FINN'S JOURNAL
Finn's Journal #38 – Feb 05 – 2018
After celebrating our victory, we decided to search the house once again. The secret door which led to the entire other half of the strange manor seemed the best place to start. Tymora is sometimes a fickle power, and nothing we tried (including my magic knock spell) would open the secret door. To say we were frustrated would be an understatement. There was the spiral stairwell that led up to the second floor and where the gate had been closed before, it now stood slightly ajar.
Nim took position and advanced cautiously up the stairs and began to scout out his immediate surroundings. The upstairs was giving off a diffused green glow in all of the corridors upstairs. Nim checked one door and, after hearing a strange sloshing water sound coming from within, decided to come back to the stairs and alert us to what he had found. Some in the group were quite impatient to get upstairs and were beginning to move even before Nim had returned.
Well this caused some frustration for Nim, who had been given the task of being the scout and had the mantle of leadership also somewhat thrust upon him. I think rightfully Nim had earned the right to somewhat chastise the group for not following protocol, but this was not even allowed as Uphir walked steadfastly up the stairs to the front rank. Nim threw up his arms and declaired that someone else could be the scout. A tittering laughter, as from a young girl, could be heard coming from somewhere upstairs causing looks of concern upon all of our faces. I think the eerie nature of this structure is starting to cause stress for us all. I attempted to inject some silliness into the situation, but feel this was not well received by the group. Ah well, see a frown - turn it upside down, as my uncle Brackleberry used to say.
We proceeded down the longest and widest of the corridors, listening at doors along the way as there were many. That strange green light bathed everything in the hallway in it's light, causing everything to have a sickly green tinge to it. Nothing cast any shadows, as there was no definite point of light, it was completely diffused throughout. There was quite a ruckus coming from the door at the end of the hall, which was thumping, bumping and rattling as if someone were trying desperately to get out. Besides hearing sloshing water behind one of the doors, nothing could be heard behind any of the others as Uphir led us down the wide hallway to the door at the very end, prepared to find out what oddity lay beyond.
As soon as she touched the door the ruckus stopped. Thrusting the door open, several huddled forms could be seen across the bedchamber and they moved immediately to attack. These looked very similar to the ghoul creatures we encountered under the Durst Mansion. We formed ranks, with Uphir and Akkiir stepping to block the doorway, Nim and Tetsuo ready to attack from the second rank, and Janlynn and I further up the hall to cast our spells. Very early in the fight, Akkiir took a vicious hit from the ghoul and fell to the floor paralysed. Our troop performed well against the creatures, even without our lithe friend Akkiir's deadly blade. The stench of death coming off these undead creatures made all of us gag and we felt the risk of sicking up constantly.
Soon we fought our way into the room and killed the remaining ghouls. It was then that we saw, sitting upon one of the cots, that horrid doll who had escaped from Uphir's pack earlier. Uphir rushed forward and grabbed the doll by the neck with her large, strong hands. Without warning one of the dolls hands swept up and clawed Uphir's face, causing her to drop the doll in surprise. We all jumped into action, ready to slice or blast that doll, who had run under one of the beds. Searching the whole room, no sign of the doll could be found - it had dissapeared again! As we heard the tittering laughter once again, we knew that we would have to destroy that doll immediately when next we encountered it. Akkiir was revived by Janlynn and suffered no more from the paralyzation.
We left the room with the slain ghouls and began working our way down the hallway back towards the stairs. The next door we tried opened into a kitchen with many cupboards and a hearth. The immediate thing noticed was a shuffling, rummaging sound coming from one of the cupboards - perhaps our missing doll was hiding within. Not waiting to reason it out, Uphir rushed forward and opened the cupboard with her axe raised to strike. The doll was not hiding within, but all of a sudden the air in the kitchen was filled with flying items - pots, pans, knives, and basically anything that was not nailed down. They seemed to act like they were being controlled by some invisible intelligence as they seemed to steer and turn to seek specific targets.
