FINN'S JOURNAL
Finn's Journal #24 – Oct 30 – 2017
We were unsure what to do about the vampires, but we knew that Ireena was still in danger. Oddly, Janlynn seemed to be inferring that Ireena should not be at the top of the list as a course of action. I got the impression that she felt that we had already completed any debt to her and there were more important matters to attend to. I found this quite troubling, and another example of how this blasted place hardens our souls. I continue to fear for Janlynn and feel that I have not been as good a friend to her as I could be, for I feel my own soul weighing down upon me in this dark land.
I feel saddened that we had lost Ismark through our travels as I had begun to see our charges as actual friends, who fought alongside us and were some of the only people in this land who wanted to see a change; who wanted to thwart Strahd. I feel of Ireena as a comrade and if she is in danger then we must try and rescue her no matter what the danger. The rest of the group thought seeking out Ireena as the best course of action as well.
We went to the Baron's mansion to seek audience with Ireena. Upon arrival we were met at the door by a guard and, after a few minutes in the rain, were brought into the sitting room to eventually meet with the Baroness, as the Baron was busy. The Lady seemed confused as to whom we were asking about until we made it clear that it was the burgomaster's daughter from Barovia, and she knew who we were speaking of. The Baroness knew nothing about Ireena being brought to the mansion. My feeling was that this strange smiling woman honestly did not know anythying about the whereabouts of Ireena. She said that we could meet with the Baron tomorrow morning if we wished.
We were stymied - where was Ireena?! We went to the Blue Water Inn to see what we could learn there, hoping to run into Ernst Larnack there. He was there and as we sat about enjoying the local Barovian wine, we asked some questions. He mentioned that he knew people who might be interested in purchasing any magical objects that we may have discovered in our travels. We told him some of the tale of our vanquishing of the Durst's haunted house and the strange items we discovered there. He seemed somewhat interested in these strange things and said he would enquire about their sale with his contacts.
Uphir, in her straight forward manner, asked Ernst straight out if he could be trusted and where he stood on things here in this evil land. The impression he left us with was that he was self-interested and would use people for what he could get out of them as long as there was some profit involved. This wasn't what we were hoping for, but perhaps he was not directly involved with our enemy.
Nim, Tetsuo and Janlynn had gone to the church and there had learned some interesting things. Questioning Lucien about Ireena's escort from the church, he said it was the Baron's men - led by Izek Strasni, the captain of the guard. This was the strange soldier seen earlier who had a strange dragon-like hand. They also learned that father Lucien was the brother of the Baroness and this left them questioning whether the priest could be trusted. Had we been putting our trust into the wrong people all along? Can anyone be trusted here??
Akkiir had taken the time to speak with the Innkeeper, Danika Martikov, and felt that he could trust her. Swarms of ravens seemed to always roost upon the inn, and she displayed raven feathers in her hair, so perhaps she could be trusted. He asked her many questions and from her responses Akkiir felt that finally we had found someone who knew what we were about and seemed to want to help. They said they would look into the dissapearance of Ireena and see what they could find out.
We had run out of options in our search for Ireena, so we decided that we had better deal with the largest threat to Vallaki - the vampires in the crates. We investigated the grounds and shed behind the coffin-maker's shop to see if there was a place to bring the crates and one-by-one destroy the vampires seperately. There did not seem to be any good options there, but perhaps we could bring them downstairs and do the deed there. As soon as we got to the door to the shop a raven excitedly landed upon the doorframe and I could understand it's dire warning - "Doom" it said. It also mentioned the Blue Water Inn and seemed that it wanted us to go to the Inn and not attack the vampires for it would be our doom.
Feeling that this was a raven of providence, we followed it's advice. I looked back upon the shadowed windows of the coffin-maker's shop with a tightening feeling in my stomach. We were perhaps avoiding our doom, but we were certainly leaving behind a threat that would need to be dealt with, and if we were not ready now, would we ever be?
Arriving at the Inn, we purchased rooms and went up the exterior stairs to our rooms. The lasses had a room to themselves and us lads had another. Soon we met together in one room and met the Innkeeper DanikaMartikov and her husband Irwin. We learned that they were in fact the ones who had been helping us along the way through their raven friends. They had left the supplies outside the windmill! Finally we had someone who we could trust not only for their words, but for their deeds already done. We had allies!
