Vernon Miller
7/3/22
We left the hill without further incident and returned to the Martikovs’ Winery with the gem in our possession. We were allowed inside and after some discussion were welcomed to stay the night, or any other night should we happen to find ourselves in this part of Barovia in return for our service to them. I also asked them if they knew anything of what the druids or Kavan spoke of, though Davian seemed largely unaware. We also agreed to guard the Martikov’s shipment of wine to Vallaki, and to have an additional two barrels taken to Krezk. Come morning we were each granted multiple supply packs, all of which contained a healing potion. Soon after we set off along the road to Vallaki as planned. Upon arrival we decided it best that Emilia and Jig stay out of the town, so Neph and I went in to stock up on supplies. Upon entering, the Martikov brothers pointed us towards a tailor and blacksmith where we could pick up clothes and bolts respectively. As we started to go on our way, the guards gave us some trouble but I assured them we weren’t going to cause any trouble and that we were just here to stock up on supplies and leave, which convinced them to leave us alone. First stop was the Cracked Anvil, a blacksmith’s shop, where I hoped to resupply on bolts. I wasn’t able to have any bolts made given the short notice, however the smith did have a dozen silvered bolts he was willing to part with due to our party’s efforts in saving the town. However, Neph set off a surge of wild magic, nearly killing the shopkeeper and injuring myself. As such, a fight almost broke out and we were kicked out of the shop. Afterwards, I had some harsh words with Neph about avoiding unintended casualties, and I made my way to the Tailor’s by myself. Although, as we were talking we saw that the Burgomaster’s house burned down as we passed by, and in its place a set of gallows were erected upon which the Burgomaster, his family, and Izek were hung. It would seem that the townspeople finally got fed up with Vargas Vallakovich's leadership. Eventually I arrived at the tailor, and upon entering I was greeted by two men and a woman running the shop. Thankfully, things went far smoother here and I was able to get the clothes we needed without incident.
5/22/22
We ended up deciding to stick together and attacking in the evening, with Emilia in front, Neph Behind her, then myself, and Vrop’ti in the back, 20 feet between each of us. I decided to attempt to read up on anything relevant I could find in the Tome of Strahd. I uncovered a passage which read as follows, “It is done, the shrines of the forgotten gods that once ruled this land have been consecrated in my image. And through this ritual I have bound their power to mine, through them I am the land”. Kavan elucidated on the matter saying he knew of the ritual, saying that centuries ago a schism formed in which a group of druids guided Strahd to various holy places in order to replace himself with the old gods, seemingly with the intent of becoming one himself. It was here that he committed his dark magic rituals that corrupted the powers of the ladies three in his own image. Emilia also recalled visions of a windmill, further cementing my hunch that we ought to parley with the hags which resided there.
Before we could discuss this however, we were approached by a skeletal figure clad in metal wielding a mace. Although my initial reaction was hostile given the figure's obviously undead nature, the figure was not like the mindless undead we had faced before, and was not only capable of speech, but was also quite friendly in fact. The skeletal individual introduced himself as Sir Jig, a necromancer/knight who remembers nothing outside of having woken up in the nearby forest sometime recently. He seemed fixated on warm bodies and flesh, a little unnerving, though he seemed peaceful towards us and agreed to help us with our druid problems in exchange for their bodies, a fair, if a little strange, deal.
With our new companion helping to lead our march up the hill, we were faced with three druids who stood in our way. Emilia and Sir Jig failed to notice them, until they were directly in front of them, though before the Druids could react they unanimously decided to rush them. Once they did, the rest of us came out of hiding and assisted in dispatching our assailants.
Pressing on, we eventually came to the base of the path to the final plateau of the hill, only to find it was guarded by around half a dozen more druids.The inner ring was blocked by a 15 foot wall of stone, blocking our line of sight for the most part, but I did make out a large gnarled statue of a cloaked, fanged, figure. Given the lack of cover, we decided a more straightforward approach would prove most effective. While we were engaging the defenders, we saw a green glow emanate from a gem embedded in the statue, and the archdruid cried out, “The scion of gulthias will soon reduce to winged betrayers to splinters!”
