Kasimir arrives at the winery shortly after the party finishes breakfast. He says that Luvash and Arrigal request their presence for returning Arrabelle. The party escorts the wine from the winery back to the Vistani camp. Luvash is overjoyed to have his daughter back and Arrigal is doubly overjoyed to see the casks of wine heading toward his camp. They offer the party items as a reward. The party divvies out the loot. Bjorn receives the shield (+1 and fire resistance); Gilly takes the gloves (of swimming and climbing); Roger gets the tan bag (of tricks); Vannan is given a dagger (of warning) and a pendant (periapt of wound closure); Victor is given a staff (of the python).
They tell Kasimir they have to restore the flow of wine in Barovia and head out to the ruins of Berez. After traveling through the marsh for a few hours, Vannan detects they are not alone. Skeletons begin to rise out of the muck, some with devil-horned helmets. These seems unusually resilient as they continue to rise after being knocked asunder. The party defeats the opponents after achieving advantage with their tactics.
As they approach the ruined town of Berez, a light can be seen on the other side of the stream next to the trail. Gilly swims across to find great menhirs set in a circle with a WARY-looking woman behind the largest stone glaring at the party from afar. She returns and the whole party (sans Victor) cross the stream and talk to the WARY woman. She says she spies on the witch, Baba Lysaga, on behalf of the Raven worshipers in Vallaki. She talks about how the witch has scarecrows as sentries, has goats that she eats or does rituals every Sunday, that she flies around in a giant's skull and that she periodically sends her scarecrows to skirmish with the Martikov family at the winery. A few weeks past they brought back a green glowing gem and since, Baba Lysaga's hut has sprouted tree trunk legs and walks about. She also tells a myth that Baba Lysaga was once Strahd nursemaid and bestowed magic power unto him in the name of Mother Night. She was banished by the queen but still seeks to aid Strahd however she can. She wages war against the Raven folk.
The party ask the Book of Answers on how to defeat the witch. It replies that they cannot defeat the witch as things currently stand and that the gem is under the rug. Also the witch is weakest while she performs the ritual that has given her such longevity of life. The party comes up with a plan where Gilly will sneak into the hut when she flies over to the goat pen. Victor casts a spell and Gilly becomes invisible.
She easily eludes two scarecrows and climbs up the legs of the hut. She cannot open the door and climbs to a window. She pries open the window. The hut seems to look around. She finds an illusion of a baby in a crib on top of the rug. She moves the rug and pries the nails out of the floor boards. The gem rests in a hole with teeth ready to chomp on any intruding limbs. Gilly thinks she can hear her party members offering advice but eventually reaches in. She fails! She inspires herself to succeed. She succeeds! She quickly scurries out of the hut, freeing two cages of ravens that are hung by the front door and escapes just as the flying skull returns. "Nooooo!" Baba Lysaga yells.
The party then decides to kill to the old lady as she takes a bath. They hear Baba Lysaga kill the goats and then peep through the window and watch the old lady get in the bathtub (ewwwww). Gilly picks the lock on the door and Roger unleashes a fireball into the hut. The rest of the party charge in to attack the scarecrows. A bloody Baba Lysaga comes out of the burning hut and raises her arms. She makes a gesture and transforms into a swarm of flies and disappears into the night. The party quickly dispatch of the scarecrows after learning they are susceptible to fire and look through the hut. They find a chest but do not open it after noticing a glyph of warding upon it. They torch the hut to the ground.
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Friday, August 5, 2016
Chapter 7: Just Jump on the Crazy Bastard
Lideydri and Bjorn wake up early and summon mystical mounts for their oncoming journey. Bjorn summons an undead moose. Lideydri, and undead warhorse. They both seem sad but reluctantly accept what their gods were able to provide.
