Curse of Ravenloft

Bramo fires on Baba Lysaga hitting her with a powerful bolt of fire. Riley leaves Zaleria to deal with Baba Lysaga. With her back turned, a portal appears beside Zaleria and she steps through it teleporting away. Bronwyn tries to shoot down Baba Lysaga, but her eldritch blasts strike the skull instead. Johan closes in on the witch and steps through the mist to teleport above the skull. He lands on the uneven surface of the skull and slips falling twenty feet to the ground below, injuring himself.

McCoy frees himself from the black tentacles and joins Johan near the swamp huts with Ireena. Baba Lysaga summons insect swarms around them and casts a finger of death at Bramo; the death magic nearly killing him! She pulls the skull back away from the huts and towards the nearby cemetery.

Verushka angrily shakes her fists at the retreating witch and hops down off the roof smashing away the insects attacking Johan. Elora moves onto the walkway and fires scorching rays of fire at Baba Lysaga but only one of them hits her.

Suddenly, Baba Lysaga’s Hut comes to life and attacks them! The roots of the tree tear out of the ground as it lumbers over towards them. It glows with a green light reminiscent of Wintersplinter. It stretches out long limbs which come crashing down on top of McCoy and Verushka.

Riley drinks one of her potions of invulnerability and joins the fight against the insect swarms. Bramo uses his flame cannon against a scarecrow and takes cover in the church ruins. McCoy leaps inside of the hut searching for a way to disable it. Inside the hut is a simple bed, desk, bathtub, and an iron-bound chest all of which are bolted to the floor. In the center of the room is a young boy with black hair sitting in a wooden crib he is much too old for. He casually says hello to McCoy.

Nailed to the ceiling above the bathtub is a woman with long, black hair, bone white skin, glowing pink eyes, and horns coming out of her head. She is impaled on multiple iron rods which have been bent to hold her in place. Her throat is covered in scars and bears a freshly healed wound. She feebly cries out for help. McCoy rushes over to her and tries to pry open the bars but isn’t strong enough.

From far across the swamp, Zaleria launches bolts of eldritch energy at Elora injuring her badly. On the far side of the huts, Bronwyn takes cover beneath the branches of a nearby tree, and fires eldritch bolts of her own at Baba Lysaga, but fails to hit her. Most of the group is gathered near the huts fighting the insect swarms. Baba Lysaga launches a fireball at the group badly burning Verushka, Ireena, and Lancelot and singing Johan, Bronwyn, and Riley.

Badly hurt and terrified by the fire, Verushka panics and runs away from the battle. Riley runs over to the hut to help McCoy. She too is startled by the scene inside. She greets the boy, and he tells her his name is Strahd. Ignoring that, she asks the boy if it would be all right if she moved his crib. He tells it is okay, but his mother told him to stay in the crib and he has to obey his mother. Riley can see the Martikov gem glowing beneath the floorboards once she moves the crib. She reaches down to pry them up, but the boards grow wooden teeth and bite her! McCoy also tries to grab the gem but is bitten by the hut.

Baba Lysaga goes into a rage when she sees Riley enter the hut. She screams for her to “get away from the boy!” She casts a spell and the hut is filled with an enormous cloud of heavy, poisonous, green gas. The gas spills out of the hut to the ground engulfing Lancelot as well. McCoy and Riley both resist the poison’s effects but even Laura is coughing and gagging on the gas. The boy Strahd seems unaffected.

Taking aim at the witch, Elora unleashes a powerful lightning bolt which tears through Baba Lysaga killing her and sending the skull of Argynvost crashing to the ground. The hut continues to attack and flattens Johan and Bramo, knocking both of them unconscious. Riley dodges the teeth of the hut and manages to pry open the floorboards and snatch out the gem. The hut halts and settles down going inert.

Seeing Baba Lysaga defeated, Zaleria turns and runs. Johan is healed and returns to consciousness. He telepathically commands his skeletal horse to keep an eye out for Zaleria and come to him if it spots her. The skeletal horse spies the witch running through the fog and gallops past her towards Johan. Riley is in pursuit on foot and meets up with the horse. Johan commands it to let her ride it. She rides off after Zaleria fashioning a lasso from her rope as she rides. She uses the lasso to capture Zaleria and drag her back to the village with her.

McCoy finally manages to free Laura from the ceiling, and he carries her outside to safety. He notices the extent of her wounds and concludes that no mortal could survive such treatment.

Bronwyn enters the hut and talks with the boy Strahd. She learns that he has a very limited worldview and is ignorant of the outside world. He is smart and friendly and devoted to his mother. He tells her she is outside riding around in her skull and will be back soon. He is waiting for her to return. He has to wait in the crib for her because that’s what mother told him to do, and he must obey mother.

Bronwyn searches the hut for anything of interest. She looks over the chest but fails to notice the arcane glyph inscribed on it. When she touches the chest, it explodes in a wave of thunder much to the boy Strahd’s amusement. Hearing the explosion, Elora enters the hut to see what is going on. She is horrified by the little Strahd but comes over to help Bronwyn with the chest. She examines it and sees that the glyph that protected it has been disarmed and the chest is unlocked. She opens the chest and four severed hands leap out of the chest and swarm over her!

Elora screams! Bronwyn kills two of them with eldritch blasts. Elora kills a third with the quarterstaff she always carries. Ireena rushes in at Elora’s scream and kills the last hand with her sword. The boy Strahd greets Ireena and tells her she is pretty. Ireena is speechless.

Inside the chest, they find a hoard of gold and gems including an exquisite pearl which Elora can use for her magic. There are several magic scrolls inside as well as vial of oil, magic pipes, and a magic stone.

Outside the hut, Riley questions Zaleria with Johan and Bramo standing by to assist her. Zaleria agrees to answer her questions on the condition that she be let go afterwards. Riley agrees much to Johan and Bramo’s disappointment. Zaleria tells Riley she put the tattoo on her as per Baba Lysaga’s orders. She didn’t actually curse Riley she was just reinforcing a curse placed on her when she was a child. She tells her Baba Lysaga only did this to help her daughter who was the one who originally cursed Riley. Zaleria doesn’t know how or why Riley was cursed and was only following Baba Lysaga’s orders.

Riley asks her who Baba Lysaga’s daughter is and Riley tells her she is Rahasia. Riley asks about the boy Strahd. Zaleria tells her that Baba Lysaga made him. He is a construct and not a human boy. She doesn’t know why she made it and all of the other witches found the boy creepy but never questioned it. She thinks it has something to do with the fact that she could no longer care for and coddle the real Strahd so she made the boy as replacement that would always be her baby boy.

They ask about the woman nailed to the ceiling. Zaleria tells her she is no “woman.” She has heard rumors about what she really is. All she knows is that she is a powerful fey creature. Johan asks her if she is one of the three Fanes. Zaleria tells her she has heard that rumor before.

They ask about their friend, the knight Lucien Brightburn. Zaleria knows who they mean. She tells them that her coven killed him and hung his body up in the cemetery. They tell her that is fine. She explains that their friend is dead. They tell her they know, that’s fine, he’ll be all right. Zaleria is confused.

Finished with their question, Riley unties Zaleria. Before letting her go, she punches her hard in the face causing blood to gush from her nose. Zaleria looks at her horrified and disappears through a portal.

The group hastily patches up their wounded and provide what healing they can, having no time for a real rest. They head north to the flooded cemetery and search for Lucien. They find him hung up and crucified on a post like one of the scarecrows. He is very much dead, but they take his body with them to wait for him to revive the next day.

Verushka and Riley carry the skull of Argynvost out of the swamp while McCoy carries Laura. They regroup with Muriel on their way out of the swamp and she joins their party. They head out of Berez on the road, passing the ghost of Lazlo as they go, and telling him everything will be all right soon. On the road, they meet Jeny and her cart. Jeny is surprised to see them, but gratefully takes Laura from them and loads her into her cart.

The group start telling Jeny their tale, but she is interested. She retrieves two healing potions and one potion of invisibility from her cart and gives them to Riley. Then she slaps a wooden coin in her hand. The coin is inscribed with the rhyme, “Pretty peny, show me Jeny.” She tells her to use the coin she needs to flip it and say the rhyme. Then a tree will grow from the earth where the coin lands and Jeny will be there inside the tree. She tells them only to use it in an emergency and never to use it indoors!

Jeny tells the group they have been doing great work, but she questions why they are doing all of it. She wants to know what their motivation and their goal is. They tell her they are trying to defeat Strahd and help Barovia. She asks them if they want to put things back the way they used to be and if they believe in the old ways. They tell her that they do. She tells them there are doing a good job and their faith will be rewarded.

They ask her if they can use her cart to transport the skull to Argynvostholt, but she says no and rides away with her sister.

Riley struggles to carry the skull the way back to Argynvostholt but she perseveres, and they manage to get the skull there. They bring the skull around to the back of the manor to graveyard there. Using the gate that was always there, they bring the skull inside and over the mausoleum. Riley and Verushka set the skull down inside along with the other bones. There is an inscription inside the mausoleum that Riley cannot read. She calls Elora inside to read it. Elora tells her it is written in Draconic and identifies this as the resting place of Argynvost’s body and treasure. They can see that any treasure has been looted and only the bones remain.

As they step outside of the mausoleum, they see a blue light swirling around inside of it. The light shoots out of the mausoleum and up to the top of the chapel tower. The black cloud of hatred is dispelled and replaced with a glorious shining light. The top of the chapel tower is filled with light and a pillar of light shoots up into the sky for all to see. The beacon is lit!

The spirit of Argynvost appears before them and thanks them. He tells them he will always be with them in their fight against evil and darkness. He asks one small favor of them if they will grant it. They agree and ask what he needs them to do. He asks if in their final battle with Strahd if they would wear the livery of the Order of the Silver Dragon. He wants Strahd to know that it was his knights that defeated him. The group happily agrees and the spirit of Argynvost fades away.

They enter the manor and return to the throne room where they met Vladimir. He is there with Godfrey. They are facing each other with tears in their eyes. Vladimir tells Godfrey, “It was you, all along, and I couldn’t remember…” Godfrey tells him that it is all right. Now they are together and now they can be free. They turn to the group and thank them for all they have done. Godfrey tells Vladimir to take his hand and they will go together. They smile, hold hands, and die. All around the manor, all of the souls in Argynvostholt are also put to rest. including the haunted souls inside of Johan’s moon sword and Elora’s necklace.

The party searches the throne room and locate Vladimir’s sword. The group is excited to finally have Sergei’s sword in their possession. But when Elora identifies the sword, she learns it is not Sergei’s sword, but Silverclaw a sword made for Vladimir from one of Argynvost’s shed claws. The group is confused. Madam Eva’s reading told them the sword would be here. They are worried they have interpreted her reading incorrectly or missed something. Finally, after their panic subsides, they decide to search Vladimir’s body. They find he is possession of a longsword hilt with no blade.

Elora identifies the hilt and confirms it is Sergei’s sword. She learns that long ago, the wizard Khazan, acting on orders from Strahd to destroy the sword, had to first remove and destroy the blade. Something went wrong and prevented the hilt from also being destroyed until it ended up here in Vladimir’s possession. The hilt is inert, but Elora can tell that it contains powerful magic, but the sword must be somehow reconsecrated with Sergei’s spirit. Their quest continues.

Before departing the manor, the group takes the time to return the bodies of the Silver Knights to their empty graves in the graveyard behind the manor. They decide they will accompany Muriel back to the Wizard of Wines to see her and the Martikov gem there safely. Muriel tells them that they have done something amazing by lighting the beacon, they have returned hope to Barovia. But they have also painted a target on themselves as they stand in open defiance of Strahd. Muriel thanks them for saving her life and swears to repay the debt.

They travel back to winery and are welcomed in Davian. He is overjoyed by all they have accomplished. They have lit the beacon, returned the third gem, and reunited his family. The group has done the impossible and he loves them dearly for it. He warns them that they have declared war on Strahd now. The beacon shines bright and can be seen everywhere in Barovia. It is an insult to Strahd, and he will not suffer it quietly. Davian tells them whatever they plan next, the Martikovs and their network are with them. They will stand at their side and fight with them against Strahd.

Not wishing to endanger their dear friends, the group prepares to set out for Vallaki. If they hurry, they can reach Jeny’s Hut by nightfall, regroup with Alkazaar, and then spend the night at the Church of St. Andral. If everything goes according to plan.

In the morning, Elora uses her magic to remove the curse of lycanthropy from McCoy. He is relieved he doesn’t have to worry about harming his companions but can’t help but feel he has lost something. Bramo completes his work on the squid beaks forging them into two great shields both of which are resistant to fire. He gives one to McCoy and the other to Riley. Bramo also finishes work on the new wand he acquired in the sewers beneath the Abbey. He carves the wand into an arcane firearm allowing him to cast his spells with increased deadliness.

The group heads out and makes their way to the swamps of Berez. The once vibrant town is now a skeletal ruin sunken into a bog of stagnant water and mud. The air is filled with a heavy fog and clouds of buzzing insects. There, on the road into Berez, they meet Jeny Greenteeth. She is in a small cart being pulled by an enormous boar named Toady. She greets the party and they ask her why she is here. She explains she is here to rescue her sister Laura Stoneheart from the clutches of the evil witch Baba Lysaga. She tells them she has tried many times to save her, but the witch always repels her with her great magic.

The group tells Jeny they are going to retrieve something from Baba Lysaga as well and offer to rescue her sister. Jeny thinks this is an excellent plan. She tells the group if they rescue her sister, she will reward them with 3 magic potions, a magical wooden coin which can summon her, and she will waive any favor requirements for her spellcasting services. She tells them she will meet them on the road if they are successful. McCoy asks why Jeny thinks they can succeed where she has failed, and she tells them that doesn’t, but wishes them luck.

She says their friend the “horny mage” has been hiding out at her shop disguised as a boar. The group is relieved to hear that Alkazaar is safe and that they now know where to find him. Before she leaves, she tells them a naked girl is trying to get their attention from a circle of stones nearby.

The group heads over to the stones and found a naked young woman there. She has short black hair with a patch of white in it and pale skin. She is badly injured with a long, jagged burn running up her side like she was struck by lightning. The woman introduces herself as Muriel Vinshaw. The group tries to introduce themselves, but she tells them she already knows who they are. Muriel tells them she is part of the Martikov spy network, and she has been keeping an eye on them since they came to Barovia. She has been trying to keep them safe with limited success. She explains that Davian sent her here to scout out the area for them and locate the skull of Argynvost.

While she was scouting the area, she discovered that Baba Lysaga had captured a group of ravens and was keeping them locked in cages outside of her hut. Muriel tried to free them but was caught by the witch and nearly killed. She managed to crawl her way to the stones where there were no insects and waited for help.

The group heals Muriel and Johan gives her his cloak to wear. Muriel explains she has lingering injuries and cannot accompany them into the swamp. Johan offers to let her ride his skeletal horse back to the winery, but she declines thinking it would be very uncomfortable in her current state. They also offer her some of their field rations which she declines as well.

Muriel gives them the lay of the land around Berez. She points out the old manor ruins and the church with a graveyard. She tells them Baba Lysaga’s hut lies beyond a large pool of water. She also tells them there is a small village of huts built over the swamp. There is a group of women living there. Muriel doesn’t know who they are, but she didn’t like the look of them. She also tells them there are scarecrows spread out throughout the swamp. These scarecrows are alive, and they act as Baba Lysaga’s eyes in the swamp. She has seen them attack the Wizard of Wines before and tells them the witch is the enemy of the Martikovs.

The group thanks Muriel and heads into the swamp intended to quietly disable the scarecrows as they go. Bramo scouts ahead of the group with McCoy trailing behind him. He spots a scarecrow and tries to destroy it with a bolt of fire, but it barely singes the construct. The rest of group joins in the brief combat and manage to destroy the scarecrow. They are unsure if their presence has been detected or not.

They make their way through the ruins of the manor and encounter the ghost of Lazlo Ulrich, former magistrate of Berez. Lazlo tells them the tale of Marina a woman with dark hair who looked like Ireena. The group tells him this must have been another reincarnation of Tatyana and Lazlo agrees. He tells them that Strahd seduced Marina and was in the process of turning her into his vampire bride. To save her soul, Lazlo and Brother Ludovich, the town priest conspired together and killed Marina. When Strahd discovered this, he killed both of them and used his powers to make the waters of the Luna River rise up and destroy Berez killing most of its inhabitants in the process. Now Lazlo is forever damned to haunt these ruins for his sins.

The group tell Lazlo they are working to restore the land and end the curse afflicting it. They hope to soon lay him to rest. Beyond the manor, the discover a realistic statue of a young woman kneeling and holding a rose. The woman looks exactly like Ireena. Written on the grave in front of the statue is the inscription: “Marina, taken by the Mists.”

As they are studying the statue, corpses suddenly rise up out of the waters surrounding them. The corpse and drowned and bloated bodies that shamble towards them. The drowned corpses are easy to defeat, but when slain, each one bursts open to reveal they are filled with swarms of poisonous snakes! The snakes are more difficult to kill, but eventually they are defeated.

They spot another scarecrow guardian and the spellcasters work in conjunction to attack it all at once and destroy it. They find the ruins of an old church of the Morninglord, its chapel bell lies half-submerged in the stagnant waters. They see beyond the church ruins a sunken cemetery its graves sticking out of the water’s surface like jagged teeth. They avoid the cemetery and head towards another scarecrow when they notice a group of women watching them. Caught in the act, they casually walk over to the women and introduce themselves.

The women introduce themselves as the “inconvenient Women of Barovia.” They have been driven out of society for being too intelligent, for voicing their opinions, and for refusing to be victims. They have found solace here in this abandoned place and seized power for themselves. The women are very upset that men have been brought to their swamp. They explain that land outside of the swamp belongs to men, but here women rule free of their oppression.

The men in the group remain quiet while Riley and Bronwyn speak for them. The women’s spokesperson is Zaleria supported by Hermia, another of Baba Lysaga’s lieutenants. The group of a dozen women are all Baba Lysaga’s apprentices. They have learned from and are protected by the great witch.

Bronwyn tries to convince the women to let them search through the swamp. She tells them they are searching for their friend Laura who has become lost in the swamp. Zaleria tells them she knows of no Laura in the swamp and that her friend is likely dead. Bronwyn tries to insist that they must at least try to look for her and ask again for permission to search the swamp. Zaleria consults with Hermia and tells the group they will not allow them to search the swamp. They must leave immediately or face the consequences.

As Bronwyn is trying to salvage the situation, Riley recognizes Zaleria’s voice and realizes she is the one who gave her the cursed tattoo! Riley loses her cool, calling out Zaleria and attacking!

Zaleria summons a Yeth Hound to attack the group and retreats. The witches attack from the walkways around their huts with sickening beams of magical energy. The Yeth Hound lets out a mournful wail which frightens Ireena, Elora, Bramo, and Verushka. All of scarecrows of the swamp are summoned to the battle and start closing in on the group.

Hermia acts as the vanguard for the witches and attacks the group in melee. When she is struck in combat she suddenly vanishes in a puff of smoke. Bramo builds an arcane cannon which spews cones of fire out at the scarecrows but doesn’t have the range to reach the retreating witches. Riley has to halt her pursuit of vengeance to save Elora when Hermia reappears behind her attacking from invisibility!

Riley defeats her and returns to her vengeance. Elora casts a spell of Haste on her to help with her vengeance. The witches are performing a fighting withdrawal as they fall back across the platforms. Riley catches up to Zaleria, but she too disappears in a puff of smoke. Riley curses her cowardice!

Johan cuts off the escape of the witches with backup from Lancelot and Ireena. A few of the witches manage to slip away, but most of them are killed. The group spots Zaleria slipping into a strange hut beyond the village and they pursue her. The hut is fifteen feet on each side and built into the trunk of a tree ten feet above the water. Two cages filled with ravens are attached to the front of the hut and the large skull of dragon sits upside down in the mud in front of it.

Baba Lysaga emerges from the hut. She is a beautiful, elven woman with blonde hair and dressed in animal skins and bones. She drops into the skull of Argynvost and flies into the air. From her flying skull, she fires a lightning bolt which strikes McCoy and electrocutes him.

Riley runs over to the hut using her great speed to catch up with Zaleria. She is supported by McCoy who stands beneath the hut with her. Baba Lysaga casts another spell on them, and black, writhing tentacles erupt from the ground beneath grasping at all of them including Zaleria! Then she flies back over the swamp huts.

Elora attacks her with scorching bolts of radiant fire, but most of them are deflected by the skull. And angry and frustrated Verushka runs across the platforms and climbs to the roof of the nearest hut to try and reach Baba Lysaga. The group tries to gather together with Johan and Ireena coming around the swamp huts to support Riley from the south. Johan casts a spell on Zaleria to mark her as his quarry should she try and escape again. Above them, Baba Lysaga circles and prepares to attack.

The group slide down the drain propelled at rapid speed. They are battered against the walls of the pipe and drop 60 feet straight down into sewage water. Elora is seriously injured in the fall and patches herself up with a healer’s kit.

The group find themselves in a strange cave with iridescent, purple walls. One side of the room is a giant bowl depression and the other has multiple winding tunnels leading away from it. The group goes over to the bowl and finds it is filled with black tree trunks and tangles of white branches. Bramo ties a rope to himself and heads over to investigate. The small bodies of Belviews are entwined in the branches. Screams are frozen on their faces and they look like they are trying to escape. Bramo can see that the tree trunks are hollow and each one is sealed with a wooden plug. The group decide to leave the scene alone.

They head down one of the winding tunnels instead. One side of the wall has regular impressions in it, almost like a honeycomb. These wall sockets have been filled with skulls and bones carefully arranged and face outwards. As they progress through the tunnel, they most of the bones have been smashed. They find the badly burned body of another Belview. Studying the body, they can see it was immolated trying to run out of the tunnel. The group stays on guard. Further down the tunnel they find a pair of blackened skeletons wearing metal safety helmets which have been melted onto their skulls.

Turn the corner, the group is ambushed! Three skulls wreathed in orange flames fly out of the wall sockets and attack them! McCoy immediately goes into a rage and attacks them, but the rest of the group is surprised. The three skulls shoot jets of flame at the party burning the front ranks. Riley moves up and fights by McCoy’s side, destroying one of the flaming skulls. Bronwyn fires her eldritch magic at the skulls and retreats with Verushka who is afraid of fire.

Johan rushes into the fight with his moon sword. The glow of Johan’s sword has a strange effect on the enraged McCoy. Suddenly, his body shudders and shifts with the groan of metal and stone, the shape of his mechanical body transforming into a mechanical wolf hybrid! McCoy enters a frenzy and attacks Johan with his claws. He dodges out of the way as acid spews from Johan’s wounds.

Ireena moves up to try and contain McCoy and keeping him from attacking the rest of the group. She helps to finish off one of the skulls. Bronwyn and Bramo destroy the other with their magic. Johan tries to grapple McCoy and contain him, but McCoy is too strong and burst out of his grip. The group decides the only way to stop McCoy is to incapacitate him. They focus all of their attacks on him. Ireena reluctantly uses her silvered shortsword against him and allows Riley to get an attack on him which drops him.

As McCoy goes unconscious, his body slumps and transforms back to normal. The group quickly stabilize and heal him. An upset and confused Piddlewick hugs the confused McCoy as he wakes. The group explains what happened move him to the back of their marching order away from Johan’s sword. The group ask him to put the sword away and use another, but he refuses, telling them how much he likes the sword.

Making their way to the end of the tunnel, they find an ancient Wild Folk king on his throne. The king has a long, white beard attached to his shriveled remains with a crown of antlers on his head and a blanket of moss on his lap. Johan determines that the resting king is undead, and the group decides not to disturb him.

They back out of the tunnel and make their way down another one. This tunnel has the same honeycomb of wall sockets filled with skulls and bones, but the walls of this tunnel are covered in gold! The streaks and flecks of gold become more pronounced the deeper they move into the tunnel until the entire wall, including the bones, are covered in glittering gold. They find a figure at the end of the tunnel, it must be over 15 feet tall, but it is bent doubled over in the tunnel. Metal objects of all kinds are embedded in its flesh, forks, knives, fire pokers, horseshoes and other mundane metal items. Its mouth is lined with blades and coins and its fingers are knives and scythe blades. Instead of eyes, it has two enormous gems in its eye sockets, a giant ruby and a giant diamond. The creature gives a wordless cry and attacks them!

McCoy rushes forward to attack and back into the light of Johan’s moon sword. This time he is able to control his rage and does not transform. Lancelot tries to help Riley attack the creature, but his teeth cannot penetrate its skin. McCoy, Riley, and Johan engage it in a melee as it tries to push past them to reach the jewelry that Bronwyn and Elora wear. The greedy creature shoots a flaming sphere out from its ruby eye. The sphere burns Lancelot and McCoy and the heat from the sphere drips molten gold on them.

Bronwyn blasts the creature with one of her eldritch blasts, but it heals the creature! Confused, she falls back bringing Verushka with her. Realizing she cannot harm this creature with her weapons, Ireena makes an opening for Riley allowing her to attack it instead. She implores Elora to fall back, but Elora refuses to retreat. Elora continually launches bolts of electricity at the creature and Bramo tries to attack it with bolts of fire, but both are deflected by the makeshift armor embedded in the creature’s flesh.

Eventually, McCoy, Riley, and Johan are able to hack the creature to pieces with their magic weapons. Bramo pries the gemstones eyes out of the creature’s skull and pockets them. Then they cut and scrape the molten gold off of Lancelot and McCoy and collect it. While the group rests, Bramo works for an hour using a magical flame to melt gold off of the walls and collect it netting a tidy sum.

The group explore another tunnel and find it leads out of the strange purple cave. Traveling through rock and stone, it leads them down to an opening above a verdant green cave with a large pool of sparkling blue water. The group uses a rope to lower themselves down after Johan injures himself falling into the water. They reach a giant island floating in the pool water and discover it is actually a massive skull! Looking around the cave, they see that the white arches leading up a green hill away from the pool are actually the ribs and bones of a giant whale. McCoy is able to easily identify the creature and now realizes that the cave above must have been made by the body of a giant squid.

Rolling around in the moss covering the skull island is a tall, hermaphroditic humanoid with androgynous features and long, pink tentacles for arms. The creature is somehow strangely alluring. It identifies itself as Lust and takes an immediate interest in the group. Lust asks them many invasive questions. They seem ecstatic as they look over the group and make several demands for gifts and references to devouring the group. Lust makes the group uncomfortable running their tentacles over them without consent. Lust focuses on Johan who rebukes them causing Lust to attack him and try to entangle him in their tentacles.

Ireena steps up to protect Elora and allows Johan to reposition himself. Riley, Ireena, McCoy, and Johan surround Lust and unload attacks on them. The spellcasters unleash their magic on Lust, but Lust seems particularly resistant to Elora’s spells. Lust vomits up two swarms of writhing tongues, one on top of Elora and the other between Bramo and Bronwyn.

Ireena tells Elora to back away, but again Elora refuses to retreat. Ireena finally shoves her away to safety getting her out of reach of the swarm of tongues. Lust wraps their tentacles around Johan and McCoy and draws them in. One of the tongue swarms moves over Bronwyn but she bats it away. The other swarm burns Bramo with its acidic saliva as it licks all over him. Bramo struggles to attack or cast spells as the acid continues to burn him.

Lust is killed by Johan’s blow and dies with a disturbing, orgasmic groan. Johan moves to attack the tongue swarm on Bronwyn. Ireena follows and attacks the tongues which allows Bronwyn the opportunity to destroy them with her magic. Riley comes to Bramo’s aid and kills the other swarm of tongues.

After the battle, they wade into the sparkling, blue waters and find the Martikov gem hanging below the skull. The magic of the gem has purified the waters here and allowed all of the lush greenery to grow in the cave. The group looks around at the beautiful, vibrant sight of the cave feeling completely out of place in Barovia. They give the gem to Elora for safekeeping.

Exploring the rest of the cavern, they enter a flipper-shaped cave and find drawings of a ship being destroyed in a battle between a whale and a giant squid before under up under the mountain. McCoy realizes he is seeing a depiction of what happened to him and his crew but cannot make sense of it.

They find another cave which contains a lush, fruit tree with round, juicy, pink fruit. After checking the fruit for poison, they try some of it and see that it magically heals them.

In another cave they find a treasure trove overgrown with moss. There are all kinds of treasures, coins, and art objects and pieces of a sailing ship all coming from the ship the Augusta. Included in the pile is the mermaid masthead and namesake of the ship. The wooden mermaid has long, black hair and stretches her arms out before her. McCoy recalls that the masthead was enchanted to part fog in the path of the ship. McCoy recognizes the masthead as the woman he has been dreaming of every night. He remembers clinging to her in the water as the ship sank trying not to drown. Overcome with emotion, McCoy gently strokes the face of the masthead.

Going through the riches, the find a large horde of coins and toy boat which McCoy’s daughter made for him. McCoy takes the boat and identifies a barrel in the horde as a Cistern of Crystal Waters. He tells them it contains a magical pearl which purifies any liquid placed into the barrel. His crew used it to turn seawater into drinking water while at sea. The group collects the treasure with the intention of using the magical cistern as a replacement for the gem to purify the water.

In another cave, the group finds a giant squid beak. Bramo studies the beak and determines he could forge this beak into two great, magical shields. They take the beak along with them.

Heading to the whale’s tail, they find the cavern filled with fronds hanging from the ceiling. Beyond them is the captain’s cabin from the Augusta. McCoy brushes the fronds aside and enters the cabin alone. Inside, he encounters a monstrous figure perched on the cabin’s desk, an eight-foot-tall humanoid with tanned skin that is puckered along the seams. It wears a cape of human flesh that is a part of its own body. Its head is enlarged with a small, slit mouth and a single massive eyeball. Sitting atop the head is an ancient captain’s hat.

McCoy greets the captain and identifies himself showing all due respect and courtesy. The prideful captain chides McCoy for showing up late for duty but is otherwise unbothered by his appearance. McCoy asks a few questions about what happened here, and Pride explains how their ship was destroyed in a storm by a whale and a giant squid. Somehow the ship ended up here beneath the mountain. Later the Abbot came along and gave them new bodies but discarded them down here beneath the Abbey. Pride has reassembled the crew of the Handsome Boys here and now rules over them as captain. Pride tries to press McCoy into service, but McCoy manages to fool him and slip away.

McCoy returns to the group and explains the situation to the group. He tells them that they can fight and kill Pride if they want to, but he doesn’t think there’s anything else to learn here and they can just leave if they want to. He realizes that the “captain” he spoke to was not the actual captain of the Augusta but Gordon “Too Vain” Vaybe, a wannabe captain who finally got his wish. Thinking back, he realizes that the other Sins were also members of his crew transformed by the Abbot; each one embodying their worst traits.

McCoy isn’t sure how or why his ship ended up here, but it’s clear that crash must have happened hundreds of years ago. He has been dead much longer than he first believed. The wife and child he has been trying to return to have been dead for centuries. The girl he was watching back in Rivenstorm is at best a distant descendant or possibly a total stranger.

A dejected McCoy tells the group they should just leave. There’s no point in killing any more of the Sins. There’s no point to any of it. On their way out, they place the Cistern beneath the skull in the water to purify any water that passes over it.

They find a tunnel formed by a final blast from the whale’s blowhole which leads out of the cavern to the cliffs outside near Krezk. They use ropes and climbing gear to descend to the ground outside of the town. Johan summons his skeletal horse, and the group departs.

They arrive back at the Wizard of Wines and are greeted by the Martikovs. They tell them that Pietro is safe and there have been no incidents. They sit down to dinner and the Martikovs tell them that Vallaki has undergone a revolution in their absence. The Baron Vallakovich and his family have all been killed. Izek’s fate is unknown. Lady Fiona Watcher now rules over the town. The ban on saying Strahd’s name has been lifted and the mandatory festivals have been canceled.

The group shows Davian the gem the recovered from beneath the Abbey. They explain that 10 years ago it was taken from the winery by the Abbot who is an angel in disguise. His son Urwin has been telling the truth all along. Davian is moved to tears and chides himself for being a fool. He thanks the group and embraces Johan. He opens a bottle of Red Dragon Crush for them excited that they can once again produce it!

The group rests at the winery for the night. They plan to head to Berez the next day, then on to Vallaki the following day to collect Kasimir and finally head to the Amber Temple. They all have the dreadful feeling that time is running out.

Elora is inconsolable. Her every movement is excruciating pain. What remains of her skin is sensitive to the clothes she wears and even the air. What hurts most of all, is that she can recall none of what she read in her dream the night before. She has damned herself for nothing. She spends the morning wailing and crying as Ireena tries to console her. The Martikovs give the group space, not wanting to pry into whatever they are going through. Riley searches through the winery and with some help from Stefania locates some bandages for Elora.

Bramo is also panicking. He tries to scream over and over again, but with no mouth all he can manages is a hollow moan. Bronwyn is able to hear Bramo’s words in her mind. She takes hold of him and communicates with him telepathically trying to calm him down. With Bronwyn’s help, Bramo learns he has a limited telepathy he can use to communicate with others. He also learns that he no longer needs to eat or drink. He wonders how he will be able to use his spells without the ability to speak.

Johan tries to tell everyone that things aren’t so bad. A few changes don’t matter as long as they are able to accomplish their goals. The rest of the group is not convinced. They are all deeply uncomfortable with these developments and particularly Johan’s worsening condition. They wonder what they have gotten themselves into.

After a long discussion, the group decides to press on. Their next destination will be a return to the Abbey of St. Markovia. No one is anxious to see the Abbot again, but they need to enter the sewers and find the missing gem. They decide to leave Pietro behind in the care of the Martikovs. They agree to look after the boy and Johan has a terse goodbye with his son.

Lucien tells the group he will part ways with them again since they are headed to the Abbey. He will instead head to the swamps of Berez and see what he can discover there. Riley warns him to be careful and not get into any more trouble on his own. He assures them he will not, but they all know that he will.

Elora is despondent and unresponsive, simply going along with whatever the group asks of her. She rides Johan’s skeletal horse while the rest of the group walks to Krezk. They reach the gates which are now fully manned with the guards. The guards refuse to let them in due to the recent attacks. The group explains that they were there a few days ago with a shipment of wine. Since they have no wine now, the guards will not let them enter. They ask instead to speak with the baron, Dmitri.

Bramo advises Johan not to bring his horse into the town. He tells him the image of a man covered in boils riding a skeletal horse through a town ravaged by death and disease would not go over well. Johan agrees to leave his horse outside.

Dmitri arrives, but is also hesitant to allow them entry. He asks what business they have in Krezk, and they convince him they have urgent business with the Abbot. That moves him to allow them entry. He goes to greet Bramo again and is horrified to see that he has no mouth. He starts to panic, and the group isn’t sure what to do. Bronwyn steps up and explains that this is the affliction which they must urgently speak to the Abbot about. Dmitri believes her and ushers them quickly away.

The group make their way through Krezk but hesitate to head up to the Abbey. They are convinced there must be another entrance into the sewer system that they can use. When asked where such an entrance might be, no one has any idea. They discuss the matter briefly but decide to head to the only confirmed entrance at the Abbey.

Bramo uses his skills to construct a device to allow him to cast his spells. He creates an arcane device capable of transmitting sound when he holds the device against his throat. The sound is crude and distorted, but sufficient to allow his spells to work.

They reach the gates of the Abbey and greet its Belview guardians, Otto and Zygfek. They tell Otto they have business with the Abbot, and he lets them inside. Bramo tests the limits of his telepathic powers by trying to command Otto. He tells Otto that Zygfek has insulted him which prompts Otto to attack her with a shovel. Zygfek backs away from him in fear. Verushka demonstrates increased social skills by greeting the two of them, asking how they, separating the two of them, and asking for consent to pet Otto. Otto is afraid and refuses, and Verushka accepts his answer.

All the commotion at the gate draws the attention of the Abbot. He peers from his window and watches the group. They quickly move past the window not making eye contact with him, hoping to avoid a confrontation. Verushka waves to the Abbot as she passes. The Abbot smiles back and waves, seemingly pleased with her progress.

