Session 41
General Summary
the lost soul
Sintyavr 28th
(8:00 AM)
Erasmus' Plea- The party is awoken in the night by the sound of a window slamming open and the feel of a cold draft filling the room.
- Closer inspection reveals that one of the windows has flown open, seemingly of its own accord.
- Vincenzo notices that the panes of the windows looking into the room have frosted over, and that everyone's breath now mists in the chill air.
- Shortly afterward, several items in the room begin levitating into the air, and the shutters to the room’s windows begin rattling.
- As they do, an invisible finger begins inscribing a message in the frost on one of the windows: Help Victor. After a moment, it then adds—almost hesitantly—Please.
- Asking for the spirit’s name, it writes its name in the frost: Erasmus.
- Agreeing to carry out his request, the items then fall to the ground and the shutters stop rattling, the frost slowly evaporates.
- The party makes their way to return to the Burgomaster's where Victor quickly whisks them upstairs.
- Describing Erasmus's visitation to Victor, he glances at the mirror in his workroom and says, sounding hurt, “I thought I told you I had this under control!”
- When the party admits they could not find Khazan's staff, let alone any artifacts of note Victor's face softens
- He reluctantly tells the companions that Stella and Erasmus have decided that he needs help, and that they might not be entirely wrong.
- He then asks you all if you would be willing to assist him, Stella, and Erasmus—the spirit that you encountered in the Blue Water Inn—with a particular task.
- Victor first introduces you to Stella’s spirit through her reflection in what he calls the spirit mirror. Stella greets them with a shy wave, but cannot be heard.
- Victor explains that her soul is trapped in the Ethereal Plane, and though the mirror reflects shapes from the other plane, it does not transmit sound.
- Victor then shares the following information:
- Three months ago, Victor and his friend, Stella Wachter, heard that the Devil Strahd had returned to the land and agreed that escape was imperative. Using knowledge that Victor had gleaned from an old spellbook, they began construction of a teleportation circle that would allow them to free themselves from the valley.
- Ten weeks ago, they’d finally finished a prototype circle. After two experiments involving undead rabbits that Victor animated using bones purchased from Szoldar and Yevgeni, Stella insisted on volunteering as a live, human trial. However, the test went horribly wrong—the circle failed to teleport Stella’s body anywhere, and the backlash exposed her soul to the Ethereal Plane.
- During the brief moments that her spirit was within the Ethereal Plane, Stella was attacked by a dark shadow, whose claws severed her soul from her body. She would have died had Erasmus not spirited her away to safety.
- After two weeks of worrying that he had accidentally somehow destroyed his friend’s mind, Victor learned that one of his parents’ servants had seen the ghost of a young woman reflected in a mirror in his mother’s parlor.
- Victor learned that the mirror was a spirit mirror that reflected both the Material and Ethereal Planes. Using it, he was able to see and communicate with Stella’s wandering spirit—first through gestures and crude lip-reading, and eventually through handsigns learned from a book in his father’s library.
- Since then, Victor and Stella have been working hard to restore her soul to her body, but nothing has worked. In the meantime, Stella has had to conceal herself from the many wandering spirits that roam the Border Ethereal, many of which would harm her if they could.
- Stella feels like she’s slowly losing memories of her life, even as her form in the Ethereal Plane is slowly growing more insubstantial. Sometimes, she can’t tell whether she’s herself or someone else; when that happens, she feels as though a part of her is curled up in a warm and wet place, with a comforting heartbeat echoing through the darkness.
- To make matters worse, the tether between Stella’s shoulder blades that once connected her soul to her body is slowly growing shorter, leaving Victor fearing that she has little more than a week left before she disappears forever. (The shorter it gets, the more frequent Stella’s visions become, and the foggier her memory grows.)
- Neither Victor, Stella, nor Erasmus know the identity of the spirit that severed Stella’s soul from her body. However, Victor can inform the players that Erasmus has seen it haunting the Ethereal Plane around Vallaki numerous times since its arrival—seemingly searching for Stella—and has identified it as a gallows speaker.