Everyone who entered the room dashed madly back towards the door and hallway beyond. It was noticed amongst the commotion that there was a chest resting in the hearth, but no other action but retreat was possible. Once in the hallway, with the door closed, our frazzled troupe took a moment to count fingers and toes and wonder about the chest. Tetsuo stated with his usual confidence that he could snatch the chest and be back out without the slightest problem. So he did. With all of his agility and grace he wove through the seeking objects, clutched up the chest and was back out in the hall with a flourishing flip as the others closed the door.
It was noticed that once the chest was in the hall, green vapors could be seen escaping from the cracks in the lid. It was quickly brought into the ghoul room and thrown against a wall breaking it open and spilling forth hundreds of coins amongst the green gas. We waited until the gas dissipated before going forth and finding a healthy pile of electrum pieces, marked with the profile of Strahd Von Zarovich. This coin would go a long way towards equipping ourselves for some of our more perilous journeys ahead.
The next door investigated led to a bathroom of sorts. Our front ranks went in to investigate and sensing something mysterious in the tub, approached and saw a form within. They saw the tortured face of a woman in the bathtub, her mouth opening and closing in gasps and the wrists on both of her arms were slit and were filling the water with blood. The aparition showed no sign of recognizing her surroundings or my heroic friends, she was going through the final moments of her life.
Janlynn wanted to evaluate the condition of the woman and try to help, but Nim insisted that he would investigate first to protect her from harm. Nim touched the woman and that changed everything. He gasped in pain and stumbled back, the icey grip of death burning his flesh with cold. Her face contorted into a hell-tormented visage as her wild eyes focused upon Uphir. Screaming in unholy rage, the ghost rushed upwards towards Uphir, turning into a ghastly green-grey vapour, pouring like a relentless torrent into her mouth, nose and eyes. As Uphir staggered back, her eyes came to resemble the insane eyes of the ghost as she cast her view around the room, as if seeing it for the first time. Uphir had become possessed!
The last thing our fighters wanted to do was engage a possessed Uphir in battle. Her ferocious battle rage had been seen time and again, and there was no way they were going to be on this side of her great axe. They were sure that if they were to survive, it would take everything they had and would likely mean her death. Thinking quickly, our front rank slammed the door closed, leaving Uphir inside. Everyone put their back into holding the door closed, expecting her axe to come crashing through at any moment.
At first I was stunned and frozen in place. How could I fight against my best friend? Uphir means so much to me! I told her when I first met her that we would be life long friends, and we have become so close through all of this. I wanted to drop to my knees and just wait for what was to come. But then I thought of Janlynn and the others. I couldn't stand by and watch them potentially fall before Uphir's axe. I couldn't watch beautiful Janlynn suffer any more than she has. It wasn't Uphir in control, I knew this, but it didn't help me make the decision any easier. I called forth the power of the Feywild, it's power arcing along my palms and between my fingers like witch lightning in the dark mists of a forboding swamp. I would do what I must.
Everyone was as tense as they have ever been, waiting for Uphir to crash down the door, but it did not happen. Those closest to the door listened and they heard coarse grunts and meaty thuds coming from beyond. There was no one in there to attack. It took a few short moments for them to understand what was happening and they opened the door to see that our friend Uphir lay in a pool of her own blood with huge gashes in her chest and neck, her bloody axe lying on the floor next to her. Blood was literally sprayng out of her neck. I was overcome with emotions and could not stop the tears from pouring down my cheeks. Even writing this now.....
Janlynn rushed forward and began healing, calling the brilliant power of the Morning Lord to heal our friend from the brink of death. That ghost wanted to commit suicide, and having been inter-rupted, used her new host to achieve it yet again. I speculated that maybe this ghost was the ghost of lady Ulric, who possibly committed suicide after finding out about her husband and his mistress. This is, of course, mere speculation and flight of fancy on my part.
