They charged into our group with ferocity, Uphir cutting through the creatures, their corpses stacking like cordwood before her. Tetsuo was weaving in and out of melee wielding his torches trying to burn the downed creatures. This had been our tactic while dealing with these creatures so far, but this time they were different; they had covered their bodies with mud, which was confounding the torches.
I cast my fey blasts in rapid succession from my tree perch and Janlynn kept moving towards her enemies, keeping up her spirit guardians' assault, helping to fell many of them. Nim fired his crossbow and then fell into melee with them. Akkiir danced like a blur before our enemies, setting them alight with the arcane green fire leaping from his blade.
The Lost Ones soon learned to stay back from Janlynn's powerful spell's effected area, moving far enough back to use their blow darts against us. Their line soon split into two, with one group moving towards my position. My friends had moved away from me to keep engaged with their group which was desperately trying to stay away from Janlynn. It was quickly dawning on everyone that the only fire that was destroying these creatures was Akkiir's green fire!
A peculiar game began with our group constantly knocking the creatures down, only for them to get up again to move and attack against us, except for those killed by Akkiir of course. This slowed the battle down and increased our danger greatly as we had to wait for Akkiir to move over and burn them. I was forced to make a tricky jump from my tree to one closer to my friends because the Lost Ones on my side had reached the bottom of my tree and I was finding it difficult to gain cover from their blow darts.
Soon, the last four enemies tried to flee but were pinned down and eventually burned by Akkiir. At one pointTetsuo and Uphir grappled one and carried it over to be burned by Akkiir's hand. I tried to time my attacks to hit them just as soon as they regenerated and tried to knock them right back down again. We had won the battle. Many of us were wounded and Janlynn healed us all with a massive and powerful healing miracle. We were soon on our way again.
When we were almost to Krezk we encountered a small group of mud-covered barbarians. Both parties took cover in the foliage and after a few tense moments we were able to parley an agreement to let each other pass un-molested. In less than an hour later we were entering the well defended gates of Krezk once again. We were anxious to get the dress to the Abbot, but wanted to visit the shrine first.
After praying to the Morninglord, it was decided that Janlynn would attempt to divine with the Tarokka cards whether the disc we spied in the Abbey was in fact the disc that was needed to activate the shrine to it's full power. Janlynn's cards revealed:
a. (History Card) She drew the Elementalist; the five of stars. She saw a vision of the past. She saw sisters of the Abbey uncivilized and wild - praying at the disc while being wracked in pain and anguish.
b. (Power card) She drew the Evoker; the six of starts. She had a vision of seeing a raven's eye view of the top of the Abbey. The towers of the Abbey are capped with onion shaped minarets and one of them, atop the north tower, flashed with a bright light.
c. (Protection Card) She drew the Abjurer; the four of stars. She could hear what sounded like a happy, elderly nun of the Abbey say in a teasing and playful voice "All is not yet revealed"
d. (Ally card) She drew "The Innocent". She could see the hunched over silhouette of Cloven Belview playing his instrument. He is very good.
e. (Location card) She drew "The Seer". Nothing was revealed to her. Prophesy works in mysterious ways; both helpful and confounding each in turn.
We decided to head up the winding cliff-path to the Abbey, still unsure how we would convince the Abbot to give us the disc we needed for the shrine. Our second visit was similar to our first, we were greeted at the gate by Otto and Zigfrek and we tried to engage with them friendily. I tried to lure Zigfrek out of her shyness, by offering to let her examine the wedding dress, but she was resolute in her avoidance of close interaction.
We were taken to the north tower once again. I couldn't help but wonder what mysteries could be hidden within the other tower. Would it be a mad mans workshop, filled with the various pieces of human and animal flesh required to create Vasilka, or perhaps to tinker with the physical aspects of the Belview clan? I decided it was best not to know, my imagination was much too creative for such speculations. We were brought through the Foyer into the main hall and once again the Abbot was working closely with Vasilka at the dining table.
The wedding dress was presented to the Abbot and he seemed to see the dress as acceptable, though his voice betrayed no emotion or indication if he was particularly pleased with any aspect of the dress. When asked again about the name Visilli Van Holts, he revealed that it was a name Strahd used sometimes when walking among the people of the land.
We had not come to any conclusion as to how we would handle the topic of the disc, so I decided that we should just be honest and forthcoming with the Abbot. After all, wasn't he some sort of celestial being from the heavens? I told him everything; how we needed the disc and how it would help to bring more power of the Morninglord into the land. I framed every word with words which promoted our devotion to the Moringlord and genuine desire to increase his power int h is dark land. We also spoke some of the Keeper's of the Feather and the knowledge we had about the beacon at Arganvosthold and it's purpose.
The Abbot decided that he would help us. He opened up a secret compartment behind the golden disc. On the back of the disc was a large crystal lens and insiade the niche was a fancy decanter. We all went immediately down to the shrine and he offered the lens to Janlynn to place into the outstretched arms of the statue. Nothing happened immediately. We stayed at the shrine all night long, waiting for the dawn.
As soon as the first light of morning touched the tops of the minarets of the Abbey, bright beams shot forth from them and struck the center of the lens. The entire lens lit up with strong golden morning light and directed this light into the glittering pool. A feeling of warmth rushed over us all as the light glittering in the pool grew tenfold in power and brightness. It felt as if the morninglord truly was gracing us with his presence.
A feeling of success came over our group. Uphir was especially vocal about something Finally working out as we hoped. The commotion and spectacle soon began drawing a crowd. We drank from the pool and our Hag curse was finally lifted. Our painful afflictions drained away with a warm release and lightening of our troubled souls. The light of the Morninglord was finally able to push back the darkness that had fallen upon us all. The villagers were encouraged to partake of the holy water of the pool and receive blessings of the Moringlord from Janlynn. A new bastion of power for the Morninglord had emerged in this twisted place, and it felt good to have had a hand in making that happen.
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