We learned that Ernst could not be trusted. He worked for Fiona Wachter, the head of an old and prominent family in Vallaki. She had long ago declaired that she would rather serve the devil than a fool and a madman (In reference to the Baron). She wields enough power that the Baron fears her. The Wachter house is the house where we had seen a strange girl crawling in and out of a window earlier. This girl was Fiona's mad daughter, whom we call the cat girl. Fiona's other children are Nicholoai and Carl, who are purported to be the town bullies, doing as they wish wherever they go.
Danika said that they had learned that Ireena had been seen being led out the west gate of Vallaki, in the direction of Krezk. Izek Stasni was leading that escort. If it is indeed Krezk where they had taken her, that is also the supposed place where Visilli can be found. Perhaps this merchant has more involvement in our dealings than just stealing bones and crating vampires.
The Story of Izek Strasni, Captain of the Baron's Guard
They say when he was a young man, he was fishing in lake Zarovich when a terrible tragedy befell him. He was attacked by a monster of unknown sort who had taken his arm as it's meal. In the panic of the attack, Izek's sister fled into the woods to escape the monster and became lost. She was never found either dead or alive.
Izek's parents were said to have died in grief at the loss of their beloved daughter. Izek grew up to be a cruel man and proficient killer. After many years of honing his skills in death and murder, he was captured and brought before the Baron. The Baron welcomed him into his home and took him on as a valued soldier. Izek has now spent many years working for the Baron and doing his dirty work.
Unexplicably, upon waking one morn, he found that his missing arm had grown back during the night, but rather than a human arm it was a strange and scaly reptilian apendage. He was lived with this strange curse ever since. He has now become the Captain of the Guard in Vallaki, and rightfully feared for his cursed past as well as his blood-chilling cruelty.
Finn's Journal #26 – Nov 13 – 2017
It was time for us to come up with a plan. Saving the winery was not only the right course of action because they needed our help, but it had literally become a necessary step in going forward with our other investigations. Many ideas were brought forth - I had suggested dealing with one problem at a time and lure the wolves to the edges of the vineyard and lead them into a trap to destroy them, then move on the house. Tetsuo was confident that his eastern shadow magic could conceal us as we stealthed up to the house, and if we did it down wind, the wolves would likely not detect us.
After much discussion, it was decided that we would go with a third option: Davion would use his ravens to tease and tempt away the wolves to the opposite side of the vineyard (As apparently the wolves hated the ravens) and we would use Tetsuo's powers to sneak up and into the winery main building. Davion had drawn us a detailed map of the interior which would help immensely.
This plan seemed to be working well but, as things happen, we encountered a tight group of six lost wolves who attacked as soon as we were discovered. The battle went fairly well and quickly, using the knowledge we had gained about fire overcoming their regeneration. Akkiir's green flame from his sword and my lit torch finished them off as they fell. Soon we were on our way to the loading dock at the rear of the winery.
We encounterd no enemies at that point and noticed that some of the doors here were broken open and no longer able to close. We all moved into a narrow interior hall, spreading out as best we could. We knew that the set of double doors in this hall led into the main brewery room with it's large vats of fermenting wine, and decided that would be our first stop.
Taking a peak in, Akkiir at first saw nothing amiss but his eyes were drawn up to the surrounding catwalk above and he saw a filthy looking naked woman pouring something vile into one of the wine vats. In the corner of his eye he also spotted something small scuttling nearby, dodging behind the closest vat. Upon spying him, the evil druid dropped her vial directly into the vat and slammed her staff against the floor of the catwalk, causing dark tendrils of smoke to smoulder around it.
Soon the battle was begun. The druid never had a chance to attack as she was quickly taken down by ranged attacks. Of course that was not the end of it - lost children started coming out from around the back of the nearest vat and they tried to bite and claw into our ranks. All manner of attacks were thrust at our assailants but it quickly became clear that they had regenerative powrs as well!
I lit another torch to help out as much as I could. They were coming out in two's from a missing plank in the nearest great vat. Uphir stepped forward to plug up the hole and stop them from coming out. A spontaneous plan came into existance and Janlynn ran up the stairs to the walkway to look into the vat and saw scores of lost children crammed into the vat! She quickly dumped a flask of oil into the vat upon our ememies. Tetsuo snatched the torch from my hands and bounded up the outside of the vat, reaching in to set fire to the vile abominations inside.