As he said that we saw a nightmare fly through the sky, mounted by strahd and an unknown figure, both of whom simply resided themselves to circling around the battlefield and watching as the battle raged on. The storm continued to worsen as we pressed on, and eventually the clouds around us darkened, but we managed to use the combination of the darkness and well timed flashes of light from my blade to turn the fight around. Emilia and I pressed towards the base of the statue as the others in our party held off the other defenders. For a moment it was looking grim for Emilia as she fell, though through sheer will power she forced herself to consciousness, and managed to dispatch of the last of druids sustaining the ritual in the nick of time, barely preventing whatever monster the vines and tendrils coming from the statue composed. As we did the gem in the statue darkened, ending their foul ritual, but the druids continued to fight. As we killed off the last of the enemy combatants, Strahd came forward and without saying a word presented the mysterious stranger with him, a young tiefling boy I recognized to be the mark that originally brought me to Barovia, though I decided to remain silent and to allow Emilia and Ellie parley, opting instead to keep a keen eye on Strahd.
4/24/22
Early in the morning Davian Martikov woke us up in a panic. He told us that there was a gem that fertilized the land around the winery, allowing for life to grow in the soil, but that the stone had been stolen. As such the livelihood of the Martikovs’ was in danger, and the people of Barovia tend to become rowdy without their wine. As such it would seem it’s in our best interest and theirs to help the Martikov’s by making haste to their hill. Before we left however, I asked to see where the stone was kept. Upon approaching the location where it was being kept we found a large dug out area about 10 feet deep. I noted that there was only one hole dug out, and confirmed with Urwin that to his knowledge the only ones who knew were himself and his close family. Given how deep the hole was I ruled out them having used magic to locate it, and asserted that the Druids somehow had to have known of the stone, though I wasn’t given much time to pursue that line of thought as we decided to move on. Upon reaching the hill we came to a stone monolith. Upon Neph reaching out to an entity unbeknownst to the rest of us, a voice came from the stone telling us to come closer. Shortly after a humanoid spirit bearing two bloody handprints on its chest manifested, and thanked us for aiding the Disciples of Rozana after introducing himself as Kavan the Bloodsinger. He also informed us that even though we put down some of the faithless (which seems to be how he refers to the druids), that there were far more upon the top of the hill, and they were performing a ritual to make some great monster using the stone stolen from the Martikovs, which he said was imbued with the power of the ladies three, whose legacy he also said the Martikov’s drew power from (I assume by having given them the stone, but maybe not?). He also said that an emissary of the dark one (Strahd) would be present at this ritual. After going through a few plans, we agreed the best one would be to perform a pincer attack. The plan was for Vrop’ti and myself to sneak up to the top of the hill during the night when they would all be gathered there and make ourselves hidden. Upon reaching the top we’d give some kind of signal to Neph and Emilia, who would then draw them down. Once the defenders were half way down the hill Vrop’ti and I would start heading down after them so that when the fighting begins we would have them surrounded, though we would still likely be outnumbered. From there we hope to be able to effectively eliminate key targets, in hopes of breaking their ranks and disrupting their fighting style.
4/10/22
Aftering driving out the blights, we returned to the Martikovs and informed them that the Winery was secure, though the Druids had contaminated some of the wine with blood. In return he assured us that shipments of wine would be heading out to Vallaki and Krezk soon. I asked him if he knew where the druids came from, to which he responded saying he didn’t. I then asked him what he knew about Krezk, and he told us that it was a small communal town, and that atop the mountains behind the city resided the Abbey of St. Markovia. He said that the abbey was once a place of healing, but now only madness is bred there. He said that screams can be heard coming from the abbey in the dead of night and the bells seem to ring intermittently at all hours of the day. Davian also told us we could stay the night, and asked us if we could guard the shipment of wine headed to Vallkaki, to which we agreed. However, as Emilia was double checking the grounds for any more druids or blights, she was approached by one of Davian’s sons, Elvir. He told her that they actually did know of an old ritual site to the south that was used by the druids, believing his father didn’t tell us due to his pride (?). We then decided it would be for the best if we went and dealt with the druids once and for all after we rested.
