Session 17

General Summary

An Unkindness of Ravens

Within the cellar of the winery, The Gardener stood before a glowing idol of a raven. As it shouted at the party, the ravens lined along the rafters of this place began to swarm the party. Nova and Gio began trashing the ravens as Idris caused The Gardener to undergo a bout of madness, turning against its own flock. Tendrils of inky black tentacles lashed out of the cage in its chest as the party felt a bit of their essence drained. However, it also managed to destroy most of the ravens aiding it. Ariadne coated all the enemies in the room with glowing moonlight.
The Gardener shifted as shadows lurched out of its sides, creating three identical copies of itself that entered the fight, adding a component of the cup game to the fight. Ireena managed to get hit multiple times by The Gardener, going down as her body was sucked into the cage of the Gardener. As time passed and the part mechanical creature slowly got weaker and weaker, Ireena took her final breath as she slid out of the cage onto the ground lifeless. Nova managed to carve into the creature as it collapsed where it stood, the light in its eyes faded. A shadow of The Gardener stood aside its corpse, then faded into nothing as it left behind another mote of light, which was promptly thrown into the bag of holding. The raven idol returned to its neutral state as Ahrieya went to resurrect Ireena. After wondering if the spell worked, Ireena came to consciousness with a scream before the party took a moment to move upstairs and rest.

Now We Roost

The party rested for a moment as they asked why the Battlehands didn't join them downstairs. They said that they didn't hear anything, and that there was also someone outside. As Idris and Ariadne looked outside, they saw Strahd atop his Nightmare scowling at Idris. As he composed himself to talk to Strahd, Idris moved towards the door only to see that he had disappeared. A moment later, there was a knock at the door as Adrian Martikov came inside. He called for one of the ravens to get the rest of the family to come back into the winery. Asking about the idol in the basement, and the creature, Adrian spoke with the party privately.
Adrian explained that the Ladies Three were not always just three, but in fact a quartet known as the Court of Seasons. The Huntress is the Lady of Winter of the Mountain Fane located at Yester Hill, The Weaver is the Lady of the Spring of the Swamp Fane located in Berez, and The Seeker is the Lady of Autumn of the Forest Fane located near an old windmill. The lady missing from the Court now is The Warden, the Lady of Summer, who no longer seems to have a Fane to venerate her. The idol was a gift from the Ladies Three, as well as the glowing green gem which was gifted to the Martikovs to promote growth in the vineyard. The party decided to return the gem to the Martikovs, to which they were extremely thankful for.
Idris asked Muriel if she had seen anyone fitting the description of his band members. She mentioned that she saw a blue-haired man outside the walls of Krezk, moving towards the east, though she had something else to do and didn't follow him at all. Frustrated, Idris asked Muriel to let him know if she sees him again.
Ahrieya and Elvir, the youngest son of Davian, looked at the vats of wine to see if the forest folk tampered with it at all. Ahrieya tested it with her alchemist kit, and after some time determined that the wine was in fact poisoned. Fortunately, they had barrels of wine corked before the poisoning, but they will need to find a way to remove poison from the vatd before they start corking more bottles of wine. Before they left the vineyard, the party borrowed a wagon and took two large barrels of wine for Krezk and Vallaki. The Martikovs let the party know they were always welcome at the Wizard of Wines Winery.