- Erasmus, who learned of the creatures while reading his father’s notes, has provided Victor with all of the information about gallows speakers.
- Asked why they haven’t sought others’ help, Victor stubbornly insists that he doesn’t trust Lady Fiona Wachter; that his own father, the Baron, would be worse than useless; and that he and Stella are perfectly capable of solving her problem on their own.
- Confronted with the fact that he and Stella haven’t been capable of solving her problem on their own, Victor’s face crumples, and he briefly looks to be on the verge of tears as he struggles to find a retort. Vincenzo shows mercy and allows this matter to move forward.
- To guide Stella’s soul back into her body, he needs to find a way to enter the Ethereal Plane in his own, mortal body and perform an altered version of the teleportation ritual from the other side of the veil.
- There is a spell—etherealness—that would allow him to enter the Ethereal Plane using his own power, but despite his best efforts, he has been unable to master it thus far, and is unlikely to be able to cast it before Stella’s soul disappears into the Deep Ethereal.
- In the book Ethereal Entities: Denizens of the Unseen Realm, written by the archmage Mordenkainen, Victor learned of a ritual that can replicate the effects of the etherealness spell for up to nine creatures. The ritual must be performed on the night of the full moon, and requires the heartstone of a night hag as a material component.
- Victor asks the players to visit the refugee camp and investigate the night hag’s presence.
- While Stella has only seen the hag in the Ethereal Plane thus far, Victor strongly suspects that her interest in it extends into the Material Plane as well.
- While the players investigate, Victor will continue his research into the etherealness ritual and the ritual to return Stella’s soul to her body.
- Expressing an interest in it, Victor is glad to lend them his copy of Ethereal Entities to read
- Click here to see the important bits: Ethereal Entities
Past Vallaki's gates lies a cluster of ramshackle tents huddled against the wall, as though seeking shelter beneath the looming silhouette of the town's palisade walls. The tents themselves are laid out in a simple two-sided thoroughfare, with crude wooden barricades and muddy ditches beyond the far side facing out against the dark forest beyond. Through gaps in the threadbare canvas, you can see crude wooden pallets, makeshift bedrolls, and the occasional battered cooking pot. Small, low-burning cookfires dot the grimy narrow avenue, and piles of sticks and half-rotted logs rest haphazardly beside them. Dozens of people, their bodies gaunt and their faces drawn, move slowly about the camp. Their eyes are sunken and hollow, their clothes hanging loose on their thin frames. A few of them huddle about the campfires, bodies hunched against the chill air and hands outstretched for the meager warmth.
- As the party enters the camp, they are soon warily greeted by Emeric, a melancholy older man with graying hair, and Magda, a grief-stricken young woman with deep circles under their eyes.
- While the camp doesn’t have any official leadership, Emeric and Magda were part of the initial wave of refugees from Barovia, and have pioneered the effort to welcome and organize the newcomers following Strahd’s siege.
- Magda is briefly hopeful that the players are servants of Baron Vallakovich and that they have come to invite the refugees into Vallaki—a hope that Emeric, pointing to the players’ strange appearances, soon disabuses her of.
- Emeric and Magda are cold toward Ireena, and are unwilling to accept her offers of help. They blame her, as well as Ismark "the Lesser" and the late Burgomaster of Barovia, for their failure to protect them from Strahd's awakening and invasion. Some refugees recall a superstition that red-haired Barovian woman bring misfortune, and suggest that Ireena herself has brought a curse upon their people. None have any wish to deal with her further.
- Emeric and Magda share the following general information about the camp:
Franz’s Tent
- The first Barovian refugees arrived at Vallaki's gates three months ago, but were barred from entering. When they attempted to breach the gates by force, the guards summoned a man they called Izek, who bore a twisted devil's arm and conjured fire to drive the refugees back.
- Since then, the refugees have set up camp outside the town's walls, clustering together for protection and warmth. They've managed to secure some minor necessities, such as the tents, by bribing the guards at the gates, but have been unable to persuade the guards to allow them entry or to even invite the town's Baron to discuss their plight.