3/27/22
Whilst clearing out the second floor before heading to the basement, we found out one of the doors opened onto a balcony above the winery. Hunched over one of the barrels, I saw another druid with one of the gnarled staves, which I promptly shot twice, fatally wounding them. Unfortunately they fell onto the ground floor which was occupied by swarms of twig blights, meaning we could not retrieve the staff without engaging them. I managed to jump off the balcony and retrieve the staff, though as I did I was interrupted by a voice from behind that ordered me to stop. I hastily disobeyed this order, causing the bolt of fire they were threatening me with to hit a nearby wine vat. The twig blights however did not allow us the courtesy of allowing us to introduce ourselves, so we dispatched them. After the twigs were taken care of we put out the fire and agreed to parley on the second floor, which we knew was safe. We introduced ourselves and the mage in turn introduced herself as Neph, and told us that she was sent here to retrieve a barrel of wine in order to gain entry to Krezk. We then moved onto discussing the staff we managed to retrieve, and after a couple of hours learned that it gave the wielder the ability to command the plant blights and attuned it to our new companion. We decided to make sure the basement was clear, and whilst doing so found nothing out of the ordinary except for a few barrels of wine that seemed to be covered in frost in a section of the basement that seemed exceptionally cold. We decided to address that later, and went back out to the vineyard where Neph used the staff to command all of the blights to depart.
3/20/22
We walked down the road for a few hours and encountered nothing out of the ordinary. Upon approaching the Vineyard, we were met by a man with a dark cowl. When we began to move towards him, 8 more cowled figures came out from the woods around him. We greeted him and upon his request, told him we were sent by the Martikovs in Vallaki. He asked us what had taken so long for the them to send someone, and we told him of the attack on Vallaki, but assured him that the Martikovs were safe. We inquired as to why the shipments of wine had stopped, and he informed us that a druidic cult had attacked the winery, forcing them out. They aren’t sure what it was that they wanted, but that they had animated dozens of blights from twigs and other plant matter. We agreed to help them and tentatively approached the winery until we arrived at the clearing around it, remaining in the treeline. At a cursory glance we determined that there were in fact dozens of them, spread out all around the winery, making a stealthy approach without some sort of distraction impossible. We threw a small glass bottle, shattering it against a rock, and a few dozen blights were drawn to the noise. We attempted to reposition quietly, though unfortunately Emilia tripped, drawing the blights toward us. V’ropti and I attempted to remain quiet while Emilia made a mad dash, however, V’ropti too, failed to remain hidden and was forced into a mad dash. I managed to find a good place to post up for a moment and throw a flask of oil at the blights behind V’ropti as she passed me, but unfortunately it was not anywhere near as effective as I had hoped, and only managed to burn one without drawing any attention away from us. We instead opted to utilize our plan b and simply run all the away around the field, kiting them in such a manner that when we passed by the winery again we could attempt to get inside with most of the blights behind us, hoping we could barricade the winery to keep them out once we were in. Closing in on the winery, we saw a carriage house and decided we’d use that to make our entrance. As we did though, we were bombarded by thorns hurled by the blights. We ran into the house, but the door we entered into was broken, forcing us deeper into the house. We decided to run up the stairs, throwing a flask of oil behind us as we did in hopes of slowing the blights down. Upon reaching the top we came to a balcony that overlooked the carriage house. Hanging from the crane mechanism we saw a babbling man carrying a black, gnarled, staff that seemed to be secreting blood. We saw him use the staff to create a blight, and he seemed to also use it to command the blights. I fired off several shots at him, with only one hitting its mark, before he ran away out of the house into the hoard of blights. We pressed on through the second floor, though we didn’t find much of interest at first. After the first few rooms however, we did encounter a pair of druids and some blights, after Emilia misinterpreted V’ropti’s warning. It was at this point when vines sprouted up from the floor and restrained me, essentially incapacitating me for the fight. After an intense struggle however V’ropti managed to get the killing blow on last of the two druids, ending the fight (forgive my notes for being a lil bit lacking here, ngl I just kinda saw strength save and went ah yeah imma just pull up solitaire for this encounter). After the fight I came to the realization that based the first druid’s movements, he likely entered back into the house through the back after having exited, and agreed to clear out this floor before checking back on the first floor then moving to the basement in hopes of finding him and relieving him of his staff.
