Day 62: March on Castle Ravenloft
General Summary
The day began the way all of Osrin's favourite days begin: with her dragged into obligatory, prolonged, important conversation.
Cal informed her that morning, via Sending, that Cal had a dozen messages to use and all her attention on Osrin, asking what the party's plan was for storming the castle and trying to help as best as she was able from a different plane. This led to the predictable amount of exasperated muttering about games of telephone and rehashing discussions they'd already had, Cal, gods. As the conversation migrated from Osrin's room to the hallway where Ri-An and Ayduin were to Bodaway's bedroom, various subjects were covered, and the party tried to turn Cal's attention not to what they themselves were attempting that evening, but to how Cal might aid them after the mists were lifted, in their coming fight against Vampyr.
Not that they could say the word "Vampyr," though. That would be too easy. No, those messages wouldn't go through.
With as much information as they could convey to Cal sent off, and Cal's best wishes sent in return, the party went about the rest of their day, doing what they coul to prepare and settle their nerves before the march to Castle Ravenloft Ravenloft began. A Heroes' Feast was set up, with some of the party's more powerful allies and the two resident children treated to its advantages. Bodaway played with Bray, Sylvain had a very nice bath, and the party made a final audit of what they were taking with them and what they might helpfully leave behind.
Shortly before leaving, Bodaway scried on Ireena, and wasn't terribly thrilled with what he saw: it seemed that something had gone sour in Ireena and Strahd's "courtship," and he saw her not in the regal bedroom she had seemingly been sleeping in before, but locked in a tomb, magically lit by a cantrip she should not by all rights have had access to. Judging by the state of her hair and the dirt on her admittedly once-lovely dress, Ireena had been out of Strahd's favour for some time. Judging by the way she rotated her shoulder and winced, she was injured.
The party's resolve newly strengthened, they said their goodbyes to their allies, with Danica charging 20 gold for extra hugs, and casually making 100 gp off the party, who hadn't had anywhere to spend their gold in ages anyway. It is, to date, the most profitable joke she's ever made.
As the party set off, Godfrey at their side, Bodaway made a confession to the party: his mother had tasked him with cutting Strahd's balls off and stuffing them in his mouth. Though Sylvain expressed some surprise, having been given the much more modest task of vandalizing a noble's house, the party agreed that if it was a request from one's dead mother, one could not simply ignore it, and some discussion was had about the best time for such actions.
Finally, the party reached their promised rendezvous point with the werewolves — still untroubled by any peril on the road, and hoping if not confident that meant they still had some element of surprise on their side — and were relieved to see wolves emerge from the mists, though they did not deign to take human form. Bodaway gave Izek scritches, and Izek fought the urge to thump his back foot in approval. With Godfrey staying behind with the wolves to await the lowering of the drawbridge, the party made use of the forms of flight available to them, Ayduin cloaking them in shadow as they flew over the castle, hoping to remain unseen.
And unseen, it seems, they were, reaching the chapel garden without issue, only to come across their first problem: the door they'd been planning to enter through was no longer there. After some discussion and investigation, they opted to try and pry free some of the wooden boards from one of the broken stained glass windows of the chapel, to enter that way. This plan, with some teamwork and finessing, went off relatively seamlessly, though in the process they spotted an unwelcome sight: a veritable herd of crawling claws. Though the party was lucky in avoiding their attention as they pried free enough boards to enter without issue — and provide a somewhat accessible exit, should they need one in a hurry — it wasn't long after they began sneaking in that they came within the range of the frontmost claws' blindsight, and so began one of the most exasperating battles they've had in some time.
Ri-An's spear ricocheted across countless hands, spearing them like a particularly gruesome kebab. Sylvain and Bodaway took turns throwing hands at each other. Both Sylvain and Grghshnq took far more damage than anticipated. And, by the end, 57 severed hands littered the chapel of Castle Ravenloft, leaving the party to investigate the altar, the statuette upon it, and the mace at the side of an unknown corpse strewn nearby. This period of idleness would not last for long, however, as they heard approaching footsteps, and began to see the flicker of torchlight through the gap beneath the western double doors.
Report Date
04 Mar 2024
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