Our troupe performed as amazingly as I had become accustomed to. The creatures made no cries as the vat became engulfed in fire, the only sounds being the odd crackling of their dried skin as they turned to ash. It only took a few minutes for the fire to have done it's work and they were all put to rest. Nim thought it important to try and barricade the doors to this large room so that enemies would not come upon us unexpected. Wine barrels were hefted and rolled into place to block doorways.
The closest place to investigate next was the cellar, and we prepared to creep down and investigate, with Nim scouting ahead first. He soon came back saying that there was a druid and several lost wolves among the wine racks below......
Finn's Journal #27 – Nov 20 – 2017
Nim stuck back up from the basement and we started making plans for our attack, but it seemed that the enemy in the basement had no intention of being caught off guard and advanced up the stairs after us. Fortunately, we were mostly in place for this kind of attack, and Akiir was in place to block the stairs, after Nim rushed up and slipped past him.
This position blocked most of the forward charge, while the druid fired some kind of trapping spell that caused vile tentacles to come up out of the floor to trap us. The enemy clearly knew the layout of this place, and with their charge thwarted, they split their forces and some charged up the spiral ramp and attacked the group from behind. We redirected our efforts and tried to finish off the enemy on both fronts, but the druid managed to escape, and call for reinforcements! We pushed the battle right to the doorway we came in and managed to get Aikir back to bottleneck the swarm while we whittled away at their far superior numbers. The mindless drones were pushed at the doorway but we staunched the flow.
The druid still managed to keep his distance and he was not mindless. He split this new force of foes and some ran off to the west. It appeared that they were making another attempt to force us into a two front battle, and our best guess was that we were going to see them attack from the west door. A theory that was soon proven as the western doors in the vat room were blown in by a massive thunder wave and a huge group of wolves charged in! Our foresight gave us just enough lead to make a good retreat down to the basement where Nim hurriedly put some quick work into barricading the middle staircase by typing the door shut. Then Uphir, Nim and Janlynn teamed up to guard the western entrance that was sure to be the next attack point. All the while Akiir, Tetsuo and Finn worked to hold the line at the top of the ramp access to the basement.
We managed to whittle away at their numbers but soon we saw a new opponent enter the field. A new and larger type of lost child could be seen manipulating the terrain, and working with more autonomy than the mindless lost hounds! What foul mischief would they bring to this battle? It is far from over, but we have managed with some careful moves, to stay somewhat unscathed, with only Nim and Uphir needing the assistance of Janlynn to patch up some bloody wounds. Will we be able to gain some kind of advantage and perhaps take down the controlling Druid in this battle?
FINN'S JOURNAL
Finn's Journal #25 – Nov 06 – 2017
We spent some time before bed discussing the many tasks that lay before us and tried to decide which is the most important and which we should pursue next. Ultimately, following the trail of Ireena still seemed the most important.
Investigate Wolf Hunters
Investigate Shaking Wagon
InvestigateWachter family
Cat Girl
Investigate Baron
Purple Lights
Baron and wife insight on Ireena
Find Night Elf living among Vistani
Investigate Winery
Clear winery
Purify wine
Investigate Old Manor House
Find Gertruda
Find Ireena
Get wine shipment to Krezk
Go to the Abbey
Investigate Visilii VanHoltz
Deal with Hags
Kill Juniper, Ophelia, Bella
Find sword
Investigate Berez (hag sanctuary?)
Investigate Bat Cave (hag sanctuary?)
Burn windmill
Find Small Castle/Amber Giants-
'Under Mountain'
Find 'Knowledge of the Ancient'
Find Mother - Ravina (Ravenloft named for her)
Find Holy Symbol
Investigate Undertaker
Find Bones
Deal with Vampires
We slept well for perhaps the first time in the two weeks we have been trapped in this corrupt and desolate world. The beds were comfortable and the rooms were warm, safe and secure. Nim and Janlynn were attacked once again during the night by the hags and we were able to stop them through Akkiir's arcane protections. After days of sleeping in the most decrepid of conditions and being soaked through to the bone, none really wanted to get up and start the day.
