Vanya's hometown--Barovia
General Summary
We opened with a flashback. Sofia Albescu, happily post-coital, asked Vanya to play her something cheerful—not the song about the willow, it made her too sad. Vanya played for her but was distracted, seeing as how he’d just sold his soul and all. Sofia said that with a talent like his, they could go anywhere; Vanya said that yes, he was leaving, and Sofia misinterpreted and asked where they were going, because she was ready to leave Grigori. Vanya said that he couldn’t take her with him, that he was sorry, and that she should just forget about him. Sofia, realizing what this conversation was, demanded to know what Vanya had thought this relationship was—given Grigori’s temper, she took a risk every time she came to his bed. Vanya said that she should think of it as a pointless fling if that helped her let go of him and that she should absolutely leave Grigori, and Sofia asked exactly how he expected her to get by when she went to a strange village alone. She confessed that she was in love with him and had been for a long time, and Vanya told her that he was in debt to a very powerful and dangerous person who would hurt both of them if he stayed. Sofia kicked him out with a bit of thrown crockery.
Back in the present, you set out to look for Sofia, but there was no sign that she’d made it anywhere near Krezk . It seemed like your best option was to go back to Vanya’s home village, Barsana, and look for clues. Vanya desperately wanted to avoid going back to his village, since he was pretty sure everyone there thought of him as a drunken, womanizing ne’er-do-well who was probably dead in a ditch somewhere, but he thought that maybe you could duck in and out.
You arrived at Barsana two days later. Vanya was greeted by his friend Bela, who wanted to know how everything was in the big city and remarked that Vanya’s mother talked about him all the time. Vanya was surprised and pleased that his mother might actually be proud of him and decided that he probably did owe it to her to visit after they found out what had happened to Sofia. (Cue the GMly sigh of relief at the “after they found out what had happened to Sofia” part, because I did NOT have anything planned for that.)
You both went to Sofia’s house, where you heard faint thumping sounds coming from their bedroom. Vanya sneaked up to the window and saw Grigori surrounded by some other woman’s clothes, wearing a cloth over his eyes and sleeping off the previous night. Disgusted, Vanya cast sleep, then you sneaked in to look around. You found that most of Sofia’s things were missing, although not the baby clothes she’d made. She’d left behind most of the tokens that Vanya had given her, as well as a familiar-looking coin (which Vanya pocketed). You also found several candles that were used in Morninglord worship. Vanya knew that Sofia wasn’t particularly religious—she went to solstice services, but that was it—so this might be a sign that she was confiding in the local priest, Brother Vaclav. You set off for the church, and Vanya heroically refrained from drawing a dick on Grigori’s face on his way out.
When you went outside, Constance was surrounded by children, who were delighted to see Vanya—he was the cool fun storytelling guy, and they hadn’t had any cool fun stories in a while. He entertained them with sanitized versions of your exploits while Rose befriended a goatherd’s daughter and her bread-loving goat. As the kids left, one of boys asked Vanya if he knew what had happened to Sofia, since Vanya and Sofia were friends. Vanya said he didn’t and asked if the boy did. The boy said that he didn’t, and that Sofia had left the same day that the cool Carnival came to town and missed almost everything. So, quick timeline clarification (this is the same as the timeline you worked out in session but it’s good to have it written down):
Unknown time ago (it doesn’t sound like it’s been more than two weeks): Vanya’s “boyar patron” started meeting with Sofia
About a week ago, just in time for the Carnival flyers to show up: “boyar patron” skips town
Four days ago: Carnival arrives, Sofia skips town later the same day
You went to visit Brother Vaclav’s church, and he was, at best, icily polite to Vanya (not terribly surprising) and equally frosty to Rose (much more surprising, seeing as how she’s never been a womanizing drunk who broke the heart of his congregant). He told you that no, he didn’t know where Sofia was, and the best thing Vanya could possibly do was to get out of her life for good. Vanya said that he would as soon as he found her safely, but he wanted to help her because she’d never made it to Krezk. Vaclav was surprised and concerned by this, but still reluctant to help Vanya, saying some bizarre things about how Vanya needed to take his wife and child and leave. Eventually, you got out of him that Sofia had confided in him with all the terrible things Vanya’s “wealthy boyar patron” had told her. The patron said that he'd told Vanya he would happily take Sofia and the baby under his protection, but Vanya had refused. Vanya had moved on; he had a new woman in his life now, and they had a child together, and he adored them both.
Vanya did a decent job at hiding his outrage and begged Vaclav to tell him anything he might know. Vaclav thought for a minute and said the only thing he could think of was that Sofia might have gone to the cut-wife first; she'd told him that she didn't know if she could start a new life and take care of a baby at the same time. She was far enough along that she might still need to recuperate at the cut-wife's cottage, or she might have just left and thus not beaten Alexei Petrovich to Krezk. He gave you directions to the cottage.
When Vaclav remarked that he hoped Vanya's patron took care of Sofia despite Vanya's obvious indifference, Rose couldn't keep quiet anymore and warned him that the "wealthy boyar" was a vile deceiver who used lies and half-truths to lead people into misery. Something he said made Vaclav conclude that he worked for Strahd, and you happily took that and ran with it, saying that if he came back, Vaclav should treat him as he would an agent of the count.
You headed toward the cut-wife's cottage, hoping there was an explanation for this that didn't involve Sofia bring dead or worse...
Rewards Granted
Character(s) interacted with
Bela
Brother Vaclav
Grigori Albescu
Village children
Related Reports
Report Date
21 Apr 2022
Primary Location
Secondary Location
Related Characters
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments