THE ADVENTURE
ADVENTURE DETAILS
INTRODUCTION
A new group of young adventurers have taken up residence at the Pair of Antlers Inn in the bustling city of Elturel. Soon their desires are met as they are hired to aid the exotic Silvo in his rush to head north with his small caravan of roving wagons. Little do they know that their quest for adventure will take them on a dark and terrifying path towards evil as they fall under THE CURSE OF STRAHD.
OLD BONE GRINDER (DURST'S WINDMILL)
Without even really investigating Vallaki, the PC's found themselves fighting their way through Siren Bats, Lost Wolves, Fiends and Shadow Mastiffs to finally gain entrance to the Windmill known as the "Old Bonegrinder". This turned out to be, as suspected, the Hag's home and bakery. Quickly searching the mill revealed the PCs worst fears - The hags were capturing children, killing them, and grinding their bones into powder to use as ingredients for their pastries! The hags had fled to the tunnels beneath the windmill and the PC's followed, battling giant scorpions and Cave Fishers.
After a tense battle against the three hags and their minions, the PC's had managed to kill one of the Hags (Bella, as they would later learn) and the rest of their minions. They saved two children from the Hag's lair. They met a very strange creature who would become an ally of sorts (Snelb), who had a strange connection and much information about the hags. They searched for the sword of light, which was fortold by Madame Eva to be at the Windmill, but could not find it. A new, unknown person or group had used ravens to deliver much needed supplies to the PCs at the Mill. They were warned by the ghost of Ismark that Ireena was in trouble, so rushed back to Vallaki and brought ther children with them.
A few days later, after destroying the Black Banyan Tree and recovering the first Titanite Stone, they ventured back to the windmill to try and finish off the last of the Mere Hags. Fighting through lost wolves, they saw that the hags had been back, but had not started up production of the pastries again. Snelb detected a hag within his sense range, so below the PCs went. They got to the Hags room in the dungeon unmolested, but the hag had escaped into the ether before they got there. They did discover another child in the cupboard again, whom they saved.
They lit the structure on fire and watched it burn to the ground. The hags would not have this place as a sanctuary any more. The group tried to access the bat cave, but after following a climbing trail, they realized that they would not be able to reach it without climbing gear. They decided to head back to Vallaki and give the child over into the custody of Father Lucien.
WINDMILL NPC'S
Snelb - Snelb is a strange creature of unknown origin. He is a sort of fish or tadpole type of creature who communicates with humans through their minds. He is in a rather unassuming glass bottle with a narrow neck that he could never escape from. He seems very intelligent and somewhat prescient. He seems to possess knowledge of the hags and has worked with them. He desires drops of blood to feed himself and is willing to make deals to get it (Drops of blood to grant darkvision to Nim, for example.)
The PCs carried it with them for a short time, but Snelb just wanted to be returned to his little nest in the attack rather than face the prospect of any more Lightning Bolts. Nim secretly took Snelb again and made a deal with it to help us out in exchange for feeding it blood! It is currently still unkown whether this creature is good or evil.
Myrtle - This young girl was one of the children rescued from the lair of the Hags. She was terrified, but calmed down somewhat through the efforts of Tetsuo and his soothing mystical music. Myrtle was given Gertruda's dolly to help her calm down. Myrtle and the other child, Freak, now reside with Father Lucien, at the church in Vallaki.
Freak - This young boy was rescued from the the Hags at the mill and returned to the church in Vallaki. What is different about Freak is that he seems to be one of the soulless people of Barovia. The PCs have since learned that the Hags would prick the children to see their reaction to determine if they had souls. Soulless children would be sent to be turned into Lost Children, and the ones with Souls would be killed, ground up on the mill stone, and baked into the pastries.
