Session 18 - Cults and Conspiracies

General Summary

(Simon har dårlig nett)

• Back at the inn we prepare for finally sleeping
  • Ariah agrees with Richard that the party deserves an explanaition about what happened with her wings, but tells him that we should wait until tomorrow
  • Damia asks the party for salt. No one has any, so she goes gets some from the cook, explaining that she is going to make salt water
  • She mixes salt water into the bottle she got from the witches request, before going back to the room
  • Ariah does her ritual
  • While sleeping, she has a dream
    • Ariah finds herself alone in a dark, misty forest. the scent of fresh rain still lingering. you’re alone, but can't shake the feeling that you’re being watched. you hear a branch snap, and of to your left side catch a glimpse of a large shadowy figure lurking behind some far away trees. its long but slender limbs pushing trees to the side. The creature seems to be creeping closer as two big glowing blue eyes remain tracked on you. and Ariah can feel its intense gaze on her back as you try to run, but you’re frozen in fear. its been years, but you have felt that gaze before. You’re reminded of the dread that followed terrored screams, seeing fire and destruction around you as the creature of shadow now stands mere feet away from you. you look around, but there is no Van Richten to save you. “I see you now, my champion”. as it grabs around you and crushes you with its long root like fingers, you jolt awake, gasping for air, relieved it was just a dream... or was it?
    • It is currently halfway through the rest
    • A dark vein goes from her heart down to her left wrists
    • She spends the rest of the night praying and doing her ritual
  • Damia is first to wake, and is concerned seeing Ariah tiredly doing her rituals
    • Ariah explains that it will make more sense after the explanation she promised
    • What she says for now is that she had a bad dream she hopes didn't mean anything
    • She also shows Damia the dark marking
    • Damia investigates and uses Detect Magic
    • The vein is glowing with necromancy, especially the heart
    • When explaining this to Ariah, she notices that her eyes are darker, like her pupils have grown
• The rest of the party wakes up, and Ariah explains her backstory (see Ariah Nekrani)
  • She also explains about her amulet and the rituals
  • Damia mentions that she used to be higher up in The Order of the Gauntlet, before failing one too many missions
• We eat breakfast (Jonathan eats in the bar, the rest of us eat in their room)
  • There is no one else in the bar, as people are tired/wounded/dead
  • Jonathan tries his best to look strong and unbothered, and gets an extra big portion
  • He leaves 5 gp, which the barmaid understands as payment for the next two days of having the room
• On the way to Lady Wachter we take a detour to the east(?) of the city to look for the flying glass wagon
  • A lot of tradesmen are looking at the wreakage in confusion
  • Two horses are dead, and all the spare glass in the city is broken
  • Damia collects a handful of glass shards
  • Around the city, around a hundred corpses has been collected in carts
• We reach the mansion of Lady Wachter
  • This part of the city is less damaged
  • Ernst Larnak opens the door for us. He looks tired and is now carrying a sword
  • We're led to the living room were the Lady is waiting, and are offered the potato delicacies
  • Damia's warning gave them just enough time to lock themselves in before the vampires reached them
  • Lady Wachter tells us that the town has been informed that the town should take care of the dead today, then tomorrow is the festival
  • When we tell her that Izek Strazni will be coming back, she tells us that he won't be a problem anymore
  • She gets more and more fanatic, talking about vengance on the rulers of Vallaki
  • She is extatic about the prophecy coming true
    • As a reminder: "First, there would be the coming of an outsider to Vallaki, foreign to this land. The coming of this outsider would mark the beginning of a new age in Vallaki. The coming of the outsider would also bring a great ruin. A purge on the town like none other. But when the ruin was done, the blood of the outsider would shed sunlight on Vallaki yet again."
  • We're given our reward (100 gp each)
  • Richard starts making a stink about not everyone contributing as much
  • Jonathan and Ariah tries to argue that everyone did something valuable, and Jonathan points out that we shouldn't discuss this in front of Lady Wachter
  • Damia stands up when Richard points out that it is a theme that things go wrong when Damia goes into houses alone. She calmy gives him a gold ring, apologises and tells him to shut up now
  • We're then given permission to look around the library, "just beware the cats"
