Session 11 - Freetime in Vallaki

General Summary

Fredrik er ikke her denne session

• The man gives Ariah a letter. He introduces it as an invitation from Fiona Wachter
  • We're getting the invitation because we're new
  • He is her right hand man, and she is perhaps one of the oldest and richest houses
  • Ernst Larnak is his name
  • He offers to send wagons for us
  • The event is mostly for family, us and Ireena
  • He won't tell us how he knew where we were
  • He knows which rooms we have at the inn
  • As soon as he leaves Jonathan says "well that seems like a fucking trap"
• Jonathan accidentally says "Strahd", and we roll wis saves
• We open the invitation, it has the symbol of a W on it
  • The dinner will be served at 19:00, and then barovian dessert
• None of us have Dispel Magic
• We head over to the church to talk to Ireena
  • Ariah waits outside with the cursed amulet
  • Jonathan asks Father Lucian about the Wachter family
  • They hold parties and festival and such, as expected by an old noble family
  • She has a lot of followers that want to see her be more than just a shadow in the background
  • She is the host of the Bookclub, which is help at the estate
  • Jonathan asks if he knows if there's any connection between the Bookclub and the "big man"
  • Father Lucian says that none of the members have mentioned the club being connected to the Morning Lord
  • They do more thinking about the bigger picture, and talk a lot about feeling the sun again
  • But he thinks the way they speak about it is a bit fanatical
  • Jonathan probe more about whether they would have aligned goals with "the big bad man"
  • Father Lucian says that there might be, since Strahd is the one that is the cause of the sun being gone
  • She has a bunch of cats, that all her followers talk about
  • Jonathan asks if he wants to see something really cool outside
  • he says Ireena went outside when we were gone because she wanted to repay us
  • Father Lucian comes outside
  • Ariah explains what happened at the orphanage and with the amulet
  • He can't help with the amulet, but knows someone who can in the town of Krezk
  • They are well known for their ancient monastary, and as the most powerful(?) believers
  • We should talk to the head priest there
  • The monastary is called Abbey of Saint Markovia
• Jonathan tries to warn Ariah (and will later warn Ireena) about Wachter, without crossing boundaries
  • They are people who do things and have opinions
  • She has followers who share her opinions
  • Don't talk about stuff when there's cats around
  • He doesn't trust them
  • Ariah says she doesn't want Ireena going to the dinner, if they might be shady
• We head into town to do some shopping
• We pass a few patrols of guards. Passerby's force smiles until the guards are gone
• The people in the stockades have paper maché donkey masks on, and are being thrown fruit at
• Damia goes to the jeweller's store to sell loot we've found
• It is catered to nobles
• The storekeep is a short man with a bowl cut, wearing a tux
• he warns her that if what she's selling is illegal, it will not go well with her
• She assures him it's not illegal, then hands him a golden ring with a symbol of the Dursts on it, as well as the jewellry box and the platinum necklace
• He says that he will not ask how she got the things, pointing out the family crest
• The necklace is magnificent craftmanship
• He asks Damia what price she is imagining
• She says 4k gold for the ring (?) and 100 gold for the necklace (think I heard wrong)
• He offers 5 gp for the ring, as it will probably be melted down
• She tells him it is the symbol of the Durst family, and shows him the deeds
• He argues that he cannot sell it, since he can't prove to customers that it is their ring
• She decides to keep the ring for now
• She asks for 25 gp for the box, which he agrees on
• For the necklace, she lowers to 90 gp, which he agrees on
• While he goes to get the money. Damia inspects his wares
• He comes back with the money, and Damia asks him where he got pearls from
• Some are from the vistani, none are natural to the region
• Ariah goes to the armory to get a shield
• He hasn't had shields for a while, but will look in the back
• He comes back with two shields, that look kind of flimsy, but better than the one in the Durst house
• She prays to Ilmater to see if one of them is better
• The kite shield looks more cleric like, and the viking one looks more barbaric
• Ariah buys the kite shield for all her gold (but still cheaper than a normal shield)
• Jonathan meets Gob, who has brought a cart full of wolf pelts
• Gob says he has come a long way to talk to him
• He mentions two people in Barovia that might work for their plans
• They need suppliers who fight things to sell for them. They need a middleman
• Jonathan suggest that they could be people that get things from outside Barovia, but none of them can get out
• Gob has talked to the three vistani women in the Village of Barovia, which said that they can come and go as they please
• Jonathan wants to smuggle things in, mentioning the black market Father Lucian spoke of
• Gob says he is an expert of getting things in legally (sometimes)
• They think of smuggling alcohol, weapons, magic items, candy and cheese
• Gob will get the Vistani to get them vares, Jonathan will talk to Father Lucian about getting connections to the black market
