FINN'S JOURNAL
Finn's Journal #28 – Nov 27 – 2017
The battle continued unabated for several minutes more. Akkiir was virtually unassailable as he danced, dodged and blocked all attacks directed at him. I stayed downstairs with Janlynn, Nim, and Uphir maintaining my faerie fire, using my fey blasts to good effect and using my torch to light fallen opponants on fire to overcome their regeneration. Tetsuo continued to zoom back and forth up the ramp to aid Akkiir, lighting opponants on fire, and back to aid the fight downstairs. Uphir was a fierce sight to see as she hacked with massive arcs of her great axe, dismembering and slicing her opponants to ruin.
The fallen bodies of countless lost wolves lay strewn about the floor of the cellar and upon the ramp beneath our feet as sweat dripped from our tiring forms - the enemy just kept coming wave after wave. Soon more druids began appearing, in particular a raving mad, mud caked druid with a twisted bramble of black smoking wood in hand, used as a sort of battle staff. More and more enemies fell before the might of our company and the druids upstairs started sending several entanglement spells down the ramp at Akkiir and anyone within range.
The last of the wolves were killed downstairs and akkiir was holding off the rest on his flank of the battle and, in desperation I think, the druids began to send magic shock wave attacks down upon those in the cellar, as if they were trying to break the floor in upon our heads. This wounded several of the fellowship and a flanking maneuver was called for as those of us in the cellar began to flank up the opposing stairs to meet the spell casting druids in the main hall. We had to stop their shockwave attacks!
As we charged across the floor of the main hall, the druids moved to intercept us. Uphir, with a massive show of force and power, hacked right through the first druid and in the flash of a moment sent a second attack to cleave the second druid in twain!! Never have I seen such masterful attacks, nor I think had the druids, for the sure terror in their eyes betrayed their awe of their opponant and the certainty of their deaths at her hand. With the death of the druids the fight was all but over and Uphir and Akkiir finished off the last of the wolves on the ramp.
Exhausted, we rested but a few moments before we searched the rest of the upstairs, noticing that some of the bedrooms and office above had been ransacked. No enemies remained. Flocks of ravens began to enter the winery through rookery holes near the ceiling of the main hall and their fluttering soon filled the rafters. The raven's declaired that no opponants had managed to escape - meaning that the druid who had fled had been handled by those outside. We called for Martikov and his kin to return. We had won the day!
As we finally rested, we learned much from Davian about the evil druids, the hags and the devil Strahd. He shared with us the secret of the Wizard of Wines winery - the magic that allowed the vines and grapes to grow in the inhospitable landscape of Barovia. A powerful wizard originally created the winery and powered the magic of the place with three magical "Titanite gemstones". At some point Strahd gave the winery to Dmitry Krezkov's ancestors and the Martikov's now own it through marriage, long ago. The Night Mother, ruler of the druids, has stolen these gemstones and that is precisely why they have attacked the winery.
The Black Bramble, the smoking staff the druid carried, is a piece of the huge corrupted " " tree that the druids use to power their dark magics, including creating lost children. Somehow the Night Mother used the power of one of the Titanite stones to corrupt the ancient tree. The process to create lost children is truly horrible. They take a child who is soulless and bury them alive and after 24 hours or so they emerge from the cursed ground as one of the Night Mother's minions. We must destroy the tree!!!
The ruined city of Berez, a likely hiding spot for our hated Mere Hags, is where the second stone was brought. The Nightmother used this stone to corrupt another huge Banyan tree stump, in which she had created a home for herself, giving it the power to move across the land. Her home is a moving target and it may be hard to track her down. Davion has eyes and ears throughout the land searching and watching.
Asking about some of the clues we had been given by Madam Eva, he stated in no uncertain terms that this vistani seer was evil and could not be trusted. Likely any clues we had garnered from her Tarokka readings are lies and possibly a ruse to send us to our doom. He further went on to describe a little of the Vistani powers of divination. It seems that a seer cannot give an untruthful reading to a fellow vistani, but to others she likely does.