- Swarms of bats and packs of wolves have plagued the camp each night since they've arrived. Thankfully, no one has died yet, but several refugees have been wounded.
- Due to losses they suffered on the road and the threat of the Devil in Castle Ravenloft, the refugees are unwilling to risk the journey back home, instead hoping to wait until the Baron sees reason and allows them to enter the walls.
- Roughly one-quarter of the refugees have become addicted to "dream pastries," a foodstuff sold by the peddler Morgantha. These refugees seek an escape from the misery and despair of their situation.
- Asking about the night hag, Emeric and Magda exchange glances and inform the party that their description matches that of a recurring nightmare that Franz, another refugee, has been suffering for the past two nights.
- They are glad to take the party to see him, but warn them that Franz, a widower, has recently lost his children as well and is likely still grieving or disturbed.
- Magda further adds that Franz has suffered from a strange wasting disease ever since the nightmares first began, and offers her hope that the players may be able to treat him.
- They lead the companions to a small, lonely tent set up at the end of the camp’s muddy avenue.
Within this sagging, cramped tent lie three stained pallets, two of which are child-sized. An old and patched stuffed rabbit lies across the closest pallet, its black button eyes staring sightlessly into the air. A young woman kneels in the mud beside the full-size pallet, clutching a bundle of wilted herbs in one fist and holding a damp rag over the forehead of a frail, gaunt-looking man lying across the pallet. The man's skin is pale and drenched in sweat, his clothes torn and ragged. Wispy, scraggled hair rises from his wrinkled scalp, while his face, illuminated beneath the dying light of a single, sputtering candle, is etched with exhaustion. A full moment passes before you realize that this ghost of a man is likely scarcely older than thirty.
- Upon seeing the party, Franz wheezes with laughter and asks whether they are demons sent by Mother Night, come to drag his soul into the Mists. Nyanka, his sister who was tending to him, apologizes for his behavior and mentions that he’s been delirious ever since the nightmares and sickness began.
- Asking Franz about the night hag, he first demands that Nyanka, Emeric, and Magda depart and leave him alone with the party. (None of the three other refugees mind this request.)
- Franz then share the following information with the players in a disturbing tone:
Three months ago, not long after his wife, Alana died of illness, Franz joined the first two-dozen refugees who left the village of Barovia for the fortified town of Vallaki to the west. Franz brought their two children—seven-year-old Fyodor and five-year-old Myrtle—with him to Vallaki, hoping to keep them safe from Strahd’s servants. A few weeks after arriving in the camp, Franz began to purchase dream pastries from the peddler Morgantha. The visions brought by these pastries allowed him to dream of Alana, returned to his arms as though she had never died at all. Franz purchased Morgantha’s dream pastries regularly, spending hours, then days lost in peaceful dreams. Eventually, however, his savings ran out, and Morgantha refused to sell him additional pastries—unless he paid a terrible price. Three nights ago, Franz led Fyodor and Myrtle down past the tree line at the edge of the woods. There, Morgantha placed the children into a magical sleep and stuffed them into a sack that she carried over her shoulder. In return, she promised Franz as many dream pastries as he could eat, each time she returned, for the rest of his life. As Morgantha turned to depart, Franz heard Myrtle cry out for him in her sleep, and immediately regretted what he had done. He demanded Morgantha return his children at once; when she laughed and told him their bargain was final, he attempted to take his children by force. With a wave of her hands, however, she put him to sleep—and when he awoke, she was nowhere to be found. Franz searched the woods for hours, but found no trace of Morgantha or his children. When he finally collapsed, exhausted, back in his tent at the camp, he suffered terrible nightmares, which have repeated each night since. In the nightmare, he is strapped to a millstone, its four arms raised above him. On his chest sits a gaunt, female figure with sallow, gray-blue skin, deep-set eyes, matted hair, small ram's horns, and a wide mouth of sharp, yellowed teeth, holding a twisted onyx-black stone against his forehead and whispering of damnation. In the background, he can hear Fyodor and Myrtle sobbing beyond his view, a pair of high-pitched cackles, and the sound of a windmill’s blades grinding in the wind. For the duration of the nightmare, Franz is paralyzed and unable to look away or even twitch a single muscle. Each time he awakens, his body wastes away before him. (Morgantha hasn't returned to the camp since the first nightmare.)
