Session 54

General Summary

Weaving the Tapestry

Octyavr 2nd

(9:00 AM)

The Gulthias Tree

At the south end of the hilltop is a sickly copse, a grove of dead trees and shrubs with a huge, misshapen tree at its core. Blood oozes like sap from its twisted trunk. Embedded in the tree is a shiny battleaxe, beneath which lies a humanoid skeleton. A circle of craggy, jagged megaliths stands hunkered down among the undergrowth, draped with rotted vines and overgrown by large brambles and dead shrubs. The air here is thick and unseasonably warm, and a sickly, putrid smell chokes the air.

A large, cavernous hollow at the base of the Gulthias tree conceals a five-foot diameter stone of smooth, black onyx half-buried amidst the tree’s roots. The stone has no visible marks or symbols upon its surface, and appears impervious to all damage and attempts to move it.
Ilyson takes the axe from the tree and the tree shudders momentarily before rapidly healing. When swung at the tree small thorns grow from the axe's haft and pierce Ilyson's hands.
After some attempts are made to fell the tree it's regenerative properties continually overcome the aggressive swings of Verce who has borrowed the axe from Ilyson.
While multiple strategies are employed the party eventually notices the encroaching blight army approaching quickly from the south of the hill and finally concede to a hasty retreat.

Kavan's Tale

Returning to Kavan’s cairn bearing Svarog’s wand and summoning Kavan by Muriel dripping their blood into the basin, Kavan shares the following:
Long ago, Kavan was a chieftain among the First Folk, whose people arrived in the valley long before Kavan’s own birth.
The First Folk worshipped a trio of goddesses known as the Rozana, or the Ladies Three: the Seeker, the Weaver, and the Huntress.
The druids of the First Folk paid homage to the Ladies at their holy sites—three fanes that dwelled within the valley, known as the Mountain Fane, the Forest Fane, and the Swamp Fane.
Each Fane held a gemstone imbued with the power of the Weaver, which was said to give life and vitality to the wilderness around it.

"This wand," Kavan notes somberly, "was once wielded by those who connected our people to the Rozana." Kavan asks you whether you have ever betrayed anyone close to you or whether your pride wounded someone you loved. Satisfied that you understand the weight of the crimes of betrayal and hubris, he proceeds:

Nearly one thousand years ago, Kavan came to power as chieftain of his tribe. Arrogant and proud, he defied his people’s strictures and ventured forth into the Whispering Wall, a wall of thick fog said to hold the corpse of the Devourer—an ancient monster that the Ladies killed long before.
While within the Wall, Kavan learned terrible secrets—including the means by which he could steal the Huntress’s sacred spear from the Forest Fane and claim its power for his own. Upon doing so, he waged war on the other tribes, reuniting them beneath his own banner.
The servants of the Seeker, a clan of wereravens, hid away the life-giving gems that blessed the Fanes to conceal them from his ambitions, and vanished into the wilderness.
The druids of the First Folk condemned Kavan for his hubris, and retreated to the village of Soldav in the Balinok Mountains, their people’s most sacred site and the center of their faith. They named Kavan “enemy," and banished him from Soldav for his crimes. When he died, instead of burying him in a place of honor upon Yester Hill with the great chieftains of the past, the druids buried him here, in a lonely cairn far from the graves of his forefathers. Kavan has been haunted by his isolation from his people as a result ever since his death.

Before proceeding further, Kavan asks you a question: What do you hold sacred, and why? Upon hearing your answers, Kavan challenges you with an additional question: If you were forced to choose whether to betray everything you hold sacred in exchange for a promise of safety and comfort, how would you decide? Satisfied that any of you would choose sanctity over comfort, Kavan first dismisses any who would choose comfort over sanctity, and then proceeds:

In Kavan’s ailing years, a tyrant named King Dostron the Hellborn invaded the valley with his army, scattering the First Folk and destroying their homes. He dammed up the Luna River to make farmland, and shattered the First Folks’ faith in the Ladies Three. When Dostron died, his armies withdrew and abandoned his fortress, but the First Folk remained apart and weak.
When Strahd invaded the valley hundreds of years later, many members of the druidic caste—still angered by Kavan’s betrayal and Dostron’s oppression—sought out his protection. A great schism split the First Folk, with those who opposed Strahd retreating to Soldav and those who favored Strahd remaining within the Svalich Wood. Today, Barovians know them as the Mountain Folk and the Forest Folk.
The land of Barovia, which the First Folk once called “Cerunnos"—meaning “fertile land"—has been corrupted by Strahd’s will and magic.
Kavan doesn’t understand the nature of Strahd’s corruption, but he knows that Strahd draws power from the land, and that this profane connection causes great suffering to the creatures and landscape of the valley.

To learn how to cleanse Strahd’s corruption, you must travel to Soldav to seek the guidance of an elder of the faith of the Rozana among the Mountain Folk.

Soldav is hidden somewhere in the Balinok Mountains, protected by a shroud of enchanted mist. So long as the mist remains, Soldav’s enemies can never find it, nor can they remember where it lies. Kavan remembers only the landmark that marks its entrance: a place in the mountains where two waterfalls run together.

"Without a token of the Ladies, however," he warns, "you will never find the entrance, nor will Soldav's elders grant you entry."

Demanding why Kavan withheld this information during their initial meeting, he truthfully tells them that he sought to avoid revealing Soldav’s existence to Strahd’s servants or spies. “I betrayed my people once by choice," he rumbles. “I will not betray them a second time through foolish indiscretion."
As the conversation comes to a close, Kavan informs you that, while he cannot give it to you directly, he can tell you where to find the spear that he stole from the Forest Fane of the Huntress, whose return may convince the people of Soldav to grant them entry.