We asked about a small castle with Amber Giants and Davion told us he knows of a place at the summit of Mount Gackus that is a cave of amber. To take upon us the task of reaching it's heights would be too dangerous, he said. Impossible. Impassable. To this I say: If our troupe of heroes so sets their goals, it shall be achieved!
When asked about the Dusk Elves, he had a story to tell there as well. The vistani camp upon the shores of Lake Zarovich guards the way to the valley of the dusk elves. The tale of these poor, wretched elves is one of ancient sorrow, for their defiance of the devil Strahd had led almost to their complete ruin. Some time ago in the history of this place Strahd had desired a consort from the elves and they spurned him. Strahd's wrath was almost too horrible to write about here, but chronicle it I must. In Strahd's rage, he killed every female dusk elf to extinction and left the male dusk elves to forever suffer their long lives until they wither from loneliness and sorrow.
On the subject of the dread Lord Strahd and talk of Madam Eva's fortune telling we learned that the only "Sword of light" Davion could think of might be the devil's brother's blade. The sad history of Sergei Von Zarovich must be recounted here, for I believe it is also the beginning of Strahd's tale as well. Sergei was engaged to the beautiful Tatyana Federovna and on their wedding day Strahd slew his brother in a fit of rage. He desired Tatyana for himself, you see. What logic drove his bloody rampage is beyond comprehension. Did he think that she would come into his arms after what he had done?
Tatyana, confronted by Strahd and upon hearing of her beloved's death, flung herself from the high walls of Castle Ravenloft to her death amongst the rugged cliffs of the mountains. The guards tried to stop Strahd and a battle ensued. With the help of his most loyal men at arms, the rest of the guards were slaughtered. It is believed that this was the beginning, the turn to the darkness which turned Strahd into the Devil of Barovia.
We learned of a strange mage who wanders the slopes of Mount Baritok. Perhaps this is the mage who fell from the castle a year ago, in the assault upon the castle? Maybe we will have reason to head that way and find out. We enjoyed the short rest and I played some light tunes to put my comrades in a more positive mood. It had been a long day....
Finn's Journal #29 – Dec 04 – 2017
This cursed land. There is just so much evil in this land and people who need our aid, our list of objectives continus to grow. Save the children; destroy the tree; save the wine; save Ireena from certain doom; get Tetsuo un-possessed; have ourselves "un-cursed"; save whomever from whatever the Baron has planned for Vallaki; destroy crates of vampires; find a dusk elf; find a sword; find a holy artifact; find an amber cave; find a missing girl whose blinsky I gave away; kill a multitude of hags; confront the Night Mother?; confront Strahd?
It's funny, that we have so much that we have placed before us to accomplish, that no one has even thought to add "Escape Barovia and go home" to the list. I would laugh at the absurdity of that if I weren't so battle tired and nauseous from my ever present curse. The pain of a belly full of acrid water is my best description of the constant and knifing cramps which plague me. I would be deceitful if I said that it is not impossibly hard to keep the spirits of my heroic friends up while suffering from such illness. But silent I shall remain of such things. Everyone has such an important place in our group and has earned every battle scar they have won, ten times over. My lot, in absence of wielding a martial weapon, is to try and keep hope alive for my friends as well as use my magic tricks to help where I can.
Discussion was had as to what to do with the smoking bramble staff and even as we discussed how we could possibly destroy it, Tetsuo flicked the dark item up against the wall and, with one well placed blow, sundered it. The smoke and evidence of the magic of the item dissapeared completely. I shudder even as I try to find the words here to describe what happened next. As the staff was destroyed, the most bone-chilling scream seemed to carry upon the wind throughout the winery, leaving all present astounded.
Janlynn seems to be in better spirits than she has been in days after the collosal battle and subsequent rest. A strange exchange happened between Janlynn and Tetsuo as we decided what our next course of action should be. She believed that Tetsuo was under the effects of a curse or some such ailment and wanted to touch him and cure him. Tetsuo politely declined as he said he felt fine, but eventually he acquiesced and she cast her miracle - The monk's body shuddered briefly and we could see a ghostly halo evaporate off of his body as she did this.