- With a croaking voice, Franz begs the players to save Fyodor and Myrtle from Morgantha’s clutches.
- While he believes that his current condition is a curse sent by the gods as punishment for his sins and welcomes the penance of death, he believes that his children don’t deserve the suffering that Morgantha is likely inflicting upon them.
- He can offer no gold and no treasure for their efforts—only his gratitude.
- Before the party leaves Franz’s tent, he grabs Ilyson and rasps, "I could feel it—the heart of the windmill—three black hearts beating as one in the millstone beneath me. The gnarled arm holds the key." He then collapses, falling into a deep, fitful sleep.
- Rumex who has become increasingly agitated and nervous, even more so than usual feels compelled to share just what is happening to him with the rest of the party, seeing as how this unlikely troupe is, like it or not, bound together by something greater.
The Misty Forest was where I saw the “Ghost” for the first time. I was with my brother Rheum, We had snuck away from our village to find the alter of Xan Yae. We got lost looking for it, my brother was pulling me by the hand. We were so small. He made me hide as soon as he felt a presence. We waited so quiet, so long... And slowly it moved into focus… I saw it. I saw the “Ghost”. Saw it with my own two eyes. It was lighting candles to Xan Yae at the alter… I was 12 or 13 years old. At 30 years old my brother Rheum and I were stolen out from under our mother’s nose by a band of hobgoblins, led by a powerful necromancer named Darg Grin. This Hobgoblin troop rounded up a group of wood elves from my village outside of Gillian’s Hill to hand us off to a pack of Maurezhis who eventally traded us down the line to Doresain (King of Ghouls). Watching my fellow elves being fed to the Maurezhi to build their strength for the mission of bringing the rest of us to Doresain was torture. We were taken through Underdark, as much as I can remember and driven like cattle. Doresain was creating and rallying together a great army of ghouls for some purpose, but I don’t know why. Doresain would communicate with other entities via scrying. I believe this is where my to fear mirrors (Catoptrophobia) began... “I don’t recognize the person in the mirror, I don’t trust it"… I kinda lost myself somewhere back there. Being enslaved for so long took its toll. I can only describe it a nightmare watching our ranks one by one be turned into ghouls. After, Aed Dike the famed Druid from The Grey Druids of Undermoor, saved a handful of us, we were connected to a Druidic Circle named Dusk Circle. It took this group of druids quite some time to remove the curse Doresain had put on us…Victor’s Plan, Part II
- Departing the refugee camp, Verce receives the following sending spell from Victor: “Did you find her? Come back to the attic. I have a plan.”
- When the party returns to Victor’s workroom at the Burgomaster’s mansion, he details what he found out in his research:
- There are two possible ways to obtain a heartstone from a night hag: willingly, or by force.
- To obtain the heartstone willingly, the players must likely bargain something of great value in exchange for a loan of the heartstone. Hags are legendary dealmakers, and can be trusted to hew to the letter of their word—but only the letter.
- To obtain the heartstone by force, the players will need to incapacitate or kill the hag. However, this is far more difficult for multiple reasons.
- First, hags tend to gather in covens of three, a practice that makes each hag stronger and provides easy access to allies. (Victor asks the players nervously whether the hag is known to have any “sisters” or “daughters”, and the party shares their info.)
- Second, night hags in particular can use their heartstones to flee into the Ethereal Plane as soon as they feel threatened—an escape mechanism that can’t be counteracted.
- To prevent the hag from escaping into the Ethereal Plane mid-combat, the players will need to seal her in a binding circle before initiating hostilities. Victor also advises the players to obtain silvered weapons, which will be needed to bypass the hags’ strong demonic defenses.