The group move quickly to the shed outside the garden. They lift the hatch revealing a ladder descending into darkness. Johan is nervous about the tight spaces and wants to go in first. He climbs down the ladder into the darkness and falls as he reaches the ladder. He drops to the ground, but lands on his feet. He draws his moon sword and shines its light into the room. He sees that the ladder is broken and ends ten feet before the bottom. He calls up and tells the group about it. McCoy ties a rope to the top rung of the ladder, and they all use it to descend the final ten feet.

They find themselves in a stone room with pairs of doors to the north and south and a tunnel leading east. There is a sluice gate in the center of the room. Sewage drips from above onto a pile of bodies and debris and then drains along a channel into the tunnel. Bramo telepathically tells Verushka to search through the bodies. Verushka asks out loud if they want her to search the bodies. Mistaking her question for volunteering to help, they tell her to search the bodies.

As she searches the bodies, some of the animate and attack her! Riley and Lancelot rush over and attack the undead. With some help from Verushka, they make quick work of the undead and destroy them. Examining the bodies reveals that many of them are quite old. They all appear to be the bodies of other Belviews, but the oldest bodies are less monstrous and deformed. The pile of bodies shows their increasing degeneration over time.

The group tries to open a sturdy, locked door to the north, but they cannot manage it. Bramo fails to pick the lock after multiple attempts and McCoy fails to batter it down. They finally decide to search the other rooms instead. The other door to the north reveals moldy crates filled with supplies. They find among the supplies cloth, elastic bands, a rusted lantern, some oil flasks, and a key and take them. They use the key on the locked door.

Behind the locked door they find satchels, buckets, bags, and sacks all used to haul away stone. McCoy notices a path through all the equipment that leads him to a secret door on the far wall. Opening the door reveals a horrific scene. Two corpses lay inside, locked eternally in poses of combat as they try to strangle and gouge each other. They are fighting over a large container which has cracked open to reveal an enormous pile of gold and riches. The entire group is convinced this gold is cursed, and they all back away quickly, refusing to have anything to do with it.

They struggle with another locked door to the south and check the other door instead. This door disintegrates at their touch due to its age and decay. Inside, the room is completely filled with rocks, stone, and rubble. Put to one side by the door are some special items: a fossilized fish, a geode, a shiny, purple rock, and a stone with partial inscription on it. Elora uses a magic ritual to decipher to inscription. It mentions something about tending a garden and sleeping in eternal peace.

They break into the other room and find two corpses seated at a desk. The floor is covered in a purple fungus. Johan volunteers to enter the room and is attacked by the fungus. It lashes out at him and also reaches through the door to attack McCoy and Bramo. McCoy and Johan quickly cut the fungus to pieces. Investigating the bodies, they discover a woman at the desk has stabbed herself through the heart with a fine rapier. Across from her, a man has slit his own throat with a dagger. Dark, blood stains cover the floor beneath them.

On the desk is a ledger. Reading through it, Johan discovers that the Belviews had ambitious plans to improve their family’s status in Barovia undertaking this large construction project building the Abbey’s sewer system. However, later entries reveal that the Belviews dug too deeply and unleashed some kind of curse on themselves which has damned them. Johan takes some gold and honey from the desk along with the ledger and leaves.

The group head down the drainage pipes into the sewage network. Bramo and McCoy both become nauseated by the terrible stench of the sewage. They reach an intersection where the tunnel narrows and branches. Johan is uncomfortable in the tunnels and asks to go last as they enter the tunnels single file. They make their way down one branch which splits again into two tunnels. They follow one branch to a collapsed tunnel. The collapsed tunnel has two signs posted in it. One which instructs the workers to “DIG NO FURTHER” and another which is a strange poem memorializing the fallen Belview workers.

The group is forced to turn around and they head down the other branch with Johan now in the lead. This tunnel leads to an enormous swarm of maggots and their queen! Bramo annihilates the swarm with a powerful bolt of fire and also damages the queen. Johan finishes off the maggot queen with his sword. They search through the remains and find only the bones of the maggots’ prey.

They backtrack to the original intersection and head down the other tunnel. They find a drainpipe which leads further down. McCoy recklessly plunges down the pipe and impales himself at the bottom on sharp stalagmites. He calls up advising caution to the others. Riley ties a rope to one of the bars of the broken grate and lowers herself down with Lancelot. The bar gives way under their way, and she plummets downward. She manages to land on her feet without impaling herself, and she and Lancelot are okay. Bramo hammers a piton into the wall of the tunnel, secures a rope to it, and uses it to lower himself down below. The rest of the group follows him.

They find themselves in a small cave grotto. Waste pours down from the drainpipe above while fresh water trickles in from the cave wall filtering the waste as it all flows to another drain in the water below. A platform above the pool of water holds a complicated system of greased gears. A long, metallic arm connected to the gears stretches over the pool and partial covers the inlet of fresh water from the cave wall. Another set of gears is connected to a plate which partial covers the outlet pipe in the pool below.

The group studies the system of gears trying to figure out how it works. Crude signage on the gears explains that the master gears only turn in one direction. They can see that there are some missing gears along with extra metal rods jutting up from the water where gears could be mounted. A cloth, elastic band lies nearby disconnected from the system.

Further along the platform above the pool there is a crude shed. They decide the missing gears are likely in this shed and head over to investigate with Johan leading the way. As he approaches the shed, a strange creature slowly sits up from the water where it had been lying. The creature is humanoid in appearance, but grossly distorted in its proportions, all it’s limbs nearly double the length they should be. The creature is extremely skinny with loose, stitched together skin hanging from its bony frame.

The creature greets them speaking in long, slow, drawn out words. It identifies itself as Sloth. They greet Sloth and say they are there to check on the water levels. Sloth takes no action and they enter the shed to inspect it. Water rushes into the shed as they open it, and they see a number of broken gears inside. There is one intact gear inside along with some handles.

The gear is incredibly heavy and requires two people to carry it. The group asks Verushka to help, but she says no. The group asks why she won’t help, and she tells them she is demonstrating her right to say no. The group applauds her autonomy but begrudge her timing. McCoy and Johan manage to carry out the gear and place it on the machinery. They turn the cranks to no effect. Then they attach the elastic band and the outlet door starts moving. The outlet closes, sealing the pipe. The room begins filling with water.

They realize they cannot turn the handle backwards. The room continues to fill with water. They move the gear to another location, and this allows the outlet door to open. They have Verushka turn the handle for them and open the outlet door fully.

Riley lowers herself into the pool to inspect the outlet pipe. She sees that she can now fit into the pipe, but the flow of water is very fast. The group debates what to do and decide that the only way out is forward. Riley goes first and Lancelot insists on going with her. They shoot off, flushed down the pipe! The rest of the group follows. Bronwyn and Bramo go down together followed by Ireena and then Elora.

As McCoy moves towards the pipe, Sloth approaches him, and he has an awkward conversation with him then departs down the pipe.

Johan is the last to leave. He tells Sloth they have fixed the “problem” with the pipes for him. Sloth explains that he had no problem. He is content to lie in the water, sleep, and do nothing. Johan nods in understanding and enters the pipe, being flushed down as well.

In order to keep him safe, the group decides to return Savid back to the ground floor of the manor. They return him to the room where they found him with the wine casks where he hides behind the barrels and waits for their return. Then they return to finish looking through the third floor.

They enter a room and find five revenant knights seated around a table. They look to the group in the doorway and ask why they have disturbed the dead. Bramo tells them not to worry because they oppose Strahd and trying to destroy him. The entire group tenses up as they realize what Bramo has said. Everyone looks back and forth, hands towards their weapons, waiting to see how the revenants will react. They are relieved when one of them introduces himself as Sir Godfrey Gwilym.

Godfrey’s memory is better than the other knights they have spoken to. He remembers the order’s history along with his oaths and prayers. He tells them he can sense that the dragon Argynvost’s spirit is not at rest and does not approve of what has become of the order. He wants to the help the group but is limited in what he can do as they are all bound to obey Vladimir’s orders. They are all sitting in this room awaiting his commands.

They ask where they can find information on the order’s prayers and oaths, and he directs them to the study down the hall. He tells them it contains many books, including books about their order. They thank him and ask if they can look around the rooms nearby. Godfrey tells them it’s all right.

They find a bedroom in northwest tower. It contains a nice double bed with carved dragon posts along with a stuffed bear and wolf. Dim light spills into the room through cracks in the tower, but the interior is dark and gray and there is a rainstorm inside of the tower. Looking out the nearby windows, the group can see it is not raining outside and the storm is contained within the tower. They find the occurrence strange. Lancelot begins howling mournfully. The group wonders if this storm is magical and caused by some sort of sadness. Riley decides to investigate.

The rain is normal rain that appears from nowhere and doesn’t seem to be pooling within the room. Looking around the room reveals little as the only chest contained within is empty. Based on what they know about the knights and the order, the group concludes that this was Vladimir’s room that he shared with his lover and the storm represents his sadness over the loss of that lover.

The group asks Godfrey if he had a special relationship with Vladimir. Godfrey tells them that he was a knight and Vladimir was his commander and nothing more. He does not recall Vladimir having a special relationship with anyone. Godfrey seems sad to the group and they wonder if perhaps he was Vladimir’s lover who has also forgotten him and whether the storm inside the tower might be his sadness.

The group head down the hallway and into the study Godfrey described to them. They find the room nearly empty; picked clean by looters. Large bookshelves line the walls, but they are all empty. A single chair lies toppled over near the cold hearth. Above the mantle is a large panting which has been slashed. The bottom of the painting hangs folded over itself, obscuring the subject of the painting.

Riley enters the room with Lancelot searching for a book she can give to Elora. Beneath the overturned chair, she finds the only remaining book, The Oath Celestial, a damaged book details the oaths and beliefs of the order. She turns the book over to a grateful Elora much to the approval of Lancelot. Looking through the book, Elora discovers it and the knights came from a place called the Holy Empire of Valentia.

Looking through the rest of the room, Ireena discovers a treasure vault which has also been ransacked. Johan decides to investigate the painting. He reaches up and places the torn, lower half back in places. The painting reveals the manor in its former glory with a silver beacon shining from the chapel’s tower. As the painting is restored, there is a flash of silver light and suddenly and huge, spectral silver dragon appears before them, the spirit of Argynvost!

The spirit tells them its “skull lies in a wet place of great evil, desecrated by the undying.” If they return the skull to his crypt, then his spirit will shine forever and bring hope to this dark land. Then the spirit disappears. The group understands that the missing skull is what is allowing the darkness to fall over the manor and that it must be returned to the mausoleum. They are not sure where the skull is though.

They consider that it could be in the manor, but based on the image of Argynvost, the skull must be quite large and hard to miss. Studying the map that Wyssilka gave them, they note that there are two swamps in Barovia, one of which is in the ruins of Berez. Lucien mentions searching the other swamp, the Ivlis Marsh, and he found no sign of any dragon skull there. They also consider the skull may be at one of the lakes.

Pietro searches the northeast tower under direction from Johan. The tower is empty except for some long claw marks on the floor. The group concludes the tower was Argynvost’s bedroom. Johan asks Pietro to open the curtains in the room, testing a theory. Pietro opens the curtains revealing the night sky and the half-moon above. Nothing happens and Johan is forced to rethink his theory.

Searching through the rest of the third floor, the group discovers an art gallery of sorts depicting religious frescoes on the walls. Three stained glass windows display images of Saint Andral, the Morninglord, and Saint Markovia. Bramo, Elora, and Bronwyn catch brief flicker where the images displayed on the glass change into a slender, fanged, crimson shadow, a skull with an intricate pentagram on its forehead, and a dark star with many tendrils extending from it. The rest of the group sees nothing.

Elora takes a much more aggressive role in searching the rooms. She is seemingly much bolder than before and makes her way through two crumbling rooms on the south side of the manor. Ireena watches with concern from the hallway while Riley looks on in horror, imploring her to use caution. Elora searches through the ruined rooms but finds nothing of note.

The group make their way upstairs to the roof. It is fully dark out now with only a little moonlight filtering in through the fog. Johan draws his new longsword which glows a calm, blue light in the darkness. Lucien notes the light is beautiful and impressive, but not as radiant as the sun. Johan agrees, saying it is much more like moonlight than sunlight. The light of the sword seems to have a strange effect on both McCoy and Pietro. McCoy feels a strange sensation inside of him. He fights against it. Ireena notes that Pietro‘s face is covered in sweat, but the boy says he is all right.