Our valiant friend Tetsuo had been possessed, and by the ghost of Ismark, no less. Janlynn had been observing Tetsuo carefully for some time and felt that his almost illogical passion to go and rescue Ireena was somewhat out of character. He was much relieved to be rid of this tortured spirit and thanked Janlynn as the truest of friends. He no longer felt a desperate need to go after Ireena, but rather the appropriate amount of desire as we all felt.
After Much discussion we agreed that we would head back to Vallaki with a shipment of wine (There were only six barrels of wine in total that were believed to be free from tampering. Three for Vallaki and three for Krezk). We would resupply, get some much needed sleep and on the morrow investigate what madness the Baron had planned for the festival. Our next stop would be to Yester Hill to defeat the druids, destroy their tree, and rescue the Titanite stone. Then we would take a shipment of wine to Krezk, barter our way into the town, visit the abbey and see about cures for our ailments, and locate and save Ireena. Those plans lasted less than an hour.
At some point, unbeknownst to the rest of us, the ghost of Ismark once again took up residence in our beloved monk. As we were well under way towards our destination, our speedy comrade lept off the wagon and began running as fast as he could towards Krezk! Tetsuo is uncannily fast and there was no way we were going to be able to catch him. In hopes that we could at least match his speed I cast a spell upon Uphir which gave her comparable speed. I lept upon her back and soon we had left our comrades behind and were rushing down the road as well. We beseached the others to continue on to Vallaki and we would return there once we caught Tetsuo.
As Akkiir and Nim always said, we should not split up. Somehow we managed to be off before they could stop us and they continued on. Our tale, Uphir and I, is a fairly simple one. We made it all the way to Krezk and could tell that Tetsuo had used his uncanny abilities to destroy any trace of his trail. We could only suppose that he had stealthed up and climbed over the wall into the town. We did not want to imagine what sort of trouble he could get into with Ismark controlling him, but there was no way that we were going to be able to sneak in. We turned around and rushed back in the direction of the rest of our comrades and when we found them, they were bloodied from a serious battle.
Better judgement came over the others as they decided that their only proper course of action was to follow us to Krezk and try and rescue Tetsuo. We should never have split up. On their way back on the road to Krezk, they were ambushed by Druids and their minions. They battled ferociously against overwhelming opponants. I was not present for this battle, so I cannot give too much detail at this time, but it must have been hard won. Janlynn had received a most grievous wound to her face, she had been struck in the right eye by a weapon! It was well bandaged and healing spells had been applied, but I have a feeling that this wound may be quite substantial - perhaps even the loss of her eye, I have not been able to examine the wound.
Soon we were on the road and once again the well defended walls of Krezk soon loomed before us in the distance, as the rain pounded and lightning flashed in the black sky...
Finn's Journal #30 – Dec 13 – 2017
The sturdy gates of Krezk opened as we approached, no doubt recognizing if not us, then their precious wagon of wine. Inside the walls was revealed a small village of cottages nestled in a forest of oak trees with narrow dirt tracks winding throughout. A group of people approached our fellowship quickly, led by the Burgomaster Dmitry Krezkov and his wife Anna.
They immediately requested the assistance of a priest, should we have one amongst our members. They had a woman in labor and wanted the blessings of the Morning Lord upon the child. Janlynn stepped forward and announced herself as not only a priest, but also an experienced mid-wife. We all went forward with the group to a small cottage not far from the gates. Some men took the wagon and wine away and, as the rest of us approached, we heard a frightening cacaphony coming from the heights of the cliffs where the dark Abbey sat brooding over the village. A bell was sounding and there were snarling, monstrous sounds as well as screams of terror and anguish coming from the Abbey.
Janlynn did not want the group to travel far and wanted someone to come in with her, and I squeamishly agreed. I have faced and fought many terrifying monsters since coming to this land, but no moment unnerved me as much as entering that cottage. I should state for those who know not the traditions of my homeland, but no male Gnome has ever set foot into the burrow of a female in labor, for it is expressly forbidden. The elder females see to all of the mysteries of childbearing whilst the men gather to drink and tinker in their guid hall until they are called forth to name the gnomeling.