By Lathander's blessing, Uphir was expertly healed by Janlynn and after a few moments was regaining her feet and trying to remember what had happened. I hugged my friend as hard as I could. I was so happy that she was alright. The group had to make the decision to take a rest or continue on and it was decided that we would just check out the last few remaining doors upstairs on this side of the house first.
We opened up the door that Nim had heard sloshing water behind and found a room mostly devoid of furniture, but with the apparation of a washer-woman across the room. Her back was to us and she was swishing and sloshing around laundry in a large bucket with a stick. Calling out to her caused the apparition to dissipate and vanish. Searching this room revealed nothing of any real interest.Opening the door directly across the hall we found a bedroom with rotten furniture and thick webs coating everything. We could only imagine the size of the spiders who would make webs like these. Stealing ourselves, we investigated the bedroom and found no clues or anything of interest once again.
We were now back down the hallway near the stairs we ascended to get to this floor. Checking a door up another hall revealed another bedchamber similar to the one explored before, including the thick webbing. Some of us were out in the hallway while others looked around the room. Before much could be investigated, strange ghostly visions of really large spiders began appearing. We jumped into action quickly, but all of our attacks went right through them. Soon they became solid and began their attack.
We fought against these horrid arachnids with as much vigour as we could. We were all feeling tired and needed a rest, but we managed to prevail against these spiders with no casualties on our side. We definitely needed rest......
Finn's Journal #39 – Feb 12 – 2018
We went down the stairs and back into the main hall with the fireplace and the secret door. Here, it was decided, we would take at least an hour to catch our breaths and stretch our battle-worn muscles. This house just would not let us rest, no matter how desperate we needed it. No sooner had our tuckered touche's touched the floor to rest, when dozens of giant rats came pouring out of the chimney to swarm around us in the room.
One of the vile creatures took a vicious bite out of me and I fell dreadfully ill from the poisonous infection of it's teeth. Our group fought them off in short order, but I needed to be healed by the strange powers of the stone we took from the hags. It was decided that lighting a fire in the fireplace would be a good way to counteract the rats, so we went into the dining hall to break up the oak table for firewood. This proved to be an exhaustingly unfortunate decision, especially for me.
No sooner had we begun, then what seemed like a dozen Phase Spiders appeared and began their attack. After a few moments of battle, just as Tetsuo called for a retreat, I was once again incapacitated. The spider's massive fangs pierced into my body with hot pain and I callapsed into some of it's many legs. I was dragged upwards and all of the remaining spiders phased out, with me in their clutches!
As was recounted to me by my fellows, desperation began to take hold of the group. I don't think any of us considered that the spiders could take any of us with them when they phased. Uphir took off running for the stairs while Nim tried to temper her reckless tendencies with caution, but she would have none of it. She and the rest ran upstairs, assuming that the spiders would bring me back to their webby lair above.
At the top of the stairs, Janlynn cast a detect Finn spell to see if she could locate what was left of me. Her divine senses told her that I was located at an elevation beyond the door leading to the unexplored half of the second floor. Tentatively my comrades opened the door into the room beyond and saw a strange apparition of a skeletal administrator sitting behind a desk of sorts. They could hear him give a polite greeting to Juniper and suddenly the ghostly form of Ulric's mistress strode right through our group, causing a biting chill to those she came in contact with. She barely acknowledged the skeletal form at the desk and strode up to and through a door on the other side of the room.
Uphir rushes forward and opens the door almost as soon as it closes behind the strange young and beautiful looking Juniper. Beyond was a long room with a bench running all along it's north wall. In the middle of the south wall were a pair of black double doors, ornately carved with a large tree and the curving lines of vines and plants, similar to the mark on the sword Nim found by the pool. It looked to be a family tree of sorts. Juniper's ghost was nowhere in sight.
Just as they began to explore the area, the ghostly form of a little girl appears on the long bench. Juniper's form quickly appears and with a broad, thin stretched smile gives a dolly to the little girl, who holds an expression of confusion and uncertainty. Juniper vanishes as quickly as she appeared, unnoticed by the child, who holds the doll closer to her body. Before any could begin to understand the vision before them, crimson slash marks begin to appear all along the childs dress, her torso quickly becoming sticky with blood. She slowly falls from the bench to dissapear as she touches the floor. Left behind was the doll, holding a bloody knife. It was our doll. Our strange possessed demon doll from the ghoul room!