The group briefly looks around the rooftop, noting a large hole in the center of the roof leading down to the third floor. They head into the tower of the chapel and find a landing with a wide, spiral staircase leading upwards. They follow it upwards, stopping to note two doors which lead outside to battlements with staircases leading down. The group makes their way to the top of the tower.

Ravens roost in the rafters at the top of the tower. In the center of the room is a large black cloud swirling and flashing silently from within like red and orange lightning. The room has an uncomfortable atmosphere. Lancelot is disturbed and begins growling and snapping. Riley tries to soothe him, and he snaps at her, becoming aggressive. Elora tries to investigate the cloud and figure out what it is. McCoy feels a strange sensation come over him. He resists the rising tide of rage building him.

Pietro succumbs and transforms into a raging werewolf, tearing through his clothes. Johan rushes over to seize his son but can’t control him. McCoy grapples with him, holding the beast at bay with his mechanical strength. Riley tries to contain Lancelot, but he is too incensed and slips out of her hands biting her. She is patient and chides him knowing he is not himself and will regret his actions. Lucien grabs a hold of Lancelot and keeps him from attacking her further.

The rest of the group isn’t sure what to do and try to stay out of the way as they move back down the tower. Lucien and Riley work together to get Lancelot down the stairs while McCoy and Johan struggle with Pietro. When they get outside to the roof, Lancelot calms down and seems both exhausted and contrite, but Pietro continues to rage in his werewolf form. The group drags him back inside to the gallery with the religious art and stained-glass windows. They tie him up with some rope and McCoy and Johan stand guard over him.

The rest of the group returns to Godfrey and ask him about the possible whereabouts of Argynvost’s skull. Godfrey tells them that he isn’t sure where the skull is but tells them the battle was fought north of the manor. The group notes Godfrey’s sadness in contrast to the rage of Vladimir. They wonder if Godfrey is the cause of the rain in the tower bedroom.

The group reassembles and decides to leave; concluding there is nothing more for them to do there without the skull. They return to Savid who is frightened and disturbed that Pietro is now a snarling werewolf! He uneasily joins the group to return to the Vistani Camp.

As they exit the manor, they see a raven waiting outside on the statue of Argynvost. It flies over and perches on Elora’s shoulder. When the group starts to leave, the raven cries out, “Danger! Danger! Stay safe!” The group is confused and surprised that the raven can talk, but Elora explains that ravens are able to speak with a limited vocabulary imitating the words of others. Through questioning the raven, they learn that the danger is at the Vistani Camp and the raven is insistent that they do not go there.

When Savid learns of the danger at camp, he insists on return to protect Kasimir. With this realization, Elora insists on returning as well. The raven squawks in protest at this suggestion and the group tries to convince Elora not to go. Ireena supports Elora and says she will do whatever Elora decides. Savid tells them whatever they decide, he must return to the Vistani Camp even if he must do it alone. After much debate and convincing, Elora decides with a heavy heart that she will not go. She asks that Savid tell Kasimir that she loves him, and he agrees to do so, departing into the darkness.

With the Vistani Camp no longer safe and the state of Vallaki still unknown, the group decides to head to the winery instead. The raven enthusiastically supports this idea and leads them away to safety.

When they reach the winery, Davian is waiting there to greet them. He ushers them inside. They ask if he sent the raven to them, and he admits that he did. They settle down inside to some dinner and drinks while Davian has his son Adrian explain what happened.

Adrian tells them their spies learned there was an attack on the Vistani Camp. The Devil’s forces descended on the camp to capture Alkazaar. There was a furious battle with much destructive magic going off. In the end, Alkazaar managed to escape and is now on the run. As far as they know, the Dusk Elves were not involved in the conflict and Kasimir is okay. Luvash and Arrabelle were also both away from the camp when the attack occurred and are also okay.

The group wonders if this means there is a spy in Vistani Camp or if it was possibly the scrying power of the Devil. The group concludes that Alkazaar is all too aware of that scrying ability which would have tipped him off to escape prior to the attack. All signs point to a traitor in the camp. Elora is relieved that Kasimir is okay but is still wracked with worry and regret for not going herself to check on him.

Before heading to bed for the night, Johan says a sacred prayer to summon a divine steed to his side to serve him. He calls forth a divine warhorse and is shocked to see the horse that arrives is skeletal instead. He accepts that this is simply how things are in Barovia and stables the horse. Locked in another stall in the barn, his son, Pietro, still rages on as a werewolf.

That night, McCoy eats another dream pastry and dreams of his wife Gertrude and his daughter Matilda, remembering their names and faces clearly. He basks in the happy memories of being together with them, but upon waking from the dream, finds it leaves him feeling hollow and sadder than ever. From deep within himself, he hears a bestial growl.

Bronwyn dreams of being in the snow on a mountaintop standing before a massive temple built into the face of the rock. It is snowing heavily and shivers in bone chilling cold. She feels a presence behind her as backwards tiger hands lay themselves on her shoulders and offer to make the cold go away. Shivering now with revulsion, she declines.

Riley dreams she is surrounded on all sides by enemies. Vampires and werewolves close in around her and even Lancelot is growling and snapping at her. She is all alone. Suddenly, her shadow peels off from her becoming a hazy duplicate of her. They fight back to against the monsters and defeat them. The shadow reaches out a hand to her, offering its help, but Riley declines.

Bramo dreams of his daughters thrashing restlessly in bed as the suffer the effects of their illness. He tries to soothe them, tears welling up in his eyes. The strange woman appears to him again covered in the red and white fur or feathers. She offers peace to his children. Bramo tearfully asks if she can help them. The woman tells him that she can and asks if Bramo will accept her help. He does.

Johan dreams that he is old and useless and weak. Pietro curses his incompetence. He hates his father and transforms into a werewolf! Johan collapses to his knees defeated, unable to protect or care for his family, cursing his own human frailties. He sees the strange clawed creature with many faces. It chides him for his weakness and offers to make him strong. Johan readily accepts.

Elora finds herself in a strange library. She is surrounded by massive bookshelves that stretch far above her to the darkness of an impossibly high ceiling. She is excitedly reading through new tomes when a red hand appears from behind her. The hand looking like it is draped in a silky, red cloth, places a large book in front of her. It opens the book, showing her the pages within. The information within details all about the Fanes and the rituals required to reconsecrate them, there is information all about Strahd, his weaknesses and how to destroy him permanently, there is also information about Kasimir and the magic he plans to use to resurrect his sister.

Elora is overwhelmed by the array knowledge contained within; everything she needs to know is there! And then the red snaps the book closed in front of her. She sees the red stain of blood on the book cover. She realizes she is in the bloody lap of the tall creature she has dreamed of before, not covered in a sheet of cloth, but a sheet of blood. The creature holds up the book, offering it to her, and Elora accepts.

The morning breaks with screams tearing through the room! Johan awakes to find his entire body covered in bloody, pus-filled boils. The painful sores erupt in a vicious acid; his newfound strength! Bramo awakes and tries to scream, but finds he cannot, because he has no mouth! Where his mouth once was is now only smooth flesh. He howls a sick moan that cannot escape from him! Elora’s every movement is pure agony as the sheets scrape that sandpaper over her flesh! Every inch of her body is covered in horrific burns! She immediately regrets her foolish decision. Ireena, sleeping next to her, looks over to her and screams!

The group return to the Vistani Camp to drop off Alakazaar leaving him in the care of the Vistani. They depart for the ruins of Argynvostholt following the road west through the woods towards the Wizard of Wines and then turning off the main road back southeast up a hill to the manor.

They reach the gloomy remains of a once-resplendent manor. Large towers rise up from the dark manor, but the southern third of the structure has collapsed along with the roof. A moss-covered statue of a dragon sits in the front yard facing the manor.

The group investigate the dragon statue, recognizing it from Arrabelle’s dream. Elora and Bramo are able to determine that the statue is enchanted in some way. Using one of his spells, Bramo learns the statue is imbued with evocation magic. The group guesses that the statue will release a cone of fire or some other magical energy at them should they enter the manor. They split into two groups standing to either side of the stairs leading into the manor.

Bramo goes ahead first as their trapfinder. He searches the staircase and concludes it is safe. He moves up the stairs to inspect the door when the mouth of the dragon statue opens bellowing out a blast of cold in a cone shape! Those standing to the sides barely escape the blast, but Bramo is hit with the full force of it! He is pleased to discover it is merely a cold wind down his back and nothing more severe. Bramo brushes himself off unscathed. The group wonder if the trap was a prank or merely ancient and losing its potency.

The group finds the front door ominously unlocked and enter the manor carefully. Inside they find a large hall with a balcony overhead and stairs leading upwards. A banner depicting a handsome man with long, silver hair and angular features is displayed above the staircase. Multiple doorways lead out of the room and two pairs of busts stand against the north and south walls. One of the busts on the south wall lies shattered on the floor.

The group investigates the busts finding they depict knights with noble bearings. They find the three intact busts are humans, two men and one woman. The names on the busts read: Godfrey Gwilym, Ayfara Vassezac, and Regnier Skelrant. The shattered bust lies in pieces on the floor. Elora is able to assemble the pieces as well as the name and determine that this bust depicted a dragonborn by the name of Vladimir Horngaard.

The group make their way further into the manor through a pair of open doors which led into a dining hall with a long table. The table and chairs were of elegant design in a distinctly draconic motif. Puddles of rainwater and water damage seeping in from the ceiling ruined the dignified atmosphere of the room. The east wall was lined with stained glass windows and a pair of doors with heavy, leaded glasses. From beyond the doors came the sounds of battle!

Fearing it may be their friend Lucien in trouble, the group rushed in. They found themselves in a large chapel with more stained-glass windows, some of which had been shattered. A U-shaped balcony encircled them above, and the far end of the room held and altar and sun iconography. In the center of the room, under attack by three knights in silver armor, was Lucien Brightburn!

The group rushed in to aid him. Ireena moved in behind one of the silver knights allowing Lucien to flank them. Lucien struck with his sword which flared with divine light with every strike! The group was amazed to learn that Lucien was a paladin who wielded the divine power of his god. McCoy, Riley, and Johan made their way into position with Lucien surrounding the knights. Elora and Bronwyn fired spells from the doorway of the chapel, while Bramo maneuvered into the corner of the room to add his magic as well.

Working together with Lucien, the group eventually defeated the knights, finding them to be tough opponents. Lucien explained that they were especially hardy because they were, like him, undead. Lucien thanked the group for coming to his aid again. He told them that he came to explore this ruin as he said he would when last they met. He’d hear rumors of a great light that once shone in this place and came to see if it was the “hidden sun” he sought. While exploring the ruin, he came across the three knights praying in the chapel. He hailed them and introduced himself, but the knights were immediately hostile. He was struggling to hold them off when the group finally arrived to help him.

The group tell him they heard similar rumors from Arrabelle about a light that went dark in this place but could be made to shine again. They invited Lucien to join them exploring the ruin, and he accepted. They asked if he needed to be healed before moving on, but he explained that his undead flesh had already knit itself back together while they spoke.

The group explored more of the manor, discovering a kitchen with a rattling pot. McCoy poked the pot which revealed a bat flapping around inside. The bat flew out and around the room then out into the manor. Bramo wanted to kill it, but the group thought it was harmless. They discussed whether it could be Anastrasya back for revenge.

They found empty rooms on the first floor, abandoned servants’ quarters and a decrepit parlor. One set of doors led out to the collapsed southern wing. The room was exposed to the outside fog and choked with thick spiderwebs. The group decided it was best to leave the room alone.

In one room that found a suspicious sarcophagus propped up against one wall. Fearing what might be inside, they prepared for battle as McCoy opened it. Inside were only the smashed remains of glasses and bottles from what was once a wine cabinet. Investigating the fireplace there, McCoy saw a small ember burning which flared to life as a small dragon made of living flame! The dragon spoke to them telling them that his knights had fallen to darkness. It implored the group to save them by reminding them of the light. Then the flame dragon disappeared.