- Telling Victor about Franz's words, he recognizes the "twisted, onyx-black stone" as resembling the description of a night hag's heartstone provided in Ethereal Entities.
- Victor isn't sure what Franz meant about "the heart of the windmill." (He's sure it's not a heartstone, because night hags always keep their heartstones on their person.)
- Victor recalls seeing information about the windmill in an old book of records in his father's library. (Victor recalls the book bitterly because Vargas made him write a report on Vallakian history as punishment when Victor spoke ill of the town's founder, Boris Vallakovich.)
- Upon retrieving the book, Victor opens it to reveal a blueprint of the windmill, located alongside the original assignment of land from Baron Boris Vallakovich to Gustav and Elisabeth Durst. He points out excitedly that the design for the millstone contains a compartment built into its side—likely as a place for storage. If the hags are hiding something other than a heartstone in the windmill, it's likely located in that compartment.
- Victor anxiously informs the party that he has been unable to find a means of performing the binding ritual. Turning to the relevant page in his spellbook, he shows them an illustration that depicts a binding circle, but complains that the book itself provides no information about how to actually create one.
- Soon thereafter, Stella’s spirit can be seen excitedly gesturing from the spirit mirror. As he interprets her handsigns, Victor’s eyes widen and his face pales. “You can’t be serious,” he stammers. “Absolutely not!”
- Confronted by the party, Victor reluctantly reveals that Stella claims to have seen a similar binding circle while exploring the Ethereal Plane, but on a much larger scale: an enormous circle that surrounds the entirety of Wachterhaus and prevents her from entering the grounds. (Stella has been attempting to enter the estate in order to communicate with her mother, but has failed due to the circle’s presence.)
- Stella suspects that her mother, Lady Wachter, might know how to create one to bind the hags as well.
- Stella, through Victor, suggests that the players visit Wachterhaus to request Lady Wachter’s help in binding the night hags.
- Stella warns them that her mother is a cautious and skeptical woman, especially where the Vallakoviches are concerned; if Lady Wachter doesn’t believe the players’ story, they will likely need to ask her to disable Wachterhaus’s protective circle in order to allow Stella to show her presence.
A thick garden, filled with herbs and vines stands beside this wide, red-roofed manor. A slouching roof hangs heavy over furrowed gables, and moss-covered walls sag and bulge under the weight of the vegetation. A handsome red-painted door stands at the house's entrance, its upper half set with frosted glass.
- When the party knocks upon arrival, Lady Wachter's valet, Haliq, opens the door and welcomes the players warmly.
- Haliq then guides the players through the Dining Room and invites them to take seats in the Parlor.
- After determining which players would like glasses of wine, Haliq assures the players that Lady Wachter will be with them shortly and excuses himself.
- Shortly after the partyarrive in the parlor, they notice that a young woman wearing slippers and a white nightgown, approximately sixteen years of age, is standing in the open doorway leading back to the staircase and front entrance.
- The woman appears to be staring vacantly into space toward them, but neither moves nor makes eye contact.
- Nikolai Wachter stumbles into view from the staircase behind her.Nikolai greets the young woman as “Stella” and worriedly wonders aloud how she got here. Nikolai notices the party and apologizes profusely to them, assuring them that he’ll get his little sister out of their hair. Recognizing the partyfrom the Blue Water Inn, Nikolai greets you more personally.
- He asks why youhave come to Wachterhaus but at that moment, Lady Wachter arrives from the kitchen and lightly scolds Nikolai for allowing Stella to wander off.
- Nikolai tells her that he intends to take Stella for a brief walk around the gardens, and Lady Wachter’s face softens.
- Lady Wachter reminds Nikolai that it’s a brisk evening, and to ensure that Stella is warmly dressed and that she neither trips nor injures herself.
- Nikolai agrees and departs, leading a vacant-eyed Stella out the front door.
- Fiona Wachter enters the parlor and apologizes to the players for the disturbance. She then introduces herself and formally welcomes the players to Wachterhaus, thanking them for accepting her invitation.
