Day 29: The Fidatov Estate
General Summary
Day 29 (Xololuna 5, 735/Rozaluna 16, 718/Marpenoth 28–?, 1494)
Ayduin is the first to wake, and spends a few hours trying to focus on his porn and ignores Sylvain and Osrin's sleep-mumbles. Ri-An wakes, and they discuss the implications of the sleep-mumbling. Osrin absolutely decimates everyone in a run. The party heads down into Krezk and out the gates, catching a glimpse of a Vistani wagon headed east on the Old Svalich Road. They head into the woods, following the overgrown path to the Fidatov Estate, which gradually becomes less overgrown, less icy, and they... find themselves in an idyllic (if still grey) spring scene, looking not only at Fidatov manor itself, but the sprawling farmland beyond, the manicured gardens, the fountains, the benches — and in the distance, the hedge maze. While trying to figure out what the fuck is going on, Ri-An ritual casts Detect Magic, and five minutes into the casting an older gentleman who appears to be the Fidatovs' butler comes out to see what their business is. He notifies the party that they will have to leave their weapons in the front hall if they wish to meet with the Lady Fidatov, a request that they don't like at all. They spend the next six minutes strategizing about how to evade this sinister request, including the proposition that the Lady Fidatov take a walk outside instead with five armed strangers, their mechanical beast, and their murderous mechanical jester. Weirdly, the butler does not think much of this suggestion, so instead Sylvain and Osrin go inside, with Sylvain marked by Bodaway's blood magic, so Bodaway can track them. The Lady Fidatov greets the pair and gives them a tour of her home, showing the dining room, library, ballroom, promenade, upper balcony, and eventually taking them to her private meeting room, where they get down to business. Meanwhile, those outside meet an older man in a periwinkle suit, come out to smoke his pipe and see what the strangers outside were all about. He introduces himself as Dalibor Dorakova — Danica's grandfather. Both groups quickly realize the sort of trouble they're in: as far as both Marilena Fidatov and Dalibor Dorakova are concerned, it is Rozaluna 16, 718, and the ill-fated party where so many of Krezk's nobility disappeared has not yet taken place. Over the course of the next while, after sufficiently weirding out various nobles and staff members, the party agrees to surrender their weapons for the evening and attend the party to see what they can learn. They meet Falkon von Holtz and his wife; Ri-An gives Vlad Vallakovich a dance he'll never forget; a man tries to smile at Osrin and immediately regrets it; Vlad Vallakovich comes to the conclusion that Sylvain is disabled and Osrin is his handler.Shortly after dusk, the party is disrupted by Taltos bursting out the door and declaring the Lady Fidatov is dead; the guests begin to retch, and our heroes feel a little queasy, too. As Taltos flees in horror to the second floor, the curse kicks in in full effect: suddenly, the room is pitch-black, mist creeping over the floor of a house in severe disrepair, abandoned for years. All around them, the bodies of the dead rot, including several dead bodies of people they'd never seen before. And feasting on these bodies are ten ghouls. The fight that follows, with our heroes scrambling to free their weapons from the rusty locks they're stuck in, leaves several of them badly wounded, Chuckles in pieces, and Osrin utterly dead. Thanks to some quick thinking on Sylvain's part, they light the lantern and see Osrin's ghost hovering over her body — they begin to use her crude grasp of thieves' cant to communicate.
Retreating downstairs to rest up and leave Osrin's body in a safe place, they send Osrin up to do recon via the Ethereal Plane; she quickly identifies several places of interest, as well as those places where danger awaits. The party begins to investigate these leads, making for the secret room where Taltos had hanged himself when it becomes clear Marilena's study is locked. There, they find Taltos's keys as well as his suicide note, detailing how after the initial poisoning, the remaining guests had turned on each other in madness, while he hid until the violence was over.
In Marilena's study, they find several helpful tools, including ten healing potions. They also find Marilena's journal, with recent entries bemoaning Dmitri Krezkov's desire to turn her into an obedient wife, and laughing at his attempts to find her family's fortune. He never would, she wrote: "Two crests for two fountains in a labyrinth guaranteed to end any trespassers before they can so much as plant the first… good luck to you, Dmitri." With these clues in mind, and their spoils distributed, the party goes to the mysterious art gallery that was locked throughout the party. Inside, they find the spaces where the crests should be, but no sign of them — until they catch sight of them in the reflections of some mounted antique mirrors. Ri-An is the first to try putting a hand through the mirror, and the first to see their clone begin to emerge from the mirror in turn. A brief battle ensues, with both Ri-An and Sylvain killing their doubles, while their companions fight off nervous breakdowns. The crests retrieved, the party makes for the maze.
Osrin is the first to scout ahead, and the maze seems entirely too simple at first: right away, straight ahead, is an iron gate leading to a central courtyard, with a building that looks to be some sort of mausoleum. Rather than attempting to pass through, the party begins to navigate the maze — and the moment they choose their path, they find themselves pursued by a massive fiendish dog of swirling shadow, whose howl can freeze trespassers in their tracks. It doesn't take long for the party to become split, with Ayduin scouting ahead, Ri-An trying to keep left, Sylvain baiting the hound, and the others bouncing around between them. Finally, the party finds themselves with both crests placed and... no discernible change taking place. A last stand is made against the hound, with Ayduin taking the long way around to the gate, Ri-An summoning swarms of ravens to distract it, Bodaway stepping into the Ethereal Plane, Osrin keeping an eye from above, and Sylvain, Ri-An, and Grghshnq all pushing past the hound to bolt for the gate. Finding it, and all the other doors unlocked, they head down into the family crypt, finding seven tombs, a whole lot of treasure, and no clear signs as to what to do next. Finally, they accept that they have to poke the cursed treasure, and battle with The Banshee Fidatov ensues. Thanks to one or more people correctly assessing the situation, the curse is broken — and history is rewritten, as the poisoning at the estate never happened.
Report Date
07 Feb 2022
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