We ate our breakfast in a slightly lighter mood than the day before. Janlynn, however, seemed to be dropping lower into darkness, her speech somber and defeated at times. This became more apparent as the day wore on, and it fills me with dread as I do not know how to help her, for I am feeling somewhat defeated as well.
We met with the Innkeeper and after talking with her of our plans, she suggested that we could use the help of a trusted comrade - Hecate the raven. Hecate would journey with us and give what aid she can, making that a great blessing indeed. We attempted a ruse when we left Vallaki, making it look like we were heading east, back towards the windmill and the hags - but in fact we doubled back and started our journey to Krezk. Hopefully this trail would lead to Ireena.
There were many branches of the road to Krezk, some marked with sign posts but most unmarked. Along the road we noticed a fascinatingly creepy manor house high on a hill and decided that might be a place to explore in our travels and was added to our growing list. We passed by the clearly marked road leading to the winery as well (The Wizard of Wines).
We came upon a pack of wolves ripping into a fresh kill which looked to be human. It was decided that, for the sanctity of human life, we would try and scatter the wolves and find out who had befallen such a fate. We fired crossbow and spell to scare them away, but this only made them charge in our direction. As soon as this started to happen, stout Uphir was struck by a deadly arrow and dropped to the ground. Not only were we facing the bloody maws of howling wolves, but now an assassin hid in the woods south of us.
With the wolves approaching, we used our standard tactic of climbing trees, in this case also trying to keep on the north side so that the archer would have less of a target. Uphir was dragged up into a tree as well by Janlynn so that she could be healed and of course Akkir was the last up, protecting our lives with his own. It only took a few moments to frighten off the wolves by wounding enough of them and Hecate was sent to find the assassin. He was gone like the wolves, although Hecate could show us where she last saw him. Tracking from there proved unsuccessful. It was determined that Uphir had been poisoned and Nim brought the strength of Ilmater to bear and cast a antidote spell.
We made it to Krezk and found a well fortified town with tall stone walls and impressive gate, well guarded. The way was not passable and the guards would not even parley with us. Soon, the Burgomaster of Krezk, Dmitry Krezkov, showed up upon the walls and informed us that we could not enter the town as we were strangers. I put forth that we were simply hoping to visit the abbey of Saint Markovia but he remained un-moved by our mission. I offered that we could perhaps do some task for him as a show of our good faith and upon thinking upon it, he said that if we could find out what happened to his wine shipment and deliver it to Krezk, he would consider us more favorably.
So, after a very short visit to Krezk, we were off once again, this time heading back to the winery. It did not take us long to get to the branch in the road that led to the winery. We sent Hecate ahead to scout out the area and she soon returned with dire information. There were many Lost Wolves in the fields and as she flew over the winery she dodged an attack from what was assumed to be lost children. She also said that "The Old One" waited for us.
Well of course, if The Old One waited for us, then we should not keep him waiting long. Hecate led us on a safe course to the edges of the vineyard into a thick copse of trees virtually swarming with ravens. Within the woods we met with the old man Hecate spoke of - The master Winemaker, and his family. We introduced ourselves and he introduced himself as Davian Martikov; his eldest son, Dorian; younger son, Elvar; his daughter, Steffania and her husband, Dag; their children, Martin and Viggo, and baby Yolonda. They were the family that ran the Wizard of Wines. They had been hiding out in the woods since their winery was taken over.
They were attacked by druids and their minions - lost children and lost wolves. The wolves patrolled around the vineyard while the house was controlled by the druids and lost children. Davion was unsure of their true numbers but thought that there could be five or six druids and dozens of lost children inside. A flyover by Hecate could only show a dozen or so wolves outside. Davion explained that the druids were twisted men who worshipped the Night Mother, the great grandmother of all hags. It was the druids' evil rituals that turned souless children into the monstrous lost ones that we have battled. We unfortunately know what happens to the children who do have souls.
Davion indicated that the druids had a sacred holy place to the south of the winery and that the could easily reinforce the winery. Davion knew enough about the hags to know that the one we killed was named Bella, and the other was named Ophelia. He seems to be of the same sort as the innkeeper, Danika, as they both show an affinity for and somewhat control over the ravens of this land.