I knew not what to expect, but I wanted to aid Janlynn in any way I could. She needed all the support we could give her while she endured her grievous wound. I dared not glance in the direction of the commotion, as I stared at the wall of the cabin, wringing my battered hat in my hands. Such strange sounds were heard and I could only fathom in my mind what terrifying spectacle was bringing this child into the world behind me.
Janlynn could be heard chanting her prayers and doing what she could. Eventually, whatever their strange ritual, it seemed to be over, for it fell quiet all of a sudden. I heard words of encouragement from Janlynn and soon she was ushering me out of the cottage. I would learn that the child was born healthy, however it did not cry -The child was born without a soul. I felt sadness and a deep chill come upon me as I pondered this outcome.
Outside, it seemed that Tetsuo had appeared out of nowhere and settled back in with the group. I am not sure how that possession business works, but Tetsuo didn't seem any different to me. He quietly updated the group that he had been unable to find Ireena here, so far. He received more than one chastizing glance from the members of the group. Soon after the birth, the Burgomaster invited us back to his home, in gratitude for the wine and the help with the childbirth.
Nim was quite terse with the Burgomaster at first for not letting us in when we came earlier in the day. I tried to assuage my friend and to smooth things over with the Burgomaster. While I regailed Dmitry with our tale of battle at the winery, Janlynn banished the shade of Ismark from Tetsuo once again, tetsuo's eyes glowed white momentarily as the spirit was forced out. Additional healing was given to Janlynn, but she still could not see out of the remnants of that eye, and her face was left horribly scarred such that the power of our healing could not overcome.
Dmity Krezkov was deeply interested and somewhat emotional as he listened to our tale. To my notion, I do not feel that he is an evil man. He told us some of what he understood of the land of Barovia and Krezk. The Abbey was constructed by Saint Markovia. The Abbey once served as convent and hospital. After Strahd put down the rebellion of Saint Markovia, her followers cut themselves off from the outside world. In the years that followed, they fell to Strahd's manipulations and their own petty sins and vices. By the time they emptied their supplies, the faithful had decimated themselves, all either dead or mad. The Abbey thus became shunned.
Over a hundred years ago, a mysterious figure known only as the Abbot came to Krezk to restore the Abbey. He rarely comes down into town, but he has clearly not aged since he came here all those years ago, as he is still a young man. Now it appears the Abbey is nothing more than a madhouse, according to Dmity. He doesn't know what goes on there but all can hear the strange, maddening sounds coming from the heights. Dmitry did say that the village has an agreement to give three barrels of wine from their monthly shipments to the Abbey. We're not certain what the town gains from this relationship with the Abbot.
Dmitry mentioned that the old manor house we saw on our way to Krezk was the old fortified mansion called Argynvostholt, home to a group of knights who were known to worship or follow a Dragon. This group, like Markovia and her followers, were some of the last to stand against strahd and were destroyed long ago. This place may be worth investigating. He also spoke of an ancient tower on Lake Baritok - Khazin's Tower. He corrected our story about Izek Strazni to say that it was not a lake monster, but a Dire Wolf which took his arm.
Later, we were offered sleeping quarters in a cozy cottage with a nice grandmotherly woman named Oona. She makes a delicious cup of tea, which reminded me of my distant burrow at home. We set watch for the night, as it was late, and proceeded to gather much needed rest. The hags attacked again during the night and were thwarted by Akkiir's potent protective magic. In the morning we were feeling much better overall and decided we would explore the special shrine to the Morning Lord in the village.
Oona told us of the special healing properties of the pool at the Shrine of the White Sun, perhaps - we wondered, this would heal us of our ailments. The pool was most remarkable for it's ever glittering waters, as if even though the sky of Barovia was dark and gray at all times, here it reflected as if it were a sunny day. The shrine had a statue of some important religious individual or saint with hands raised upward towards the heavens. We all took prayers there, to the Morning Lord, in hopes for the strength to continue to do good work in this land.