Uphir, Tetsuo and Janlynn moved to the black doors and tried to find a way through while Akkiir and Nim moved to engage the evil doll. We had decided should we see this thing again, we would destroy it. No matter what force was brought to bear upon the door, it refused to open. Some powerful magic held it closed before them. Akkiir and Nim were finding this doll quite dangerous with it's bloody knife which had found it's mark upon their limbs more than once.
Realizing the door would not budge, the rest of the group moved forward to help battle the impossibly fast and nimble doll. Soon several of our troop were wounded by the flashing knife of the strange creature. It was impossible to tell whether they were really damaging it with their blows or not as it was incredibly, magically resilient. After a couple of solid blows the creepy thing jumped to the floor, rolled under the bench and vanished. All that remained of their opponant was the tittering of child-like laughter which hung in the stark silence of the hall, causing a feeling of terror and forlorn uncertainty in everyone.
Without even a moment to catch their breath, they soon found themselves embroiled in another ferocious battle - against the same Phase Spider's they had fought before. I was nowhere in sight, but Janlynn could detect me beyond the dark, forboding double doors. Uphir, incensed by the many small knife wounds dealt by the doll, gave a roar of fury and started cutting through the phase Spiders in a blur of her swinging axe, causing pieces of the giant spiders to fall everywhere, their gooey ichor painting the floor and walls. Everyone attacked with great effort and in a blink, all of the spiders were destroyed. Uphir's fury was responsible for killing seven of the nine spiders herself, having left the remaining two for her friends to dispose of!!!
Taking but a moment to rest, their eyes scanning for the next attack to arrive, they soon decided that they must try and get through the door to see what was left of my poor carcase. Pushing, pulling, and prying seemed to be having no real affect on the door. Then, of a sudden, the doors flew open and a mighty force began to pull them all into the darkness of the space beyond. They struggled desperately but all but Akkiir and Uphir were pulled through the magical portal as the great doors crashed closed behind them.
Beyond the door was a room bathed in the eerie green light that has been so prevailent in this horror house. The floor of the room was piled with corpses and beyond a corpse roughly placed upon a chair, Janlynn could detect me! Even as she rushes across the room to search form me amongst the piled corpses she did not notice the strange monstrosity upon the ceiling that had captured her friends attention, nor the aura of green energy pulsing from the ceiling into the corpse upon the chair. The ceiling was a mass of black vines and roots, at the center of which is the still recognizable corpse of Lazlo Ulric with the vines penetrating and violating his ripped body - his intestines hanging down, holding him to the ceiling. Set in the center of his chest was an oddly shaped green glowing stone. An aura of evil energy could seen flowing into the room of corpses.
Janlynn began digging through piles of corpses and luckily she found me! I was still unfortunately paralyzed by the poison of the spiders bite, but her healing energy made me feel much better, if frustrated that I could not help my friends. Uphir and Akkiir kept trying to break through the door while the rest of the troupe took in the horrid scene. The corpse sitting upon the chair suddenly snapped her head forward and, bathed in the evil green glow, her body began to fill out until within a mere moment the beautiful face of young Juniper appeared but quickly continued to trasnsform into the aged face of the hag we encountered in Barovia, then continued on to transform into the most hideous creature anyone could have imagined, the Hag's true hellish form.
As everyone turned to meet their foe, with a twirl her form turned into a column of writhing beetles which collapsed into the corpses upon the floor only to re-form on the opposite side of the room. Her wicked, clawed hands twitched and gestured and soon the truth of her evil spell was understood. She was stitching together various dessicated bodies into the same ghoul creatures we fought before and they were beginning to rise from the floor.
