Let's Give the Demon Baby an Axe!--Barovia

General Summary

While Rose was having magical treant-healing adventures, Vanya wanted to check in with Julien about what had happened to Ilya; all he knew was that Ilya had abruptly handed him over to Casimir instead. Julien started out by sullenly remarking on how dumb Ilya was, then got extremely defensive when Vanya asked if he'd done anything to hurt him. He admitted that he'd forced Ilya to let him stay with Casimir instead of asking, but insisted that it was because he knew Ilya wouldn't agree on his own; Vanya and Rose had asked him to watch Julien, and he hero-worshipped Vanya and Rose, so by gumbo, he was going to watch Julien. Vanya could tell that Julien was holding something back and pressed a little harder. Julien admitted that he'd wanted to practice his powers on Ilya, because he'd taken a peek at Ilya's future and it wasn't going to be anything important. It would be better for him to learn what he could do on Ilya so that if they ever got attacked again, he would know. Vanya said that a normal life could still have value, Julien pointed out that Vanya wouldn't be there if he believed that, and Vanya essentially said "kiddo, I have never held myself up as a role model."
This did give Vanya the idea of upping Julien's martial instruction, though; it would give him a mode of defense other than his magic, it would be his bladed security blanket, and it would teach him the discipline he'd need if he ever did try to advance his magical studies. He asked Casimir to teach him how to fight with an axe; Casimir was leery, but agreed.
Rose, meanwhile, said her goodbyes to Emyr , who told her that he was glad her experiences in Borca hadn't entirely ruined her trust in others and that he was coming to believe that in her case, that trust was a strength. This was downright mushy for Emyr, so Rose was a bit uncomfortable with it, but it definitely made her want to spend time with Julien. She came back and found Julien throwing axes at a crude dummy in Casimir's yard. I'm recording large chunks of verbatim dialog here for posterity, because I am dead.
Vanya: Aim for the center of mass, sweetie! Headshots are cool, but don't get fancy! That's all right, champ, good shot . . .
Rose, sidling up with the greatest expression of wide-eyed innocence she could muster: What's going on?
Julien: Casimir's teaching me to throw an axe!
Rose: Really? Was this Casimir's idea?
Julien: No, it was Uncle Vanya's. Casimir didn't want to, but Uncle Vanya talked him into it.
Rose: Did he? How very interesting!
Vanya explained his reasoning to Rose, though, and she agreed that it made sense. Vanya also told her that Julien wanted to practice his powers, which she was much less supportive of; she wasn't sure if there was any way that he could use his powers in a way that wasn't evil. Vanya pointed out that he used enchantment all the time, and Rose protested that it wasn't the same; Vanya said that there couldn't be anything wrong with dominating someone coming at him with a knife, but there was a fine line between that and what the vampyres or Bianca did. You couldn't think of anyone who might instruct him in the ethical use of enchantment, but agreed to add that to the many projects you were juggling. Vanya knew that Vallaki had a reputation for having a larger community of arcane scholars than most of Barovia, and it was on your route (Rose's father's house was near Vallaki, and you would pass through it on the way to Hazlan and Darkon), so you decided that might be worth investigating.
You spent a few days resting and resupplying, and as Vanya was getting his shoes repaired, he ran into Alexei Petrovich, Sofia Albescu's brother. Alexei punched him, asking if Vanya had left town because he knew the baby was his. Vanya told him, truthfully, that he hadn't known Sofia was pregnant and that he'd left because she would be better off without him, which he was sure Alexei would agree with. Alexei said that Vanya's rich, handsome boyar patron was just like him--he'd come in, turned Sofia's head with all sorts of promises of helping her, then left town without a word right before that carnival came through. Sofia had told Alexei that she was going to Krezk, but she'd been missing for four days and he couldn't find hide nor hair of her. Vanya promised that he would find her, one way or another.
He told Rose what was going on, and you asked Casimir to watch Julien for a few more days while you worked things out. No investigations happening yet, since that was at 11:25 and that's a perfect stopping point, so we'll pick up next time with any legwork you want to do in Krezk before you go!

Character(s) interacted with

Ilya Casimir Alexei Petrovich

Related Reports

Previous session: Curing Thornroot--Barovia

Report Date

12 Apr 2022

Primary Location

Krezk

Related Characters

• Emyr
• Julien