Day 6: We awaken to a clear day, allowing the rescued children to ride in the push-cart. Hours descending into the valley along the 'Old Svalich Road' before reaching a wooden palisade with iron gates and a half-dozen pikes flanking the gate...wolf heads impaled on the pikes!
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Anxious to drop the children off, we head to the church only to get drawn into the search for a missing relic...the sacred bones of St. Andril...which provide sanctuary for those within the church. Well did, before they were stolen!
Dom...Clear morning as I push the cart as the children ride, entertained by Ireena walking to their side. Hours later we arrive at Vallaki...wolf heads impaled on pikes precede its wooden walls...a bane against more attacks? Yet the gate guards describe them more a ritual for the "Wolves Head Jamboree held just yesterday." We enter the gates finding a stockyard with a few horses, people out and about unlike Barovia. We seek the church on the other end of town, to drop off the kids. At the town square we see men/women/children in stockades...their sins...failure to attend the festival. Continuing to the church, father Lueshan Petrovich welcomes the kids and is open to our questions. The baron hosts festivals every 3-4 days; at least once a week for several years. His belief this protects the people. While the people dislike the constant interruptions to life and work, speaking up will get you imprisoned. The priest also mentions sighting purple flashes of light from the Baron's mansion. But then his thoughts turn to his own request, "Help recover the stolen bones of St Andril...they protected those who sought shelter within this church."
ReplyDeleteMorthos inspects the altar beneath which the crypt was hidden, yet finds no obvious signs of entry. Xoji asks telling questions that reveal the altar-boy Yeska may know something. Confronted, the boy soon breaks, fingering Milivoj, the young gardener. Grilled, the gardener confesses he sold the information for gold to feed his young family and care for his ill sister. We now seek Honrick the coffin-maker across town. But his shop is boarded closed and quiet. As the others knock at the front door, Morthos and I slip to the back door and silently gain entry just as a voice inside speaks out to those at the front, "Go away. I'm closed." The tiefling surprises even me with his devilish disguise and spells as he busts into the room with a booming voice, "I am Strahd's servant come to collect the bones." A puddle grows beneath the frightened Honrick as he cries, "But I don't understand. His devils are already upstairs for the same reason."
With Ireena and Ismark guarding Honrick, we rush upstairs to find the bag of bones still in the wardrobe closet. As we continue to search the connecting material room, 6 vampire spawn arise from various crates. Raising my mace, my prayers are answered as 2 of the devils turn. The paladin Xoji manages to turn the others giving us advantage to deal with them one at a time. Morthos is focused on breaking the shuttered windows to let in light as we call for Ismark while circling one spawn. Radiant damage and blades weaken the foe till Xoji grapples it dragging it into the light where it shrieks in pain before bursting into flame and ashes. We manage to kill two more in similar fashion before our turning wains. 2 vampires corner Ismark as the rest of us try to take down the other 2. Except we are far from the light and losing ground. Till Xoji's fire breath and my casting 'Burning Hands' weakens them more. Death is in the air, us to close to it ourselves, before the room grows silent. "Quick, let's get these bones to the church before more minions arrive."