The group took the message to mean they were meant to save the knights here and restore the light. They decided they should try not to kill any more of the knights if they could help it. Lucien reminded them that the knights they had slain were undead revenants such as himself, and they could not permanently kill them. They would return in time.

Exploring the last room of the first floor, they wound several moldy casks of wine in a storage room. Hidden towards the back of the room was a wounded Dusk Elf named Savid. He weakly asked them to identify themselves, and they told him in Elven that they were friends. He relaxed, pleased to hear his native tongue. He explained that he was out searching for a missing Vistani girl named Arrabelle who had gone missing several days ago. He was ambushed in the woods by a horde of blights who had wounded him badly. He fled them to the relative safety of the ruin. He had lain here for a few days now without food trying to recover his strength to no avail.

The group work to heal and feed Savid and explain that they had found and rescued Arrabelle a few days ago. Savid felt foolish for being injured on a pointless quest which had already been completed but reassured him that he had done a good thing. They were planning to return to the Vistani Camp after exploring the ruin and invited Savid to join them. He accepted, telling them he would help as best he could with his sword and bow.

While speaking with Savid he innocently said Strahd’s name, prompting the group to hush him. They tried to create a cover story, saying they had come here to recover the elf and were now leaving to take him home. None knew if Strahd were still watching or if he accepted their ruse.

The group made their way up to the second-floor balcony. There they saw hallways and doors leading off into the manner as well as four more busts. They went down the north hall to search a room there. A hiss issued from the fireplace, and McCoy went to investigate it. A dragon made of spoke appeared, hissing and flapping its wings. McCoy tried to talk to it, but it flew past him out the room. The group watched it fly down the hall, around the corner, and up the stairs. They decided to follow it.

The smoke dragon led them up to the third floor. They followed its sooty trail out to a large room where a hole had collapsed in the ceiling and chunks of the walls had collapsed. The trail lead into the room to the west and they entered to see a room overlooking the front of the manor. Among the ruin, facing away from them, sat a large, wooden throne shaped like dragon’s wings. Slumped in the throne was a still figure clutching a greatsword in one hand. The sword’s pommel was a silver-inlaid dragon’s head and the crossguard was shaped like spread dragon’s wings.

They called out to the figure in Common and Draconic but got no reply. Staring at the figure, they remembered the words of Madam Eva, “The treasure lies in a dragon’s house, in hands once clean and now corrupted.” They wondered if these could be the treasure they sought, if this could be Sergei’s sunsword. They approached the figure cautiously, Riley and Elora circled around one side and Johan and McCoy circled the other.

The figure in the chair was a dragonborn knight in armor. It was completely still and appeared to be dead. Warily, they approached to inspect the sword and see if it was magical. As Elora got close enough to study it, the figure spoke in a growling voice and told them to “Go away.” The group persisted and the figure threatened them, still unmoving. He told them he had died four centuries ago trying to defend the land from Strahd von Zarovich and his evil, and he had been cursed for his failure. Now he cannot die, for he is already dead. If they try to kill him, he will come back and hunt them to the ends of the land wherever they go, he will find them and kill them.

He explains that Strahd slew the dragon Argynvost, kill the knight he loved, and destroyed the order he’d devoted his life to. Now all he has left is his hatred, and his only mission is ensuring Strahd’s endless suffering. Strahd can’t be allowed to be destroyed. He must remain here in his personal hell for eternity, being forever tormented for his sins. He would not allow anyone to deprive Strahd of his endless torment, and he swore to destroy anyone with such an intention.

The group tells him they also hate Strahd and have no intention of ending his suffering. They want only to cause him pain. The dragonborn invites them to sit and do nothing and bask in Strahd’s endless torment as he does. They ask him about his knights and where they are. He tells them most of them reside here in this castle awaiting his orders, waiting to crush anyone who would grant release to Strahd.

They ask him about his oaths and about the light that once shone in this place, but he tells them all of that is gone. All of it is forgotten, there is nothing but darkness here in this place. They ask about helping the innocent souls left here, and he tells them there are no innocent souls in Barovia. All who come to this place are the damned, condemned alongside of him to suffer here in Strahd’s hell. There are none here who don’t deserve to be here.

The group ask about the knight he loved, but he tells them he can no longer remember the knight’s name. That too has been taken away from him by Strahd. There is nothing left of the love he once had, only his hatred remains. Elora reminds the group of what Arrabelle said about “love remembering and broken hearts forgetting.”

Johan mentions having the woman that Strahd seeks and denying her to him to torment him. The dragonborn asks who Strahd could desire so that he could destroy her. The group quickly starts backpedaling, but the dragonborn eyes Elora with sinister intent. The dragonborn derides the group for claiming to be heroes, recognizing them as adventurers and mercenaries and fools. He tells them he need not even look at their faces to know them, for he has seen and slain countless just like them before.

The group is increasingly nervous the knight will attack them. Johan asks Lucien to speak him. Lucien introduces himself and talks about his own god Xabris and how he is like the Morninglord, but the dragonborn seems uninterested. The distraction seems to work though and take his attention away from Elora.

The group discuss what to do, worried about angering this dragonborn. They suspect but are not sure that he holds the sword they seek and will not willingly part with it. They are convinced they must somehow make these knights remember who they are and perhaps find out who the dragonborn once loved. They resolve to search the manor for more clues and head back to search the second floor.

Elora searched through some rooms on the southern wing where the ceiling and floor had collapsed. The floorboards creaked heavily as she investigated, but she moved with a light step to keep quiet and found nothing of interest in the rooms.

Heading into the east wing, the group found a hallway with two curtained alcoves. Johan saw something behind one of the fluttering curtains and investigated. He found a short pillar like the other busts they’d seen but covered with a black cloth. He lifted the cloth and found his own severed head beneath it! The head was fresh and seemed to match his own exactly complete with boils and empty eye socket. He alerted the group and asked Elora to confirm what he was seeing. She confirmed the head was real and Johan’s. The group wondered if maybe Vladimir had been literal when he said he’d killed many Johans before.

Elora and Johan each chose a door in the same hallway to open at the same time. Elora found a flooded room with a cracked ceiling and a large pool of rainwater. Johan found a small bathroom with a hissing, undead guard drake perched in the bathtub. They both closed their doors and backed away.

Regrouping with the others, they made their way through a pair of doors leading to the eastern balcony which overlooked the chapel below. A single wooden throne sat there with a female revenant in it. Her hands were folded in prayer, and she looked confused. The group approached her cautiously and introduced herself. The revenant said she was trying to pray but could not remember her prayers or her oaths. She introduced herself as Ayfara but could not remember her last name. Riley provided her with the name Vassezac and she confirmed it was her name, thanking Riley.

They ask Ireena if she knows any prayers of the Morninglord and she steps forward to teach one to Ayfara. She cannot get all the words right, but focuses on the phrase, “Morninglord, shine over our fields and guide us.” She repeats it over and over in prayer. The group promises to look for a book of her oaths and return them to her.

They look through some more empty bedrooms on the second floor before reaching the northern hallway. They enter the hall and turn to explore one of the towers when a wall of stone materializes sealing them in! Suddenly, a battle cry goes out and phantom warriors appear coming right through the walls at them!

McCoy, Lucien, and Johan fight with the phantoms at the west end of the hallway. Riley rushes to the east end of the hallway to protect the rear ranks of the group. Ireena moves past her towards the eastern tower to engage the phantoms there. They are not able to hold the line as the phantoms float through the walls to attack the middle ranks. A phantom strikes down Savid who collapses in a bloody heap. Pietro scrambles to staunch the bleeding and stabilize him but doesn’t know what to do.

Finding their weapons ineffective against the phantoms, Lucien and Johan cast spells of divine enchantment on them and imbue their attacks with divine energy. The phantoms are too close for her eldritch blasts and Bronwyn is forced to use a shocking grasp of lightning against one of the phantoms and retreat. Lucien moves forward to protect her. Riley and Lancelot support Ireena at the east end of the hall against the phantoms allowing Elora to move up and stabilize Savid with a healer’s kit.

During the battle, the phantoms cry out against Strahd’s invading armies. They are seemingly living out their final battle against him with the group instead. The group works together to defeat the phantoms. Something strange happens as they die. Two of the phantoms drop physical objects to the floor. One is a sword from a male warrior and the other a golden necklace from a female warrior. As they die, they are both drawn screaming into the objects. Both objects are magical in nature. Johan takes the sword and Elora takes the necklace.

The group is trapped behind the stone wall with no way out except to wait for its spell to end. They decide to explore the two towers and rest. The group finds the two towers are decrepit barracks that must have once house the phantoms they faced. In one of the towers, Riley discoverers a hidden cache of 4 potions.

While the group rests and heals their wounds, including reviving Savid, Johan and Elora study the items they recovered from the phantoms. Johan’s sword is a longsword with a bluish tint. Blue gems are set in the pommel and crossguard. The crossguard is shaped like two crescent moons. Johan feels a connection to the sword. He hears the faint sound of a constantly grinding whetstone coming from the blade. He bonds with the sword, the spirit haunting the blade becoming part of him.

Elora’s necklace is a red gem shaped like a drop of blood hanging from a golden chain. She too feels a connection to the necklace which offers her magical protection. She bonds with the necklace and hears a soft refrain of “No chance, no choice,” over and over again. The spirit haunting the necklace becomes a part of her and she feels more determined and courageous.

The rest of the group don’t seem to notice any change in Johan or Elora although they both seem to favor their newly acquired treasures. Eventually, the stone wall fades. The group complete their rest and set out to explore the rest of the ruin.

The group travels from the Tower of Khazan to the Vistani Camp outside of Vallaki. Bronwyn rushes into Luvash’s tent and helps herself to his wine. A startled Luvash welcomes her. While she is draining his wine, Elora speaks to Luvash about Riley’s Vistani heritage. She tells him how she found out recently she is a Vistana. Luvash is a little confused but congratulates her. Elora is wondering if she has any family here among Luvash’s tribe. He asks the names of her parents, and she tells him they were Nicolae Casamirovich and Gildi Lutherumov.

Luvash says he remembers them, and they were indeed a part of the tribe, but traveled a great deal between worlds. A stationary camp such as theirs is the exception rather than the rule. He says he hasn’t seen that family in over 10 years. Elora asks if there were any relatives among the tribe here, but Luvash tells her it was only that trio as far as he knows. Elora is disappointed, but Riley seems relieved.

Riley explains that she knows nothing of their customs or beliefs and is wondering if she could spend some time with Luvash. Luvash awkwardly agrees and offers to teach her their customs such as the Weave of Fate, talking behind the Georgios’ backs, and drinking! He retrieves his wineskin from Bronwyn and gives it her. Riley takes a long swig, and Luvash declares she is now a Vistana.

Elora wants to talk to Luvash about Riley’s curse and starts to reveal her tattoo to him, but Riley thinks it’s a bad idea. Elora tries to insist, but Riley is insistent. Finally, Arrabelle appears and takes Elora’s hand. She looks up at her and tells her not to do it, so Elora relents. Arrabelle takes them outside to talk.

Arrabelle asks for her doll and Bronwyn hands it over to her. She tells Elora she loves her new doll, and it’s exactly the way it was in her dreams. She tells Elora she did a good job and that she is a good friend. Everyone is please to make Arrabelle happy. Arrabelle wishes she had pretty clothes like her doll and that she didn’t have to live in a tent that stinks of horses. She longs for solid walls in a real house. The group tells her someday her wish might come true.

Arrabelle tells them it’s just like a dream she had where she lived in a castle, the only castle in Barovia, Castle Ravenloft. The group is uncomfortable with the idea of her living there with Strahd, but Arrabelle assures them he isn’t there in her dream; it’s here castle, and she rules Barovia. The group supports this idea.

Arrabelle tells Elora that she is very loved, and more people care about her than she knows. She reminds her that books are not as important as the people in her life. Elora talks a lot about home, but Arrabelle doesn’t think she knows where that is. Elora admits this is true. Then Arrabelle tells her she had a dream about seeing her at a wedding. Elora is nervous at this news, but Arrabelle tells her not to be scared because she’ll be there too.