Nim was upon her in an instant, his blade glowing brilliantly with the holy power of his selfless deity to smite the foul hag a staggering blow. Akkiir, in a moment of inspiration, noticed he could see some of the melee through the slight crack in between the two doors and this was enough for him to cast a mystic spell which caused him to move from his position to the center of the room beyond in an instant. Uphir's frustration continued as she battled her way through the door. She thought she heard some cracking and was driven even further to apply all of her massive strength to the task.
Finn's Journal #40 – Feb 19 – 2018
Having done what she could for me, Janlynn turned her attention towards our vicious opponent. Gathering all of her strength and faith she cast forth a bolt of holy energy at Juniper which seared across her form. She was starting to look like she was suffering from their attacks. Tetsuo verily leapt across the room viciously attacking Juniper with flying kicks and rapid blows.
In fury, Juniper once again turned into a collapsing column of bugs and vanished from view - not coming back right away. This gave everyone an opportunity to turn their attention to the ghouls who had been attacking them. Janlynn tried to leap up at the ceiling to see if she could rip the evil gem from poor Ulric's chest to no avail. Tetsuo attacked in a blur against the ghouls and Akkiir used his mystic green flame blade to destroy two of the ghouls. One ghoul managed to slip behind Janlynn as she was still trying to get the gem from above and she took a vicious wound, momentarily dropping her to one knee.
Another ghoul dropped before the heroes as Juniper appeared once again from a column of bugs across the room, this time with my paralyzed, gore drenched form in her clutches, her free hand poised to rip my throat out in a fraction of a moment. All I could do was look on in my paralyzed state, as all of my friends rushed forward to save my life. Before her wicked claws could rip out my throat, and before my friends could reach me, a blast of pure golden light rushed forth from Janlynn and blasted the evil hag to ashes.
Immediately the great doors are flung open and a frustrated Uphir rushes into the room, the body from the ceiling fell as the black vines begin to wither on the ceiling. Tetsuo was standing beneath and the rotten form of Ulric collapsed upon him. Everyone was exulted over the victory and excited congratulations rang throughout the room. Juniper had been on our list to deal with for some time. Unfortunately I was still paralyzed and would be for some time.
The ghost of Lazlo Ulric appeared near the fallen body amidst the group of happy heroes. He began to speak to the group in an angry, other-worldly voice. He was as a tortured spirit who had been suffering for ages upon ages at the hands of the cruel hag, Juniper. Feeling the strong emotions emanating from the spirit, they chose to speak of how they destroyed Juniper and a brief explanation of their quest is in Berez.
He just wanted to be left alone, but was willing to answer some of our questions for the deed we had just accomplished. He confirmed that the ghostly girl in the hall who was murdered by the doll was indeed his daughter. Ulric told us that the woman we were looking for, the rose plucked too soon, was a beautiful young woman who very much was said to resemble Strahd's beloved, Tatyana. Strahd drained her blood so that he could take her as his bride but before she could be completely turned, Lazlo and a knight named Gregor (Who belonged to the Grim Order) killed her. Strahd flew into a rage and slew the knight. He left Lazlo for Juniper to play with.
Through Strahd's dark magic, he caused the Luna River to overflow it's banks and completely flood the town of Berez. It remains a rotted marsh to this day, completely un-livable to any sane person. Ulric said we could find the grave of Marina two hundred paces west of the house. What we found was a monument of a kneeling young woman with a rose in her hands, who looked exactly like Ireena. This confirmed for us his reason for wanting Ireena.
Beneath the statue was found a hidden cache containing an ancient looking tome. What we had found was what we believed to be the History of Strahd. What information could be gleaned from reading this tome? We never had the opportunity to find out. We were exhausted and needed a safe place to rest. Our immediate choice was to just get out of the marsh as quickly as we could and try to find a cottage to hole up in for a time. We were wounded and our powers spent from the many battles in the House of Ulric.