3/13/22
On our way to Vallaki we met a mob of peasants from Vallaki on their way to Strahd's Castle. Emilia managed to defuse the situation, but her efforts were in vain. As we parted ways we heard their screams from behind us as they were massacred on their way to the town of Barovia. We passed by the windmill and continued our way the long way to Vallaki. Upon arriving we saw that the gates were unguarded, though we still decided to initially avoid the main town and instead headed to the Vistani camp. We met with Kasamir, and I showed him the tome of Strahd as proof that we were worthy of working with him. We agreed that after we cleared up our business in Krezk and in the Winery, that we would return to Vallaki to meet back up with him before going to the Amber Temple. Until then we agreed to spend a day here in town, where V’ropti and Emilia would gather some supplies and meet with Martikov to see how he’s doing. In the meanwhile I decided to spend the day studying the tome with Kasamir. The first thing they did after they left Kasamir was to meet with Luvash, who had the supplies we totally ordered. After that they headed to the Bluewater Inn to meet with Urwin Martikov to check up on him before we headed to the Winery. They met with the Urwin’s wife, Danika, and she suspected that the wine shipments having stopped is somehow related to the Vampire attack on Vallaki. Back with Kasamir, I learned that the passage he read that shook him was written by Strahd right after he committed genocide against his people, the dusk elves. I decided not to press the issue further, sensing it was a sensitive subject for him. I did however request his assistance in deciphering the book, and he agreed to help translate and give any insights he could, given his vast knowledge of history from his old age. I managed to uncover a passage that read as follows, “The witches of Barovia now come to me for their succor, rather than seeking the dangerous Dark Powers directly. I am as a god with supplicants, the likes of Kossuth or Kelemvor. Nothing can turn them against me now. They are fully under my thumb. Yet the hags have not submitted in this way. They are wiser, perhaps”. The implication here is that Strahd did not simply undergo some ritual or transformation, but has an ongoing bargain with some greater entity, and that the hags have a similar deal with this entity. That being the case it seems that perhaps we can learn the terms of this deal to exploit it or perhaps even break it. The two leads we have are to either approach the hags, who seem to be the only ones aside from Strahd to deal with this entity, or to go to the place of the deal's origin, the Amber temple. Either way, we decided to spend the rest of the day resting before heading to the winery at the behest of the Martikov’s.
2/27/22
We escaped Strahd’s castle, though before we did I noticed a grimy set of windows below the eastern overlook. Aside from that our escape went smoothly until we decided to camp. We walked about half a mile before V’ropti cast tiny hut in order to allow us to camp for the night. During the night however a large wolf and 8 zombies surrounded us, one of us we recognized to be our former companion, Adria. We completed our rest but as the hut fell they assaulted us. We all managed to escape fairly unscathed, with the exception of Markus. He took quite a few blows, but still managed to escape in the end. We fled our way towards Vallaki so that we could take a pitstop to recuperate and ressupply. We plan to report our survival to Kasamir, but we’re most likely not going to follow through with the Amber temple for now. From there we’re not sure where we plan to head but the main objective is Krezk, though there are a few points of interest along the way. We will likely visit the tower as instructed by Ezmerelda, and also may check in on the Wizards of the Wine winery for Urwin Martikov.
2/13/22
We went around the outside of the walls of the castle. We fought with a guard, and hurled it off the walls of the castle. Upon falling we learned it was an animated armor. We continued along the walls until we entered into the castle interior through one of the towers. We found an empty archer post full of cobwebs. Continuing down the stairs we headed into a set of ruined barracks, with yellow mold on the ceiling. We continued exploring this floor until we came across a room full of bones, including the skull of a dragon. We met a strange decrepit old mutant in the basement near the wine cellar. In his room we found many cooking/torture implements, as well as a very smelly cauldron. In the room that was beside his, we found our things. Some more personal belongings however were lost. Personally I lost my battered watch badge, my serpent sealed letter, my watch sealed letter, and my ornate dagger. As we went to go up the stairs, an invisible individual came up behind Markus. She prevented him from triggering a trap and introduced herself as Ezmerelda D'Avenir, and directed us to a better way of leaving Ravenloft. She asked us what we know of vampires and of Strahd, to which I responded by showing her the Tome of Strahd. We agreed to meet again at a tower west of Vallaki on a path north of the old Svalich Road where she has been staying.