Janlynn was especially moved, and took out some paint from her pack and touched up the religious artwork, to bring it back to it's original hue. I aided her with a cantrip to dry the paint, adding what small help I could in reverence to Lathander. I had taken a quiet moment for myself and gave offering of the magic flute, that I had gained from the Death House, into the indeterminate depths of the pool. I prayed especially for the Morning Lord to give strength and health to his worthy servant, doing his work in this land, dear Janlynn.
Most of us took a small drink of the water from the pool and besides a general feeling of well being, we were not cured of our afflictions. Janlynn, however, was granted a special magical boon. She gained the ability to see through her destroyed eye once again. The wound was not exactly healed - there was still a horrible scar around her eye and her once beautiful eye now showed a mended together split which left the left and right side of that eyeball slightly askew. I feel saddened for her, for people may judge her for her scars and not see the person that I see, who is beautiful both inside and out. But Lathander had returned her sight, and that was no small miracle. Blessed be the Morning Lord.
We did not stay in Krezk long as we had to return the wagon to the winery, check to see if the tampered with wine had been cleansed - (it had been), pick up the other three barrels and deliver them to Vallaki. On our way to Vallaki, we were ambushed at roughly the same spot we weraJanlynn.
Soon after, we arrived at the gates of Vallaki. We brought the wagon directly to the Blue Water Inn just as most people were heading to the town square for the festival. We joined the crowd and waited for the event to begin. Word was circulated that because of the constant rain, they would delay the festival until later in the day. The festival was delayed once again and finally it was delayed until after dark. We had lot of rest time and ate and drank well.
When finally the festival began it was dark, and still very wet, as the rain continued to pour down upon one and all. Still, all were gathered in the square to watch the approach of a pathetic parade of townspeople who approached the square with the Baron and his wife at the head. Everyone was wet and miserable and could barely keep their facade of a smile upon their faces. The Baron and assembled important people stepped upon the stage, moving to light the giant wicker ball, to commence the celebration of the Blazing Sun.
As soon as the Baron tried to light the wicker sphere, the rain erupted even harder and the wind picked up, drowning the flame upon his torch. Even as the Baron's embarassment and ire began to rise, he was thrown into rage at the snickering he heard from a member of the crowd. It was one of his own guardsmen, who obviously was unable to contain his entertainment at the silliness of the entire situation before us. The Baron demanded a do-over. He ordered the guard dragged behind his horse as the parade back-tracked and began the whole event over again.
For some reason I felt that I should try and temper the Baron's mood and approached his horse and offered the use of my magic to help him light the fire. For a brief moment I thought that I would be caught up in his wrath, for he certainly did not seem to take kindly to the notion of a tiny gnome helping him with anything. He expressed his disinterest with my notion quickly and I let out a haggard breath as he headed away to re-start his queer festival.
When he finally returned with his dishevelled procession, he merely walked across the stage, covering the torch this time, and simply lit the wicker sphere. That was it. No large speech; no pomp and pageantry. He lit the fire, walked off the stage and the event was over. Everyone quickly went back to their homes to escape the downpour. Very strange. The poor, dragged guardsman seemed to have survived his ordeal somewhat muddier and hopefully wiser for the experience. We headed back to our quarters as well.
Finn's Journal #31 – Dec 18 – 2017
During what would prove to be a short stay in Vallaki this time, we were able to do some investigating and make contact with some of the interesting people in the town. The biggest piece of information we received was from Danika, who had been investigating in town, and it was that when Strazni and his men took Ireena out the west gate, the guardsmen soon after returned alone. Strazni did not return until much later and had been going out everyday (All day) ever since. This made us think that perhaps he has kidnapped her for his own purposes and she is being held somewhere nearby. We would have to make plans to follow Strazni when next he leaves.
We spoke with the two rugged looking huntsmen, Szoldar Svoldarovich & Yevgeni Krushkin, who were pleased to talk about wolves, the hunting and eating of such, and little else. I bought them an ale and found that they seemed very interested in gnomes and my family history. I could have talked all night, but of course my friends felt our time would be better spent elsewhere. Nice chaps, these men.
