The Curse of Ashington Manor--Barovia

General Summary

The two of you were staying at the Painted Wagon in Krezk. The innkeeper, Piotr, seemed distraught, and when you asked why, you discovered that a group of local toughs had been throwing their weight around and demanding protection money. Vanya knew these guys and also knew that they were nothing to worry about, and Piotr said that he'd always thought so, too, but when he'd refused to pay up, they'd kidnapped his daughter Marta and taken her to their hideout at the ruins of Ashington Manor. Ashington Manor was just over the Borcan border, so the local authorities were staying out of it; they weren't going to risk starting an international incident to save some random halfbreed innkeeper's daughter. You agreed to rescue her.
Before you left, Piotr's Vistani wife Elena pulled you aside and told you that Ashington Manor was under a terrible curse, and no Vistana would ever willingly go there. She explained that fifty-one years ago, a 17-year-old Vistani girl named Rozaleen had stolen her mother's tarokka deck and run away from her tribe. That same day, she had been kidnapped by Lord Herod Ashington and his friends for the night's entertainment. They took her back to the manor and forced her to perform a tarokka reading for them, and for all six of Ashington's friends, the spread had been precisely the same and had indicated that they stood on the precipice of a dark and terrible fate. Ashington grew more and more enraged as the readings continued, believing she was trying to frighten them with tricks. As she performed Ashington's reading--which was different, and indicated that they could all be safe if he took mercy on her--he became enraged and struck her down before she could place the final card. With her dying breath, she cursed him, saying, "No one will leave this house alive until I do, and you will never leave until your fortune has been told." By the next morning, Ashington had been so consumed by rage and paranoia that he had killed his friends, one of whom managed to strike a fatal blow to him in his final moments.
For the next 17 years, everything seemed fine, and the manor was purchased and converted into a somewhat disreputable inn, Jack and Queens. However, on the 17th anniversary of Rozaleen's death, the innkeeper had gone mad and slaughtered everyone inside. A doctor came and converted it to a sanitarium, but 17 years to the day after the massacre in the inn, the inmates burned the asylum down while trying to escape. Ashington Manor was a ruin now. And tonight was the 17th anniversary of the asylum's destruction...
You went to the manor expecting to see a ruin, but instead saw an opulent mansion. When you went inside, however, the manor shifted at several times--sometimes it was a manor, sometimes an inn, sometimes an asylum, and sometimes a ruin. The man in charge, whether he was Herod Ashington, the innkeeper, the head doctor at the asylum, or the leader of the bandits, always looked exactly the same (Vanya, having seen the leader of the bandits, knew that he no longer looked like himself so did his three male and three female cronies. As you explored the house in its different time periods, you learned that the mass slaughter was always precipitated by the Herod Ashington surrogate murdering a young girl. In the inn, the innkeeper strangled a wealthy young woman and stole her jewels, then killed his cronies and all the witnesses in the inn when one of his henchmen tried to steal the jewels for himself; in the asylum, the doctor murdered a woman who had come to visit her mother and seen how poorly the inmates were treated, and the mother had led a riot that had killed everyone in the building. You knew that if you didn't break the curse, Marta would be next.
Using Seamus' tracking abilities, you found the bodies of three women in various states of decay buried in the cellar. The oldest body had had a tarokka card shoved into her mouth. You removed the card, took it upstairs to the main hall (which was now the manor in its full splendor), and were able to let Rozaleen finish the reading. The house became a ruin again, and you saved Marta from the bandits. Rozaleen's ghost asked you to take the tarokka deck back to her tribe.
You took Marta home and asked Elena if she could give you a reading to find a surviving member of Rozaleen's tribe. Elena didn't have the Sight, but was still able to use the cards because they were imbued with such powerful magic. Her reading directed you to Madam Eva in the village of Barovia; she wasn't part of Rozaleen's family, but she could point you toward them.
Armed with this knowledge and knowing there was safety in numbers, you found a trade caravan that was headed for Barovia and joined up . . .

Character(s) interacted with

Elena, Piotr, and Marta--Krezk innkeeper family (allies)
Dagger--bandit (deceased)
Rozaleen--Vistani ghost
Lots and lots of curse ghosts!

Related Reports

Next session: Werebats!

Report Date

28 Apr 2020

Primary Location

Barovia

Secondary Location

Krezk