Riley is unsure of where she should go next and what to do about her curse. Arrabelle tells her that she was cursed by a witch, so she should talk to a witch about it. The group tells her it’s hard to find a witch in Barovia. Arrabelle is surprised telling them they are not looking hard enough or maybe they just don’t know how to recognize a witch. Riley asks for some specific places to look, but Arrabelle can’t offer any suggestions. She tells her she did have a dream about her going somewhere cold to get answers. She also takes Riley’s hands and tells her she is sorry, but she should be ready to lose someone.

Then Arrabelle pets Lancelot and tells him he is a good boy. She tells Riley that Lancelot will do his duty and he’ll always love her. She tells Riley that she is now Lancelot’s quest, and he is devoted to her. She reminds her not to forget to trust him!

Verushka is excited by Lancelot and comes over to pet him. She is too aggressive in her petting, and the group has to remind her to be gentle with him. Verushka listens and pets Lancelot gently declaring that he is soft. Then she begins petting Arrabelle and saying that she is soft. The group tells her not to touch without consent and to ask her “May I?” Verushka repeats what they say and Arrabelle consents to be petted.

McCoy asks if Arrabelle ever dreams about Verushka, and Arrabelle tells them she dreams about her often. She always has different dreams about her. She says that Verushka is full of chaos, and it’s very hard to determine her future. She reminds them that “she will have the heart that you give her.”

She also warns McCoy to beware of the moon. McCoy wonders what that means and again if he is infected with lycanthropy. The group discuss if there is any way they can detect that and whether Johan still has his divine powers or not. They have still not tested his magic since leaving the Tower of Khazan.

Johan asks Arrabelle a question and she tells him, “They should have just buried you, Mr. Drummold. I can’t help you anymore.” She does warn him that “a wolf inside is still there even if you can’t see it.” Johan agrees this is true.

Arrabelle tells Bronwyn she doesn’t like “her friend” because he is always “staring at me through your eyes.” Bronwyn feigns ignorance at first, but the entire group seems aware of her possession by a dark entity. Arrabelle tells her she can’t keep running from her past or herself. She tells her she is getting closer to the answers she seeks, but the closer she gets to being free, the closer she gets to becoming a slave. Bronwyn isn’t sure where to look or what to do. Arrabelle tells her the answers are “buried in a tomb, locked away and forgotten.” Bronwyn needs to be brave enough to face to truth.

They talk about Izek as well and why he is dreaming of her, what it means, and why he looks like her father. The group suggests that he may be related to her. She tells the group her father died long ago in the war and she watched the rest of her family get murdered in front of her. The group suggests maybe he is an unknown relative of some kind or perhaps a survivor as many of them have received such revelations here. Bronwyn is not convinced. She doesn’t know why this strange man is dreaming of her. Arrabelle asks her who she dreams of and Bronwyn tells her she always dreams of her family. And Arrabelle tells her that’s exactly right.

Arrabelle tells Ireena she spends too much time worrying about other people and that she has responsibilities to herself as well. Ireena takes that to heart but is then startled when Arrabelle tells her that her wedding dress is so pretty! Ireena is shaken, and the group is disturbed by this pronouncement. Arrabelle tells her not to forget her old family just because she loves her new family. She also tells her that three fairy godmothers could make her wish come true…if she believes in fairy tales.

She tells McCoy he has been spending too much dreaming when the answers he was looking for were right under his feet. Bronwyn checks the soles of his feet to make sure nothing is written there. Arrabelle tells McCoy he should have looked for his ship instead. He isn’t sure what that means, and the group discusses Madam Eva’s prophecy about an underground sea and whether that was related to the sewers beneath the Abbey of St. Markovia.

The group mentions Granny’s dream pastries and Arrabelle confirms they are made of orphan children. The group is disgusted, but McCoy tries to downplay the issue insisting he not waste the pies already produced so that “their deaths have meaning.” The group is angry he won’t stop eating them, but he insists it is his only way to experience dreams or get his memories back. The group all recount different times they have eaten the dream pastries and they realize they have all eaten at least one of them including Elora feeding pies to Ireena and Arrabelle.

Riley asks how they can stop this from happening, and Arrabelle tells her the only way to do that is to confront the hags in the Old Windmill. The group debates whether to do that or head somewhere else on their next mission.

Riley mentions seeing the Mad Mage for help with her curse. Arrabelle tells them he has a lovely home up in the mountains, and she would love to see it. She tells them he knows lots of things if they get him to tell them. She says he recently gave up fishing and turned to hunting. She recommends bringing him a fish if they visit.

The group mention going to either the Amber Temple or the ruins of Argynvostholt. They ask Arrabelle if she ever dreamt about a dragon before. She tells them she has, and that he was in a ruin. They asked if he was a statue or a living dragon. She tells them he was a statue, but he was also there as well, but he wasn’t alive. She thinks he was a dead dragon. She tells them that “dead dragons don’t lie still.” The group is concerned about facing off against an undead dragon, possibly a dracolich.

Arrabelle tells them the ruin is a sad place with a lot of pain, but it could be full of light. She says there is something very bright there, hope! But the group should be sure that is what they want. The group asks her why they wouldn’t want that, and she tells them it will attract a lot of attention they might not want. She tells them if they go there, they should know that “love remembers, and broken hearts forget.”

She asks the group if they have a friend who is dead? The group think about it and think of Lucien the undead knight. She tells them their friend is in that ruin. He’s in trouble again and needs their help. They conclude that Lucien being in trouble is his default state, but they should go and help him. The group is concerned that they might need to get to him quickly, but he might last a while as well since he can’t actually die.

While the group debates where to head next, Elora excuses herself to visit her father Kasimir on her own. She is greeted warmly at the door by Paeyth who stands guard outside “barely listening” while she talks with Kasimir.

Kasimir and Elora have tea and pleasant conversation. He is delighted to see her again and catch up with her. He is pleased to see she is in one piece. She tells him of their difficult battle on Yester Hill, but they managed to triumph. She explains that she nearly died, and he jumps to his feet to look her over. Seeing the puncture wounds on her neck he panics! He is terrified that Strahd has fed on her. She explains it was only one of his brides but asks why that would be so bad. Kasimir explains that if the devil feeds on her 3 times she would be under his sway.

He tells her he is happy to see her, but he thought perhaps she was coming to take him to the Amber Temple. She is concerned she is not yet ready to go there yet, and he thinks it is for the best to wait and be better prepared for what awaits them there. She asks if the knowledge contained within is evil as Valentine told her. Kasimir admits that it is, but it’s his only chance to bring his sister Patrina back to life. He is wracked by guilt and feels he must atone. Whatever price must be paid for such a power, he will pay as part of his penance.

Elora asks about Patrina and Kasimir tells her she was very studious and an accomplished wizard, much more powerful than he ever was. She was willful and strong and always supported him when he needed it. Elora is concerned about the kind of people Strahd attracts. Kasimir explains that she has renounced her interest in Strahd and seeks to be a better person. Elora is surprised to hear that Patrina visits Kasimir in his dreams.

Kasimir explains that this is the only way they can speak as he cannot visit her tomb. Strahd took her body after she died and has her entombed beneath Castle Ravenloft. She knows lingers on as a restless spirit there unless he can restore her with the power of the Amber Temple. Elora is concerned about what will happen when she is restored to life. Kasimir says that must be Patrina’s choice to make as he denied her a choice, and the least he can do is restore that to her.

He offers her soup and bread, explaining he is not much of a cook, but she needs to keep her strength up. She gratefully accepts the food. He asks if she would take some with her on her journey. She is delighted to have him gift her with this food, and he is happy to help her journey any way he can.

Kasimir tells Elora she brings such joy and light to his life as he has not known since her sent her and her mother away. She is a beacon of hope to him and his people, and he is not the only one who feels that way. He mentions that Paeyth has been looking on her with some interest as is healthy for a young man and woman. He asks her to spend some time speaking to him as he likes her. Elora is surprised but says that she will. Kasimir packs up her soup and bread for her and sends her on her way.

On her way out, she stops to speak with Paeyth. He is happy to speak with her and tells her she is delight. He explains he is excited every time she comes to visit her father. She asks if he knows the truth about her, and he admits that he does. It is hard to keep such a secret in their small community. She asks if the news upset him, and he tells her he was quite relieved to learn he was her father and not her suitor.

She asks if it’s not painful that she survived Rahasia’s genocide? Paeyth explains it is the opposite. It fills him with joy and hope for his people. He also harbors a personal joy, and she is lovely and a delight to talk to. Elora is flattered. He knows she is busy but asks if she might set aside some time for him the next time she comes to visit. She agrees to do so and departs.

Riley watches jealously from a distance. Her longing is clear to everyone except Elora. Riley laments that she cannot compete with such a charming and pretty elf as Paeyth and may have to duel him…a duel she will likely lose. Arrabelle tells her she should give a gift to Elora as a token of affection, a book! Elora would appreciate book much more than a flower. Riley tells her how she gave her a drawing of a flower. Arrabelle asks if she put it in a book. She tells her she inserted it in a book. Arrabelle tells her there are books in the ruin of Argynvostholt. She should get her hands on one before Bramo can and present it to Elora.

The group decide they will try and track down the Mad Mage. They leave the Vistani Camp and head north to Lake Zarovich. Making their way along the coast they discover a backpack leaning against a rock next to a burning campfire. Nearby, footsteps lead away from the camp towards the water. Concerned something nefarious might be in the bag, they search it and find only normal supplies.

Bronwyn heads over to the water’s edge and sees a young man swimming underneath the surface. After a few minutes, the man emerges soaking wet and carrying a large fish and a strange spear-like weapon. He is shocked to see the group waiting for him and asks who they are and what they want. The group introduces themselves and McCoy steps forward to see his weapon recognizing it as a harpoon. As he borrows it from the man, he has distinct memories of using such a weapon against whales as a sailor.

The man panics at McCoy’s appearance and begs the group not to kill or rob him. Elora steps forward and calms the man down. He is soothed by her pretty face and kind smile and quickly dresses himself. He introduces himself as Luka. He is from Vallaki and comes here to fish the deep waters of the lake where large fish can still be found.

He tells them a story of fishing in the lake when he heard strange bubbling at the surface of the water and the fish he was chasing was zapped by a bolt of lightning. His hair and skin were set tingling by the lightning, and he saw a strange, bearded man standing over him with lightning crackling on his fingers.

The group recognize this as a story about the Mad Mage and wonder if his “lightning fishing” is the reason the lake has less fish in it. While the rest of the group speaks with Luka, McCoy uses the harpoon to catch a fish of his own. He gives the fish to Riley and returns the harpoon to Luka. They bid their goodbyes to the man and make their way around the lake to Mount Baratok.

Elora studies the information they know about the Mad Mage and his hunting ground combined with the lay of terrain to determine where believes his lair must be. She leads the group up through the cold mount trails of Mount Baratok to the identified area. As they make their way up the trail, Bronwyn and McCoy spot a large bear barreling towards them down the mountain. They alert the group and point the beast out.

They are surprised to hear the bear cursing them out in a human voice! The bear tells them “the Devil will never take me! He sent you here to die!” The group try and tell him they want no trouble and have brought a gift for him. Elora notices the bear stand on its hind legs and go through the motions of casting a spell. Nothing happens and the bear curses in confusion and frustration quickly transforming into a bearded man in tattered robes.

Ireena moves into position behind a nearby rock trying to take cover while advances on the wizard. Bronwyn holds position yelling out to the wizard that they mean no harm. She tells to Verushka to stay where she is and remain calm.

The wizard finally completes his spell and time stops all around the group. Everyone but the wizard is frozen in place as he casts multiple spells on himself in succession surrounding himself with a shield of fire, gaining the ability to fly, and creating illusory duplicates of himself. McCoy announces loudly to the wizard that “we’re here for you!” which incenses the man. Riley tells Lancelot to stay behind and rushes forward to defuse the situation. Standing at the base of the ledge the wizard hovers over, she holds the fish above her head and tells him it is an offering for him.

The rest of the group spreads out as they advance around the wizard declaring friendship and assuring him they mean no harm. Pietro falls back to cover behind a rock with his father’s approval. Finally, Ireena gives a stirring speech about how they are the enemies of the Devil and fight against him and for justice for the people of Barovia.