We spoke with Rictavio - The Carnival of Wonders Ringmaster. He was the spectacled man who always sat at the bar with his journal in his hands. He was a stranger to these lands much as we were - brought here by the Vistani. Rictavio though, seemed to think that he could leave any time he wanted through his friends the Vistani. He is from a place known as Darkon. His purpose here seems to be to find the strange and curious to put into his travelling show. A most interesting man to be sure.
We were all interested in visiting Blinsky's shop. We got to meet the toy maker himself, Gadof Blinsky. Gadof is a strange sort of pudgy man who wears a bedragled jesters cap and outfit. His shop is filled with well made, but seriously macabre toys and dolls. "Is no fun, is no Blinsky" is his motto and is tagged to every item in the store. He has a very unique pet, a monkey named Picolo, whom he has recently taken as payment from Rictavio in exchange for a Vistani doll he had made for him.
Gadof, understanding that we were strangers from the outside, suggested that if we ever made it to Castle Ravenloft we should be on the lookout for a unique construct created by his mentor Fritz Von Weerg - his greatest invention, a clockwork man. Gadof would be willing to pay dearly for such an item. He would even trade Picolo for it. He seemed strangely oblivious that what he was in effect asking us to do was to steal from the very castle of the Devil Strahd. Uphir was excited at the prospect of adding Picolo to our jolly troupe.
We found a doll that looked surprisingly like Ireena Kolyana. With a little prompting, Gadof told us that it was commissioned by Izek Strazni. He had commissioned several in the past, each time trying to achieve a closer, more specific resemblance. I am not sure why this thought erupted fully formed in my mind, but the more I think about it, the more I think it is the case. What if Ireena were Strazni's long lost sister? The age seems right; Ireena had been adopted, after all; During the attack where Strazni lost his arm, his sister fled into the Svalich woods - never to be seen again. Why would there be this strange life-like doll? What has Strazni been trying to do by having these dolls made - trying to recapture the vision of his sister?
We ended up purchasing several of his toys including a replacement doll for Myrtle, so that we could get Gertuda's doll back; and I purchased a puppet of Strahd Von Zarovich, The Devil himself. Oh what delightful satire I shall be able to perpetrate with such an item!
We had a couple of more locations to check out as well. We wanted to investigate the window with the purple light in the Baron's mansion. Tetsuo stepped forth once more and melded into the darkness of the night and soon his barely perceived shadow had climbed the wall and was peering into the appropriate window. We used magic messages to communicate with him as he relayed what he saw within.
The small room had mis-matched furniture which had been organized into a study of sorts. There was a dusty rug with a pine coffin atop it, and atop the coffin was a strange animated cat skeleton, acting very cat like as it lay upon the coffin lid. There were many more of these undead cats milling around the room, amongst the many books and papers with strange writings and diagrams upon them laying about. Startlingly, there were three children with their backs to Tetsuo staring unmoving into the corner. Before much more investigation could take place, the young man, who had stood next to the Baron on the stage earlier, entered the room and Tetsuo retreated back to the rest of us. Very strange indeed!
Next was the initial scouting of the Wachter Manor, to see if we can locate the strange cat-girl seen previsouly. Once again, Tetsuo stealthed up the wall of the house and peeked into all of the second story windows. He did not discover very much of interest - Framed portraits and mirrors in a central hallway; two neatly furnished bedrooms; a den or library with bookshelves in it; a strange scratching sound coming from inside that could not be identified; and some rooms that he was not able to investigate as they did not have a window. If we want to learn more about this family we will need to come back later or find out from other means.
Rictavio's wagon, at the stockyards, had previously exhibited strangeness in that it seemed like something large was inside rocking it. We decided we should see exactly what was going on. We approached the stockyards and observed the wagon and this is when we observed the Wachter brothers, Karl and Nicolai, looking at the wagon and talking amongst themselves on the roadway. Nim snuck around to within listening distance and heard them conspiring to come back at midnight to cause some sort of mischief with the wagon. We all felt that we should be there when they did, to stop them from causing some calamity. We went back to the Inn to wait...
FINN'S JOURNAL
