The Skin Thief--Barovia
General Summary
You arrived at the cottage of the cut-wife, Ianna, which had a strong smell like something or someone had died in it. Vanya confessed to Rose that this was shaking him more than anything else the Dark Man had ever done; all of his other actions had been about Vanya's life after the deal, but literally hitting him where he lived was another matter entirely.
You knocked on the door, and a girl of about sixteen opened it, which took Vanya aback--he knew Ianna by reputation, and she was supposed to be up there in years (she unsurprisingly had a reputation for being a witch). The girl introduced herself in broken Balok as Ianna's assistant. Vanya noticed that her accent sounded a lot like Rose speaking Sylvan; he pointed it out to Rose, but when she spoke Sylvan to the girl, the girl got a panicky look and insisted that she didn't understand what Rose was saying. Vanya asked if Sofia Albescu was there, and the girl said that she was and that Ianna was out gathering herbs but would be back soon. She kept switching back and forth between calling the cut-wife "Ianna" and "Anushka." She said that if you wanted to go in and see Sofia, you'd have to leave Constance outside, since she was large and frightening and possibly had germs. You agreed, and she led you inside. She tried to get you to walk in front of you down a hallway, but when you refused to get cornered, she led you into a larger room and attacked you with giant claws. You took her down without too much trouble despite everyone's dice hating them tonight. When Rose's summoned wolverine slashed at her with its claws, her skin split open and fell to the ground, revealing a hideous wolf-like monster beneath.
Vanya left the creature bleeding out on the floor. After searching every room in the house, he found a root cellar and started running down the stairs. As he ran, he suddenly could no longer hear the sound of his own footsteps. He went into the cellar and found a cage holding an old woman who was half-starved, bruised, and missing an eye.
(I stole the phrase "cut-wife" from Penny Dreadful, so I may as well steal her picture too. Except with only one eye.)
She started trying to shout and rattle the cage bars when she saw Vanya, but no sound came out. Several skinned bodies hung from the ceiling on the other side of the cellar, and empty skins hung on pegs like coats. None of the skins were Sofia's. After searching for a minute, Vanya found a key, got Ianna out of the cage, and took her upstairs.
She was understandably incoherent, but you were able to get out of her that this Anushka person had torn out her eye, then kept her locked in that cellar with a silence spell on it for the better part of a month and was using Ianna's shape to prey on the desperate girls who came to her cottage. There were at least three skin thieves working for Anushka--it was hard for Ianna to tell, since she usually saw them in their stolen skins--but Anushka herself was able to make herself actually look like Ianna, so whatever she was, she didn't rely on wearing people's skin. Ianna didn't recognize Sofia's name, but Vanya said something that clicked and made her ask if Sofia was "the demon's girl." When Vanya affirmed that she was, Ianna said that Anushka had wanted her for something and had taken her to her home in the swamp. She'd said something about wanting both Ianna and Sofia for something at the full moon.
You gave Ianna some money and told her to go to one of the nearby villages, since she wouldn't be safe in a place where Anushka knew to look for her. Rose Wild Shaped into an eagle and soared up to get the lay of the land. She got a natural 20 on her Survival check, so you are absolutely golden for anything involving finding this swamp (although now that I've been dorkily researching high-altitude wetlands, I know that Barovia's climate would make it would be a fen or a bog rather than a swamp, which Rose would also know but would be much too kind to tell Ianna at a time like this). It's at a bit of a higher elevation than you are, along a ridge where some of the headwaters go stagnant. Rose spotted two of the skin thieves prowling through the undergrowth before stiffening and darting off into the nearby trees.
You made your way toward the bog, still not knowing what had befallen Sofia and why . . .
(Mountain bog pictures for reference)
Character(s) interacted with
Ianna, Skin Thief
Related Reports
Report Date
06 May 2022
Primary Location
Secondary Location
Related Characters
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