The party awakens, checks on the saber-toothed tiger, make arrangements and then head toward the Vistani camp. They gather Kasimir and some horses from Arrigal. Kasimir leads them through the woods toward the Wizard of Wines. They come upon three row boats at the shore of a large lake. A lone boat sits at the center of the lake, a figure with a fishing pole occupies the vessel. The party call out but receive no reply. The party discuss the situation and decide to move on. Lideydri then notices the figure stands up, picking up a bag and tumbling it into the water. She thinks it might be Rictavio. Roger hears a little girl's murmur. Bjorn immediately guides his moose into the water. Roger juggles. A natural 20! The others jump into row boats and begin paddling. Bjorn has the moose dive into water but is unable to find the body bag. On his second attempt he swoops up the body in the moose's antlers and brings it to the surface. Gilly and Vannan pull the bag into their boat and untie the rope freeing the girl inside. After a high Medicine check, the girl begins to make demands. "Take me home now!" Lideydrii questions the fisherman who admits to taking the girl from the camp explaining Vistani are good luck. He hasn't caught a single fish for a week and he hoped offering a sacrifice to the lake would result in catching fish. He could then trade the fish for wine in Vallaki. Lideydri lashes up the two boats and drags the fisherman back to shore.
Kasimir directs the party to the road that leads to the Wizard of Wines and takes Arabelle back to the camp. The party, with fisherman in tow, head to the winery.
When they reach the vineyard, a man beckons them from nearby trees. He says he is Davian, the owner of the winery. He says that evil druids and blights overtook the winery and forced ha and his family to escape. If the adventurers can retake the winery, he will gladly share what wine is left with them. The party skirts the building and finds a side entrance near an outhouse. They tell the fisherman to knock on the front door, for those inside will give him wine. The fisherman goes up to the door and begins making a racket.
The noise appears to alert some magical creatures as bushes and small trees begins to animate. Thirty plant humanoids form and begin making their way to the winery. Vannan enters the winery and finds a small closet room and a beam that is used to bar the door shut. The others follow suit, Victor reluctantly follows after unleashing a powerful spell. The plant creatures hurl spikes from their hands like javelins but are ineffective. Inside, Lideydri spots a wild looking druid pouring a thick syrup into a vat. She cackles and more, smaller, plant creature begin lurching from within another vat. Vannan and Gilly hit the druid with missiles. Roger blasts her into oblivion with a lightning bolt. Bjorn and Lideydri flank the twig blights and push them back. Roger and Gilly go up to the balcony and pelt the blights still in the vat. They quickly dispatch the twigs and search the winery. They find three stairways up and down. They chose the central stairs and find a kitchen and a master bedroom on the second floor. Bjorn looks out the window to see the fisherman's body being pummeled by blights. They find a wine manifest and see that regular shipments to Vallaki and the Vistani have recently stopped. Also, at one point, shipments were made to Strahd but that was very long ago.
They go down a dark hallway and open a door. Vannan sees a man with wild hair and blood painted on his skin standing on a winch. He babbles at the party, "Nature bows to my every whim, for I have the vampire's staff!" He jumps through the hole in the floor onto a barrel in the wagon below. Bjorn pushes past everyone and jumps down upon him doing a critical hit with his hammer. Literally death from above. Lideydri inspects the staff. Everyone is puzzled as to what to do with it. Gilly then prods Victor into revealing that legends has it that destroying the staff breaks the enchantment on its minions. Lideydri and Bjorn smite the staff and all the blights in the area fall prone.
They return the winery to Davian who gives them wine. He says his sons can deliver the wine to where ever they choose. He also tells them how the winery was bestowed long ago with three magical gems, the size of pine cones, that magically enhanced the harvest of grapes in this region. Ten years ago, one of the gems was dug up and disappeared. The Champagne version of wine could thus not be produced. Three weeks ago, blights found a second gem during an attack on the winery. Davian believes Baba Lysaga was behind the attack. Five days ago, evil druids overran their defenses and forced the family to flee. He thinks they found the final gem and have taken it back to their lands at Yester Hill. The party inquires as to who Baba Lysaga is. Davian says she is a witch who resides in the Berez ruins. He implores the party to find the gems, "For the good of all Barovia!" Both Yester Hill and the ruins are back by Vallaki. The family hosts the party for the evening. Gilly says they should not drink the wine from the vats because they are probably poisoned.