• Gob can front 60 gp, Jonathan offers the child meat pie
• Gob will accept the pie, but needs Jonathan to also invest some money
• Gob needs to leave tonight to talk to the Vistani
• Jonathan tries to argue that he needs spending money, and Gob will get 60%
• Gob offers Jonathan 5% if he doesn't invest anything
• Jonathan argues that he has already invested by getting the cart and starting the business
• Jonathan begrudingly says he is willing to invest 20 gp now
• Since Jonathan says he doesn't have a lot of money to invest, Gob offers to give him a loan so he can invest
• Jonathan says he will have money now
• Gob lists of the items he will bring, getting stuck on wine and cheese
• Jonathan tries to get Gob to agree to a 50/50 split
• Gob offers 65/35 split, but lowers to 60/40 which Jonathan agrees to
• Gob then spits in Jonathan's hand, gets him to do the same, and they shake
• Damia and Ariah meet up
• Damia wants to look for spell scrolls, and we both want a map
• We head to the general store, but see a small potion shop on the way, with the name Third Eye Potion
• We head in
• The shopkeep is a half-human, half-elf. Their skin is dark, and their hair is white(?)
• She is kind of starstruck since we're new (and probably since Damia is also not human)
• She stammers a bit
• Damia asks for a map of Barovia
• She doesn't have a lot, and they're quite valuable. About 75 gp
• She made the map himself, just walking about and smellin the flowers
• She seems very practical, and like someone who likes to be out in nature
• She doesn't have any healing potions right now, but he can make us some by tomorrow
• Healing potions are 50 gp
• We decide to buy the map, and not the potions
• She hands us an old and well used map
• Damia asks about a compass (would be cartographer's tools), it is 15 gp
• Damia asks him to look at a wooden figurine we found
• She believes the woman with antlers it is depicting is the Fane of the Forest, with is a myth about how these lands were created
• It is a children's toy
• There was the Fane of the Mountain, Swamp Lands and the Forest. Three ladies who ruled the land before Strahd came
• The shopkeep is called Anya Trevali
• We meet Jonathan, who says that we shouldn't have spent that much on a map when he could have gotten us one for free by talking
• Ariah rolls really good insight, Damia crit fails
• We head back to the inn to find Ireena at the bar
• Ireena tells us that she saw Gob in the town square, he was selling wolf pelts
• We head to our room to talk more quietly, bringing food with us
• Danika Martikov asks Jonathan if he will be performing tonight. She suggests that he perform with the regular musician
• They've already sold tickets
• Jonathan tries to argue that since they are earning money on him, the rest of his friends "excluding Richard" shouold not have to pay for the room
• She might have a better offer if we're staying permanently
• She also wants him to find out why they're not receiving wine from their supplier anymore
• Jonathan thinks he will be able to fix their problem
• The winery is south west from here, following the road across Luna River. When we come to a big fork in the road, we should see a sign left to Wizards of the Wine
• They will be out of wine in a week, and then there will not be any performances
• Damia asks about payment and Danila offers a lenghty stay at the inn and monetary reward (she will have to talk to her husband)
• They have sent people there, but haven't heard back
• The people running the winery are in family with her
• When discussing when the performance should be, Danila mentions that <someone> wouldn't let him play at his tavern
• In the room we tell Ireena about our day
• Ireena insists to bandage Damia's wounds
• Ireena has heard strange tales of Krezk, of strange beast but no one getting hurt
• Ariah brings up that Ireena should probably not join the dinner
• Ireena says that it would be considered very rude of her not to attend
• She has been there before (before Strahd took an interest in her)
• It is not unusual that we're asked to dinner
• Ireena hasn't seen or heard of any cats in connection to Lady Wachter
• Ariah asks about Lady Wachter in general
• She is a nice lady, with a lot of businesses in town
• Ireena has spent the day trying to reconnect with other noble houses
• They have invited her to a meeting of the Bookclub 
• They told her it was an enlightening experience, and that they read a lot of important text
• Jonathan says that he thinks the bookclub is a cult
• We convince her not to go
• A lady at the tailor was the one who invited her, and spoke warmly about it
• Jonathan asks if she can get one of us an invite instead
• Damia asks if Ireena can attend one meeting and leave behind a strand of Damia's hair so she can see through it
• Ireena accepts, but Ariah protests, saying Ireena is a prime sacrifice if the club is actually a cult
• The wife of the burgermeister, Lydia Vallakovich recognized Ireena. She confided that he is violent and illtempered these days
• Ireena will try to get on the wife's good side, we agree
• We decide to get some rest before the dinner
• Damia takes a look at Ariah's spell scrolls, but is unable to use them
• Ariah does her ritual
• We hear a knock on the door. It is Ernst

Plan

Go to the dinner. Be careful of potential cult stuff. Don't trust cats.

Report Date

27 Sep 2022