    • Cats keep crawling on our backs, and Damia blows them away with Gust
    • The wind knocks a book to the ground, with the title "Diary of Lovina Wachter", Damia starts reading it
    • Ariah finds a secret room with some very old books, a couple of scrolls and some pouches. There is also a locked chest (Seb crit on loot)
      • There are four copies of a often used book called "The Devil We Know"
      • Ariah warns the others that this book claims that Strahd is the physical manifestation of Lathander the Morninglord
      • Ernst comes up the stairs to ask what the commotion was. Jonathan blames his cat allergy and convinces him to go downstairs with Damia to get us water, and to not come into the room afterwards since he is emberrased about the mess he made
      • Jonathan then goes to try to pick the lock on the chest, after knocking on it to verify that there are no vampires inside
      • The lock is easily opened, revealing: A very dusty and scary looking book, 62 gp and 30 gp with a sillhouette of Strahd (Strahd-coins), a few deeds to land on the side of the lake, a bone smoking-pipe resembling a dragon head
      • Ariah gets the book, Jonathan takes the other items and the normal coins are distributed between everyone but Ariah (Damia hasn't been asked yet)
      • Jonathan locks and closes the chest. He then uses Prestidigitation to hide our footprints and make himself look allergic
    • On distraction duty, Damia asks Ernst about the name on the book she found
      • It is the original Lady of the house, hundreds(?) of years ago
      • She is denied keeping the important book, so she copies it into one of her blank books
• After we leave the Wachter Estate, Richard seeks out a man isolated in a shady alley
  • He wants to know about the festival
  • They walk through town, something happens in the town square and all is well for another week
  • During this festival, a sun will be burned to symbolize the coming of the Morninglord
  • Richard wants to know if something fishy is going on with this festival, and tries to bribe him with a gold coin (crit fails)
  • The man wants more gold to 'remember'
  • Richard offers another gold coin, and the man find is acceptable and leads him deeper into the alley
  • He tells him that there will be a revolt tomorrow
  • When the man doesn't want to tell him why he thinks festivals are bad, so Richard offers the gold ring Damia gave him
  • The man explains that the food is bad and the speeches too long and boring. If you're not present you will be put to death
  • Richard then asks if it will be bad to sit next to the Burgomeister during the festival (as we will be). The man says that it is, and leaves to not be associated with him
• The rest of us go to investigate the coffinmaker's house, with Richard catching up to us on the way
• On the way, Jonathan asks Damia if she wants 20 gp. She declines
• The door is wide open
• Ariah casts Light on one of Richard's equipment
• We see the symbol that appeared on the door are Damia was leaving
• Damia uses Detect Magic to study the divination magic she previously saw from it. There is no longer any magic on it
• Damia mentions this to the rest of us, and believes it was what woke the vampires up
• Jonathan looks through the coffin tools to see if the coffinmaker is better than him. He is not, and is just mass producing the coffins
• The rest of us head upstairs to the vampire room
• Damia explains the enchantement magic she felt from the boxes. There is no longer any magic left here either
• Damia tells us about the diary she found
• Strahd's half-brother was magically(?) put to sleep and put into a box. The box was given to her, and she head his voice from it
• This means it might have been Lady Fiona Wachter that put the vampire boxes here and orchastrated the removal of the bones
• We're unsure how this affects our next actions, but we will warn Ireena
• The book also mentions that Strahd had a lover named Tatiana, who threw herself off the castle walls (?). But Strahd alludes that she is still with him
• But we know that Strahd calls Ireena Kolyana Tatiana, and theorise about the possibility of soul transfer/vampirism/he's crazy
• Damia tells us about the money she left behind last time. There is 30 gp left + one Strahd-coin
• She gives the rest of us 10 gp each
• Damia also steals the food from here, giving one ration each to Jonathan and Ariah, and taking some cheese for herself

Plan

Warn Ireena about the fanatical Strahd worshippers. Warn her so she is not killed during the revolution for helping during the festival.
Maybe confront Lady Wachter and ask if she is responsible for the vampire boxes and bones.
Jonathan has beef with Rictavio the Bard, and is planning revenge during the festival.
Long-time plans: Richard is planning to challenge Strahd to a chess match of dominance...

Report Date

01 Mar 2023