our answer and released him from his bonds. Holding close to Tatyana, he said to us that he would come to us in our hour of need, and the two vanished into the light. The Sun Spear lost its blade of light, and it fell back into the pool of water.
 
I retrieved it, as my deal made with Strahd at his dinner invitation asked only for this; he never made clear it was the Sun Spear he was looking for. Either he would keep his end of the deal, or it would be an insult to him. Either way, I was willing to see the result.
 
We camped by the pool that night, filling any possible vessels we had with its sanctified water. I had the cheeky idea of asking Marushka if she’d ever done it in a pool of holy water before, but something kept the thought from leaving my mouth. The night went by uneventfully and we made our way back up to the Abbey without incident. When we encountered the Abbot once more, Kasimir decided to banish the celestial being rather than fight it. Probably one of the smartest decisions ever made.
 
We exited the Abbey, and we could tell things were not right. We heard a howl of pain and rage on the wind, and the sky began to change. Strahd knew. We knew he would be more furious than ever now. As we thought upon our next destination, I could not get out of my mind the agreement I had made to speak to the creature at the Amber Temple. While I had no inclination to make a deal with a dark power, I felt a compulsion to go to the temple in the mountains. We may need a greater power to rid this world of Strahd and even Baby Lasagna now that the Sun Spear no longer truly existed.
 
As I finish this entry, and look back upon my earlier writings, I noticed the lack of humor once in them. Has this place stripped me of such emotion? I don’t remember that last time I’ve laughed. Or even really smiled.