Everything up until now
1/30
We’re looking for bones, last seen in a cart used for delivering coffins. The cart was last seen in the possession of a drunkard named Bluto.
Bluto was last seen heading to lake Zarovich with his new “lucky charm''. His house is abandoned and filled with empty beer bottles. The neighbor says his wife died of natural causes within the last week, causing him to spiral into alcoholism.
Bluto got blackout drunk and kidnapped a girl named Arabelle. We caught him just as he was throwing her into the lake. We saved the girl and detained Bluto.
Bluto knows nothing of the bones. The bones were dropped in a cart near the stockyard, it seems this was just a red herring. The girl turned out to be a part of the travelling nomads, the vistanis, and we turned Bluto into them to be punished. We were paid by the girl’s father, Luvash.
We infiltrated the coffin maker's domicile/workplace and obtained a confession. A dark skinned woman paid him to find what protects the church and steal whatever is warding it. After the coffin maker learned of and stole the bones, she delivered a pair of coffins with vampires inside to his home in order to threaten him into staying quiet, and delivered 4 more vampire filled coffins to the town square. We retrieved the bones from his house and dispatched of the vampires that attempted to stop us. There were 4 more vampires in the square, but we rushed past them to the church. In the end we returned the bones to their rightful position, but were unable to save the Priest from being killed, or Ireena from being kidnapped by dark skinned woman, Ludmila.
We returned to the Baron’s home and learned there was still one more vampire around. We found it engaged with a monster hunter who made use of blood magic. We put down the spawn and the monster hunter, Markus, joined our forces and agreed to help track Ireena. Two other of our companions however, Adrian and Marisa left. Adrian permanently, but Marisa only for the foreseeable future.
An odd man approached us while we were dealing with the Vistani, asking us to meet a man named Kasamir. According to Lavash he’s the leader of the remainder of the dusk elves. Upon arriving he introduced himself as Kasamir Velikov and claims to have lived in Barovia before the time of Strahd and even his house as a whole. He told us of a place known as the Amber Temple, a place of knowledge and magic, where we could find a way to break Strahd from his power. We ended up deciding to instead go have dinner with Strahd before we did this however, as we learned Ireena was to be married to Strahd the next evening.
We went to Strahd’s Castle for dinner. He did not take well to my questions probing the truthfulness of the story behind Ireena’s kidnapping and sudden change of heart. We were thrown in jail.
We escaped from jail, along with one of Markus’s werewolf friends, Emil. We ran into a bunch of ghouls in some swamp water. We rested on a balcony. We found a magic brazier that said,
“Cast a stone into the fire:
Violet leads to the mountain spire
Orange to the castle’s peak
Red if lore is what you seek
Green to where the coffins hide
Indigo to the master’s bride
Blue to ancient magic’s womb
Yellow to the master’s tomb”
We cast the red stone and ended up in Strahd’s library. After some investigation we found an aged picture of Ireena above a fireplace. We recognized the phrase “a woman hanging above a roaring fire” told to the party in a card reading to have referred to this place and found a compartment behind the painting. Within we found the Tome of Strahd, a tome containing the history of Strahd. We learned that Ireena is possibly a descendant of the woman Tatanya. Tatanya was to be the bride of Strahd’s brother, Sergei, but Strahd killed Sergei out of jealousy on the day of his and Tatyana’s wedding, but before Strahd could take Tatyana for himself she threw herself of the walls of castle ravenloft, apparently never to be seen again. This would explain Strahd’s fixation with Ireena since she seems to look almost exactly like this Tatyana, though we’re unsure as of yet whether or not it’s just a coincidence or if there’s some deeper connection. We also found a hidden compartment behind the fireplace itself. Markus went to investigate and found a chest, which was empty and trapped with poison gas. The gas incapacitated him and forced Emilia to run through the fire and drag Markus out. Suffice to say, we took a long rest. During the rest we heard the sounds of battle coming from outside the room we had bunkered down in. I investigated and found a large room that was filled with rubble and had a collapsed roof, exposing the room to the stormy night sky of Barovia. Opposite that room there were a set of grand spiral stairs which headed downwards inside of a large tower. At the top of the inside of this tower was a glowing red crystal, pulsing similarly to a heartbeat. The noises however, were coming from below. I decided it was in our best interest to not get involved and retreated back to the library.
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