“The spear's power waned when I took it, and it has no doubt grown ever-weaker since," he says. "But, should it serve your purposes, you can find it in the tomb of King Dostron, who claimed it from my tent when my chiefdom crumbled in the wake of his armies." Kavan informs you that the tomb of King Dostron was hewn from the stone beneath Dostron’s fortress, which Dostron built in the eastern mountains—upon what is now called the Pillarstone of Ravenloft. Should you find it, Kavan asks that you take it to the shrine of the Ladies Three in Soldav, to reconsecrate it in the sacred spring there and redeem his past mistakes.

When you depart, Kavan bids you farewell, offering: “Go with the blessings of the Ladies Three, if they still listen."

Returning the Gem

Returning the gem to Davian Martikov at the Wizard of Wines, he is deeply grateful, and warms to you considerably compared to his prior prickly demeanor. (He is, of course, still a grumpy old man at heart.)
Davian now willingly shares the following information:

Strahd's Tarokka Reading

In gratitude for your efforts in recovering the gem from Yester Hill, Davian provides you with an obsidian whistle shaped like a raven.
It is one of several such whistles passed down through his family across the generations.
He informs you that Muriel, a key field operative with the Keepers of the Feather, recently overheard a troubling prophecy involving Strahd.
Muriel shares the prophecy that took the form of a Tarokka reading delivered by Madam Eva to Strahd 2 weeks prior. (Although Muriel was chased away before she could hear the end of the reading, she shares what unfolded in the first part)

"The Darklord—the master of shadows, the beast in the labyrinth that tears at his chains. "The Six of Stars, the Evoker—the power you covet, a force untamed by mortal hands, raw and wild with burning fury. "The Artifact—the token you seek, the key to power. Divinity’s heart waits, but where? "The Innocent. I see a maid of raven hair and twilit eyes. She is one way to the token. "But there is another—the Broken One. The path of sacrifice opens another door. The wall that whispers awaits your tribute."

The Wine Shipments

With the winery saved and the gem recovered, Davian sets his sons, Adrian and Elvir, to preparing the winery's remaining wine for shipment.
An hour or two before dusk, the two brothers plan to load an additional three barrels onto the (freshly repaired) cart in the loading dock and set off, delivering three barrels first to Krezk then will deliver an additional three barrels to the Blue Water Inn in Vallaki the following day.
When you mention an interest in traveling to Krezk, Adrian asks you to accompany the wagon, noting, "Krezk can be unwelcoming to strangers, but with a good word from us and a shipment of wine, they'll be sure to welcome you with open arms."
The party enjoys a meal with the Martikov's, discuss their options, check their gear, bid farewell for now to Muriel, and make their way north to Krezk with the wine shipment.

Raven River Crossroads

You see a weatherworn signpost next to the road. The three arms of the sign point along the three branches of the road. The arm pointing north reads Krezk, and through the woods you can see an arching stone bridge spanning a river. The arm pointing east reads Vallaki, and the road slopes up gradually in that direction. The arm pointing southwest reads The Wizard of Wines. A figure clad in rusty armor stands alone on the bridge, clutching a gleaming longsword in its pale hands.

This is the revenant of a Knight of the Silver Order that you met previously on the way to the Wizard of Wines, three days ago.
He hails you and you inform him you are traveling to Krezk.
It warns you that the burgomaster of Krezk, Baron Dmitri Krezkov, has grown wary of the outside world, and that few things have passed between Krezk’s gates in recent weeks. However, the revenant notes that the Krezkov line has long been an honorable one, and that the players may be able to find a way to persuade Baron Krezkov to lend them hospitality. (The wine should help)
Mentioning that they are traveling to the Abbey of Saint Markovia to seek assistance for their fallen comrade and gain information, it rumbles, “You travel to a dark place, friends. But a being of great age and power indeed dwells there, and may aid you—if not offended.”

Years before Strahd von Zarovich arrived in the valley, Saint Markovia, a cleric of the Morninglord, built the Abbey atop a spur of Mount Baratok as a sanctuary for those fleeing from war and devastation. When the Mists surrounded the valley, Saint Markovia condemned Strahd as a tyrant, and raised a small army to march upon Castle Ravenloft. Her revolt was put down, however, and Markovia lost her life in single combat with Strahd. With Markovia’s death, the monks and nuns of the Abbey withdrew in despair. Before long, paranoia and madness infiltrated their ranks, until none remained alive. Rumors of cannibalism abounded for decades afterward, and most folk shunned the Abbey altogether. Just over a century ago, the Abbot arrived in the valley and reopened the Abbey. The revenant isn’t sure of the Abbot’s true nature or intentions, but is confident that he is far older—and far more powerful—than any of the knights of the Order of the Silver Dragon.

As the party departs, the revenant warns them that the werewolf pack of Mount Baratok has expanded its territory—and its ferocity—as of late, and advises them to be cautious as they travel the roads.

The Road to Krezk

The road branches north and climbs a rocky escarpment, ending at a gatehouse built into a twenty-foot-high wall of stone reinforced with buttresses every fifty feet or so. The wall encloses a settlement on the side of a snow-dusted mountain spur. Beyond the wall you see the tops of snow-covered pines and thin, white wisps of smoke. The somber toll of a bell comes from a stone abbey that clings to the mountainside high above the settlement. The steady chime is inviting—a welcome change from the deathly silence and oppressive fog to which you have grown accustomed. It's hard to tell at this distance, but there seems to be a switchback road clinging to the cliffs that lead up from the walled settlement to the abbey.

Guards atop the wall ask the players business, Elvir and Adrian vet the party and announce the return of the wine shipments
The guards retreat to inform the Burgomaster who opens the great doors and invite the players inside.