The party awakens, checks on the saber-toothed tiger, make arrangements and then head toward the Vistani camp. They gather Kasimir and some horses from Arrigal. Kasimir leads them through the woods toward the Wizard of Wines. They come upon three row boats at the shore of a large lake. A lone boat sits at the center of the lake, a figure with a fishing pole occupies the vessel. The party call out but receive no reply. The party discuss the situation and decide to move on. Lideydri then notices the figure stands up, picking up a bag and tumbling it into the water. She thinks it might be Rictavio. Roger hears a little girl's murmur. Bjorn immediately guides his moose into the water. Roger juggles. A natural 20! The others jump into row boats and begin paddling. Bjorn has the moose dive into water but is unable to find the body bag. On his second attempt he swoops up the body in the moose's antlers and brings it to the surface. Gilly and Vannan pull the bag into their boat and untie the rope freeing the girl inside. After a high Medicine check, the girl begins to make demands. "Take me home now!" Lideydrii questions the fisherman who admits to taking the girl from the camp explaining Vistani are good luck. He hasn't caught a single fish for a week and he hoped offering a sacrifice to the lake would result in catching fish. He could then trade the fish for wine in Vallaki. Lideydri lashes up the two boats and drags the fisherman back to shore.
Kasimir directs the party to the road that leads to the Wizard of Wines and takes Arabelle back to the camp. The party, with fisherman in tow, head to the winery.
When they reach the vineyard, a man beckons them from nearby trees. He says he is Davian, the owner of the winery. He says that evil druids and blights overtook the winery and forced ha and his family to escape. If the adventurers can retake the winery, he will gladly share what wine is left with them. The party skirts the building and finds a side entrance near an outhouse. They tell the fisherman to knock on the front door, for those inside will give him wine. The fisherman goes up to the door and begins making a racket.
The noise appears to alert some magical creatures as bushes and small trees begins to animate. Thirty plant humanoids form and begin making their way to the winery. Vannan enters the winery and finds a small closet room and a beam that is used to bar the door shut. The others follow suit, Victor reluctantly follows after unleashing a powerful spell. The plant creatures hurl spikes from their hands like javelins but are ineffective. Inside, Lideydri spots a wild looking druid pouring a thick syrup into a vat. She cackles and more, smaller, plant creature begin lurching from within another vat. Vannan and Gilly hit the druid with missiles. Roger blasts her into oblivion with a lightning bolt. Bjorn and Lideydri flank the twig blights and push them back. Roger and Gilly go up to the balcony and pelt the blights still in the vat. They quickly dispatch the twigs and search the winery. They find three stairways up and down. They chose the central stairs and find a kitchen and a master bedroom on the second floor. Bjorn looks out the window to see the fisherman's body being pummeled by blights. They find a wine manifest and see that regular shipments to Vallaki and the Vistani have recently stopped. Also, at one point, shipments were made to Strahd but that was very long ago.
They go down a dark hallway and open a door. Vannan sees a man with wild hair and blood painted on his skin standing on a winch. He babbles at the party, "Nature bows to my every whim, for I have the vampire's staff!" He jumps through the hole in the floor onto a barrel in the wagon below. Bjorn pushes past everyone and jumps down upon him doing a critical hit with his hammer. Literally death from above. Lideydri inspects the staff. Everyone is puzzled as to what to do with it. Gilly then prods Victor into revealing that legends has it that destroying the staff breaks the enchantment on its minions. Lideydri and Bjorn smite the staff and all the blights in the area fall prone.
They return the winery to Davian who gives them wine. He says his sons can deliver the wine to where ever they choose. He also tells them how the winery was bestowed long ago with three magical gems, the size of pine cones, that magically enhanced the harvest of grapes in this region. Ten years ago, one of the gems was dug up and disappeared. The Champagne version of wine could thus not be produced. Three weeks ago, blights found a second gem during an attack on the winery. Davian believes Baba Lysaga was behind the attack. Five days ago, evil druids overran their defenses and forced the family to flee. He thinks they found the final gem and have taken it back to their lands at Yester Hill. The party inquires as to who Baba Lysaga is. Davian says she is a witch who resides in the Berez ruins. He implores the party to find the gems, "For the good of all Barovia!" Both Yester Hill and the ruins are back by Vallaki. The family hosts the party for the evening. Gilly says they should not drink the wine from the vats because they are probably poisoned.
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