Hello Beautiful

The party began to move towards Krezk once again, this time will wine in order to get past the gates. Once outside the walled settlement, the burgomaster came to the gate, finding that they were associated with the Battlehands, and promptly let the entire group inside the walls. The man introduced himself as Dimitri Krezkov, the Burgomaster of Krezk. Because they have no inns because of a lack of outsiders, they will be staying in the burgomaster's since they have able space in their home. After remarking about the influx of outsiders to Krezk, Idris asked about anyone else other than Gio's family. He was told that a brass colored lizard person was brought in a few days ago and is also staying with them. Learning that information, Idris and Ahrieya rushed towards the sheep pen to find this person as Gio, Ireena, Nova, and Ariadne went to the burgomaster's home.
As part of the group entered the lavish yet modest home of the burgomaster, the sounds of laughing children could be heard as the smell of stewed mutton filled the air. Moments later, children ran past Gio, two of which he immediately recognized as his two sons Gavin and Gio Jr. A heartfelt reunion was had before they moved it to the kitchen where he saw his daughter, Lucia, as well as his wife Isis, along with the burgomistress Anna. As Gio stared at his raven-haired wife, acting all suave he startled the woman with the line, "Hello Beautiful."
Astonished to see her husband again, Isis told Gio that she was doing alright, though this place is certainly not good at all. When Gio claimed this was part of his old life, Isis very clearly understood why he left. Talking in private, Isis explained that the creature that attacked the farm only transported them here, and once here the Battlehands seemed very frustrated and confused, though they seemed to know where to go to get the Krezk. After stating he had to go meet with someone in a few days, the two returned downstairs and began setting the dinner table. The Battlehands seemed to be missing.
Meanwhile downstairs, Nova wrestled with Gio Jr., putting him in a headlock as Ariadne acted as referee. Gio Jr. claimed she cheated, though had no evidence of such.

Shear Up Idris

As Idris and Ahrieya moved to the sheep pens, they saw a monster of a man along with a very enthusiastic brass dragonborn wrangling some extremely distressed sheep. At first, she seemed confused and nervous to see Idris. After a moment though, the two embraced as the dragonborn Sinead (Sin for short) explained what happened after Idris left. Don and Sin went on a trip to return to Sin's mother as Sena and Grim stayed behind in Baldur's Gate. Sin seemed to blame Idris for how she was feeling at the time.
Sin then called Ahrieya a square as she also explained how domesticated Idris is. However, this quickly changed as Ahrieya casted fly on Sin as she flew around town, hoping that during a concert, it would be awesome if everyone could fly and shit fire at the same time. Sin explained that she has been staying with the burgomaster as well helping with the sheep where she can. They asked about the Abby in town, and while Sin mentioned people usually don't go there anymore, Anna, the burgomistress, took her son to the abbot after he perished due to a mysterious illness. The abbot apparently brought him back good as new, so the Abbot can't be all that bad. As they party left they waved goodbye to Luca, the large man left in the sheep pen. On the way to the place they would be staying, Sin mentioned that a man showed up that claimed he knew Idris and that he could take Don to him, to which he accepted.
The party reconvened at the burgomaster's home for dinner. The burgomaster's son, Ilya, seemed to like to hang out with his new friends Gavin and Gio Jr. During dinner, he seemed particularly hungry as he ate. Sin and Gio's family introduced themselves to everyone else, as Dimitri politely asked that if the party is to stay within Krezk's walls, he would like them to help out around town. It seems like sheep have been going missing in town, leaving behind a small amount of bones picked clean and blood. Dimitri seems to think Luca is a suspect, since he certainly needs lots of food to have that much muscle, but Sin disagreed. The burgomaster asked if the party could look into it.
Before turning in for the night, Sin challenged Nova to a sheep wrangling contest, to which the latter accepted. Ariadne asked Dimitri about lycanthropes and if there are any issues with them nearby. He claimed there was a well-known den nearby, and if she wanted to know more about them, she should ask the town engineer Eugen. Idris asked if Ahrieya could send a message to Grim, to which it seemed the message was blocked. After sending a message to Don, the blue haired man said that the nice man on the horse took him to his castle and said that he has free food and alcohol. He seems really nice! Outside, Idris talked with Sin, to which the dragonborn expressed her displeasure with Idris' leaving. We were supposed to deal with shit together, thats what we do! Idris said that he was worried whatever was affecting him would make him do something bad to the party members, but Sin seemed to not believe Idris was capable.
Idris warned Sin that she has met her match with Nova in terms of extremity and that she will probably lose to Nova. As the sheep wrangling contest ensued, Nova stomped out the competition as she raged and grew twice in size, throwing sheep into the pen. Sin could not keep up, and as the contest concluded, Nova emerged the winner. Sin acknowledged the gnome's badassery. Though upon counting the sheep one last time, Sin said that one seems to be missing.

Report Date

07 Dec 2022