Day 20: Totally Normal Villagers
General Summary
Day 20 (Prizrachnayaluna 24, 735/Eleint 18–Highharvesttide)
Magda Yankov, the party's host for their second stint in Krezk, had apparently committed suicide in the night. Ezmerelda was the first to catch sight of the body, the blood, and the silver dagger he'd apparently used to slit both his wrists and his own throat. A brief investigation ensued, with Ezmerelda proposing getting out of Krezk as quickly as possible, Bodaway searching for clues, and Sylvain seeking out Vitaliya, trusting that she'd know the best course of action. Sylvain, chatting up a guard at what was emotionally if not literally 3 in the morning, somehow managed to convince the guard that a) everything was totally chill and b) on an unrelated note he urgently needed to know which cottage was Vitaliya's. Vitaliya and her husband Matfey followed Sylvain, and took the death in stride, as most Barovians learn to with time. They advised the party get what sleep they could, and leave once it was light out, assuring them that they would handle the revelation of Magda's "suicide." Sylvain convinced Imithren to play a game from across planes, and Bodaway and Osrin managed to finish their long rests, while the others kept an uneasy watch and prepared their things for a speedy departure. As dawn came, the party left, with Vitaliya and Matfey expediting their exit from Krezk, and they headed east, for van Richten's tower. On the way, their most notable encounter was the sudden appearance of young Victor Vallakovich — filthy, starving, and clearly halfway out of his mind — who has apparently been teleporting all over every few seconds to minutes since the day of the riots, when he tried to teleport out of Barovia. With our erstwhile heroes not realizing Victor was the villain who threw the two fireballs that killed so many and kicked off so much destruction that day, they tried to figure out how best to help him, with Sylvain in true Sylvain fashion setting Victor up with clothing, food, wine, water, and a bag to carry it all in. Arriving at the tower, they found a crowd of Totally Normal Villagers who just happened to act a lot like zombies in magical disguise, and slaughtered them, thanks in large part to Ezmerelda's lightning bolts and the TNVs' lack of strategy. Finally, they made their way into the tower. After a brief discussion, they decided the tower was not their best option for the time being, and pushed on to the Vallaki Vistani camp, where they found a few surprises: a soft and battered Arrigal, an utter lack of malice from Luvash despite the danger they'd put Arabelle in, and a very casual vampire spawn van Richten as their new guard dog. (Also a ghost that apparently everyone but van Richten can see? Anyway.) TLDR: Several of them got drunk, because what else are you supposed to do with that. Ri-An saved Arrigal's favourite elf, and also became a legend among the Vistani for outdrinking Luvash. Luvash tried to score with Ezmerelda and, shockingly enough, did not succeed.
Report Date
18 Jan 2024
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