- She invites the players to seat themselves upon the couches and to make themselves comfortable.
- Haliq arrives shortly thereafter bearing a tray of wine glasses for those that requested them. He also offers a glass to Lady Wachter, who declines and instead requests a glass of brandy. Lady Wachter thanks him, and he bows and departs.
- If the players reveal Stella’s fate, Lady Wachter’s eyes tighten, and she asks them for a full explanation of how Stella came to inhabit her current state. When the players have finished their story, Lady Wachter states that she believes them to be playing a cruel joke upon her and her family, and asks whether they have any means of proving their claims.
- Rumex has a difficult time containing his despair, reminded heavily of his story of which he has just shared.
- Lady Wachter is shocked by and wary of the players’ knowledge of the protective circle and demands to know how the players learned of it.
- The party ultimately persuades Lady Wachter to deactivate the protective circle around Wachterhaus and allow Stella to manifest there (and so prove the players’ story).
- Upon agreeing to deactivate the protective circle, Lady Wachter retreats upstairs, momentarily.
- She then returns to the parlor and sets the model upon the central table.
- With her eyes closed, Lady Wachter murmurs an incantation, causing a circle of ethereal grey light to briefly manifest around the scale model before vanishing again.
- She then informs the party that the circle has been lowered and sits back expectantly on the sofa while sipping her tea.
- A few moments later, Stella—unseen, but present in the Ethereal Plane—levitates a peony from a flower vase on a nearby side table and deposits it in Lady Wachter’s lap.
- In disbelief, Lady Wachter drops her teacup on the parlor floor, where it shatters.
- She picks up the peony, her hands trembling with emotion. She notes, with a quavering voice, that peonies have always been Stella’s favorite flower. “If this is some kind of trick—” she warns.
- Before Lady Wachter can finish her warning, Stella moves the teacup shards across the floor, forming the shape of a crescent. Lady Wachter’s eyes fill with tears, and she calls out Stella’s name, looking around the room almost as if she expects to see her daughter there. (The crescent resembles the crescent-shaped birthmark on the fur of a cat that Stella kept as a child, which was named Luna.)
- Haliq, Lady Wachter’s valet, opens the door to the room and asks if Lady Wachter was calling for someone. Lady Wachter wipes her eyes, shakes her head, and dismisses him.After a moment, she wipes her eyes and says, “Let us assume that I believe you. What need have you of me?”
(11:00 AM)
A Call to Arms- The party successfully persuades Lady Wachter to assist them and ask her for aid in creating a binding circle to entrap the hags within the Material Plane.
- She reluctantly and cautiously lays out what she can do.
- She is indeed capable of crafting such things, though she is long out of practice. To create a circle large enough to entrap an entire windmill from a distance would require the aid of several of Lady Wachter’s “associates,” whose aid it may take some time to secure.
- Lady Wachter can direct Ernst and Haliq to recruit her associates and gather them within as little an hour, if necessary.
- There are two ways for such a circle to work: it can keep things out, or it can keep things in.
- To keep the hags from escaping the circle, the players will first need to secure the true names of any hags within the windmill, including those that are not the players’ primary target.
- Should even a single hag remain free to escape, it could attack Lady Wachter and her associates and bring the entire circle crashing down.
- If Lady Wachter is informed of the possible presence of children within the windmill, she insists that the players rescue them before making any assault.
- Coming to an agreement, she promises to meet them—along with her associates—at Vallaki’s eastern Morning Gate in one hour, once she’s prepared herself for the journey.
- Horses will be provided.
Victor's Attic
Wachterhaus
Parlor
dining room
Barovia
Vallaki
Ethereal Entities
Durst Mill Blueprints
Hag's Heartstone
Report Date
03 Feb 2024
Primary Location
Secondary Location
Related Characters
Victor Vallakovich
Stella Wachter - normal
Stella Wachter - Soulless
Erasmus Van Richten
Emeric
Magda
Franz
Myrtle
Morgantha - Hag Form
Ernst
Lady Fiona Wachter