We avoided a potential battle against zombies which crept up out of the swampy water nearby. We were anxious to move on to safety. Backtracking our trail we saw a haunting display flashing among the thick mists of the marsh. We saw a ghostly re-enactment of a great battle from the depths of the past. Two large forces clashed together in a great fray, supposedly one side serving the devil Strahd and the other, perhaps warriors of the Grim Order, or the Knights from Arganvostholdt. The latter part was confirmed when a great spirit dragon flew over the field of battle, sending the images in the mists swirling and vanishing before our eyes.
All stood in amazement at the grand display that had played out before us. Not wanting to linger long, we traveled forth letting our imaginations play out the rest of the phantom battle we had been privileged to witness. Not long after, things took a decidedly downward turn, almost destroying us all completely. Sitting in his saddle in the mists ahead of us on the trail was one of the terrifying Black Riders - lieutenants of the devil, Strahd Von Zarovich. Silently emerging from the mists around him were several of the Shadow Mastiff's who serve the devil.
My mind and body froze in fear. I could feel the riders lance piercing my body once again, just as it had done in my haunting dream. I relived the feeling of the ancient power of this creature washing over me in waves, knowing that death surely awaited me. If not from the lance, or the massive maws of the shadow creatures around him, surely my vision of drowning in the dungeons of Castle Ravenloft would come true.
The next moments are a blur in my memory. My friends dove off to the side of the trail hoping to escape the charge of the rider. Akkiir barely managed to avoid the charge, but I was frozen in the spot and felt the crushing charge of the massive body of the otherworldly mount and its burning hooves. I blacked out, but my friends have told me that I was crushed and trampled in the initial rush, and then the silent mastiffs were on me in an instant, my twisted and ripped body being fought over by two of the dark creatures. It is surely by the grace of the Morninglord that I have survived to write this account.
Janlynn bravely ran forward to pull by tattered body from the competing Mastiff's as the rider was further down the trail turning his mount around for another charge. Janlynn managed to stabilize me and grant some of her remaining healing energy to keep me alive. Uphir moved up to engage the Mastiff's in a murderous frenzy, knowing that she needed to reduce the number of opponents if we were to survive this.
The rider had turned his mount and returned for another charge, ripping into our group savagely. He dropped his lance and drew a great long sword to bear on my friends. They attacked the rider with everything they had left. Akkiir and Nim's blades flashed, Tetsuo dodged in and out raining blow upon blow against the rider and his horse. Uphir continued battling the wolves while Janlynn tried with everything she had to help her friends live through this.
One thing became immediately clear - the Dark Rider was impossibly fast with his attacks. Every attack against him was responded to with a vicious riposte and no matter how much damage they thrust upon him, he seemed to withstand it with stoic indifference. He even took blows aimed at his horse unto himself. He was tearing the group to shreds. He took notice of Janlynn and focused his attacks upon her and she soon was brought down before his might.
No sooner was I healed by Janlynn then I was hit once again by a glancing blow from his horse's hooves and I lay in the mud, laying as still as I could, playing dead. I could hear the horrible swishing of his deadly blade and the thudding sound of his wheeling horse's hooves, but I dared not even turn my head. Seeing Janlynn fall, I used the small healing powers at my disposal to revive her before she slipped away forever. I was forced to move slightly to heal Uphir as I could hear her mighty roar of pain as she went down before the onslaught of Shadow Mastiffs. She was back on her feet again, but for how long?
It was clear we were fighting a battle we could not possibly win. It was with the last threads of pride that we even tried. We would not die easily before this blight of a creature and his despised master. Janlynn was soon down again and Nim rushed forward to heal her with a potion, but this soon proved to be wasted as no sooner had Nim completed his heroic deed then he was brought down by the Rider's blade, and Janlynn almost immediately after that.
I could feel all of my strength draining from me and out of sheer defiance I called forth the power of the Fey Wild and sent forth blasting energy into the hated Black Rider. With a short lived smile, I saw him fly backwards off his saddle, and then darkness, as the hooves of the horse came crushing down upon me once again.
FINN'S JOURNAL