Convinced they are not the agents of his enemy; the Mad Mage awkwardly relents. He looks over the fish offered to him hungrily. He asks if the group has any wine to go with the fish. They tell him they do. He asks if it will pair with the fish, but says it doesn’t matter, they can make it work. He tells them he has a little place in the mountains and invites the group back there with him to share wine and fish.

The group follow the Mad Mage further up into the mountains through a hidden path to a secluded gorge. Inside the gorge they find an enormous, luxurious, two-story mansion. The group is overwhelmed expecting a small hut in a tree or something similar. The Mad Mage downplays the opulence of his home saying it’s just a humble place he whipped up. As they enter the mansion, they see it is filled statues and artwork, fine marble floors, and exquisite woodwork all done in an elegant manner.

The Mad Mage admits he doesn’t know how many rooms there are in the mansion but knows he has at least one kitchen nearby which he brings them too. He has Johan clean and scale the fish before cooking it up. The Mad Mage has odd mannerisms, and the group can’t understand much of what he is saying, but understand the gist of his intentions. Riley shows him her cursed tattoo and asks for his help. He explains that he can help, but he has a bit of a situation going on that he needs help with, but he can’t remember any of the details including who he is.

Elora realizes he has cast a spell on himself to erase his own memory for some reason. He can help the group, but not before he is cured of the condition afflicting. He explains that he’s looking for “levels” and the “big time cure magic.” The group figure out that Jeny Greenteeth may be able to help him. They have the funds required and Riley is willing to do what it takes to get his help. The Mad Mage tells them he has a confession to make…the wine doesn’t pair with the fish. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief and admits they really should have a white wine.

The Mad Mage bemoans having to travel to this shop even though it is nearby. He asks if he can get a “spell Uber” or something like that, maybe a “Witch Dash.” He chides the group for not “unlocking” Jeny’s coin of summoning asking if they “even bother talking to the NPCs or not.” The group is confused by what he is saying but tell him they will return with Jeny while he waits here. The Mad Mage is pleased by this saying he will “watch Tee-Vee” while he waits but bemoans “not getting any reception in Barovia.”

As they are leaving, McCoy mentions that with his help they will defeat Strahd. The Mad Mage goes white and curses out McCoy. He tells them they all have to leave immediately. Everyone is confused. As he is pushing them out of the manor, he explains that the said the Devil’s name. The group is still confused. The Mad Mage explains that saying his name allows him to scry on anyone who says it. McCoy has now revealed the location of the Mad Mage’s hiding spot to his greatest enemy! Everyone leaves in a panic.

As they exit the manor, the Mad Mage dispels the manor which quickly folds in on itself into nothing leaving a barren gorge in its place. After realizing they have nowhere they can logically meet since their status in Vallaki is unknown, the Mad Mage agrees to accompany them to Jeny’s hut outside of Vallaki.

Circling around Lake Zarovich at a fast pace, they make their way to the hut. They see a small pull cart outside the hut, but no draft animal is attached to it. Inside, they see Jeny along with a tall, burly man with a sharp flat-top haircut munching on an apple. The group excuses themselves saying they will come back when the man is done, but he explains he is not a customer, he works in the shop. The man introduces himself as Toady and gives everyone a hearty handshake.

Jeny welcomes the group back to her shop telling them she can meet all their needs. Riley asks her to cast restorative magic on the Mad Mage. She tells her she will do so in return for 450 gold pieces and a favor. The group puts together the money from their chest of electrum pieces they got from the Vistani and Riley asks what the favor is. Jeny takes her outside and shows her a wicker man effigy. She asks Riley to build a bonfire and burn the wicker man. Riley does so and hears screams coming from the fire. Riley asks what’s going on and Jeny tells her not to worry about it. Riley asks if it was a good person. Jeny asks her how many good people she thinks there are in Barovia. Riley tells her there are some and Jeny asks her, “What are the odds?”

She goes inside and has the Mad Mage sit down. She tells him she needs to touch him to perform the magic and he is eager to allow her to touch him however she wants to. After massaging his head, the magic flows from her hands into his mind curing him of his affliction. The Mad Mage stands restored of sound mind and his memory restored. He looks himself over and realizes he is very disheveled. He uses magic to shave off his beard, trim his hair, and repair his clothes. He stands before them clean-shaven with spikey, white hair tinged with blue.

Restored, he introduces himself as Alkazaar the Magnificent from the planet Earth C-137. The group asks him if he has another name and he tells them, “Hey, when I, uhhh, wear the robes, you call me Alkazaar.” Looking over Riley’s “tramp stamp” he tells her that the tattoo acts as spell focus for her curse, like a cursed item or a magic circle. If she tries to remove the curse without removing the tattoo, the curse will simply keep renewing. She needs the tattoo removed and only then can the curse be removed.

Alkazaar tells her he can remove her tattoo with a “laser” which he says is a kind of magic. The problem is he can only do that in his mansion and since her “robotman” has run his mouth, they need to wait until he can recast the spell tomorrow. Riley is distraught and asks if there is anything he can do for her now. He tells her, “honey, don’t look at me, you can, uhhh, blame, uhh, Vance for that.” He also tells her he’s not able to break the curse for her. Riley feels misled by him, but he explains it’s a two-part process, and he’s performing the valuable first step for her…as soon as he can get back in his mansion.

He tells her she just needs to get herself another dose of the “big time cure magic” to fix her up. Resigned to her fate, Riley discusses with the group what they should do next. They discuss laying low in Vallaki at the Church of St. Andral’s but aren’t sure if they can even get through the gates without running afoul of Izek. The group argue about whether it is safe to enter Vallaki or not and whether they can use Alkazaar as a scout to find out. They discuss the potential risks involved for them or Alkazaar and decide to leave Vallaki alone for now.

Alkazaar offers to do some work on McCoy “upgrading” him at his mansion and making him a “total, uhh, badass, urp, killing machine.” McCoy declines saying his is much more interested in being able to taste and feel again in a flesh body. Alkazaar offers to give him those kinds of upgrades instead including “functional genitalia.” McCoy again declines asking if he can instead do anything to educate Verushka and making her smarter and more communicative.

Alkazaar says he can do that, but the quickest way to do it would be to just give her a new brain. The group is against that idea and asks if he could educate her instead within the next few weeks. Alkazaar says he do that for them. The group is not convinced leaving Verushka with a stranger is the right thing to do. They worry she will panic if she is not around friendly faces. Alkazaar uses his magic to transform into Riley and does a crude impression of her telling them that’s not an issue.

The group is unconvinced, but McCoy wonders if they could use his disguise ability to fool the Abbot instead. The group is leery of that idea as well. Ultimately, they cannot come to an agreement. The group decides to return to the Vistani Camp with Alkazaar where they will spend the night. They also decide to leave Alkazaar behind while they spend the rest of the day exploring Argynvostholt allowing them to rescue Lucien and return that night.

Standing in the pouring rain outside of Blinsky’s Toys is a crowd of curious townsfolk talking about the tiger inside. The group isn’t sure what do as they don’t want to escalate the situation and fear to provoke the tiger. Riley goes ahead to investigate by looking in one of the shop windows. Inside she sees a massive, sabre-tooth tiger. The tiger has knocked over several shelves. Piccolo the monkey is perched casually on the tiger’s back. Blinsky is up on the counter in the corner of the shop crying out for help.

Riley returns to the group and tells them what she saw. Several of them want to enter the shop with her, but she thinks a small group would be best. Bramo is impatient to enter while the group discusses what action to take and starts moving towards the door. The group eventually decides to send just Riley and Bramo inside with the rest of the group waiting outside to support them. Bramo casts a spell of sanctuary on the two of them before entering to hopefully slow down any of the tiger’s attacks.

The tiger growls and stirs at their approach. Bramo attempts make himself look non-threatening and speak calmly to the tiger. Riley steps forward to attempt to soothe the massive beast. She approaches gently and calmly, and the tiger settles down peacefully. The tiger sits in the center of the toyshop seemingly waiting for something. Piccolo does not appear agitated and greets Riley.

Blinsky is anything but calm, crying out to the heroes to help him. Bramo tells him to keep quiet because his voice is irritating and likely to set off the tiger. He starts circling the room, making his way towards Blinsky. He notices the tiger watching him carefully and tracking his movements. Bramo decides to back up carefully and circle around the other way with the toy shelves hiding him from the tiger.

Outside, Bronwyn steps forward to peer in the window. She is overcome as soon as she sees the tiger, receding into herself. Her eyes glaze over and become yellow, tiger’s eyes. Johan notices her posture stiffen and she seems to be in a daze. He approaches her to see if she is all right. She is clearly not conscious and stares past him with her tiger’s eyes.

While the group is waiting outside, they hear a commotion among the gathered townsfolk. They start muttering about “the Beast” and quickly get out of the way of an approaching guard contingent. The Vallaki guards are led by a tall, broad-shouldered man with a shaved head. A large axe is strapped to his back. His left arm is normal and rippling with muscle, but his right arm is a huge, red, demonic arm. The Hand on that arm is backwards with the palm facing outwards instead of inwards. This is the Captain of the Guard they have heard so much about, Izek Strazni.

Ireena steps forward to speak to the man and keep him from causing any trouble for her friends. She explains that they have the situation under control. They have calmed down the tiger and it is contained inside. There is no danger, and they should leave them to it. Ireena is diplomatic, but Izek is not convinced and pushes past her towards the shop. Elora intervenes and convinces him to stand down, but she lets slip that they do not have the tiger restrained and Izek insists on seeing what is going.

Izek moves towards the window and spins Bronwyn around to move her away from the window. When he turns her around, he sees her and is dumbstruck. He stands there unsure of what to do. Bronwyn snaps out of her daze and sees this strange man holding her. She recognizes him from his description and realizes this is the man she has been waiting to confront. She is surprised to realize he looks familiar to her. The man bears a strange resemblance to her father, but he is much too young to be her father perhaps only 30 years old.

Bronwyn asks him to unhand her immediately, but Izek is much too strong for her. He is stammering, “It’s you! You’re her! You’re real!” He picks her up easily and drags her away from the shop, telling her he needs to protect her. He hastily orders his guards to secure the area around the shop and makes an excuse to take Bronwyn away with him.

Johan shouts out to Verushka that the man is hurting “friend” Bronwyn. Verushka, confused, looks to Elora for confirmation who tells her to help Bronwyn. Verushka rushes forward and seizes Izek stopping him. The man snarls at her and looks prepared for violence. McCoy runs over to stop him. Ireena warns Elora that Verushka might get out of control in this situation. Elora goes to her side to calm her down.

In the middle of all this action, Bronwyn convinces Izek to just wait and let her friends handle the tiger before he goes rushing off with her as she does not want to leave her friends. Izek agrees to wait but brings her around the side of the shop surrounding her with his guards to keep her safe. Verushka goes over with her watching from in front of the group and asking if “friend is okay?” Bronwyn assures her that she is and asks her to stay calm.

Inside the shop, Bramo works his way behind the counter and over to Blinsky he helps the man down and ushers him into the back room. Bramo asks him where the doll is. Blinsky thinks he means the custom doll for Arrabelle and tells him it is ready. He asks if that’s why they are here, to pick up the doll, not to save him from the tiger. Bramo tells him no, but he’ll take the doll while he is here. He explains that he meant that month’s doll for Izek. Blinsky explains he already gave the doll to Izek a few days ago as the group has been away from the town for several days.

Bramo lets the man depart and in passing asks about Piccolo’s behavior and why the monkey is hanging out with the tiger. Blinsky says he doesn’t know and that the monkey was a gift. Riley calls out across the shop for Blinsky to stop, “A gift from who?” Blinsky explains that Piccolo was a gift from Marvolio and suddenly everything snaps into place for her.

Piccolo seems to want something from Riley, so she feeds him a peanut. Since the tiger is so docile, she risks reaching a hand out to scratch the big cat. The tiger allows her to scratch him. Outside in the rain, Lancelot presses his nose up against the window and watches with jealousy. Ireena heads into the shop to explain what is happening outside with Bronwyn and Izek. Elora follows in after her.

Outside, Izek explains to Bronwyn that he must keep her safe. He tells her he has been dreaming of her every night for the past 11 years. He has watched her grow over time, but she is exactly as he pictured her. Bronwyn asks him why he had the dolls made of her. He tells it was his way of making her real and trying to understand who she is.

Bronwyn is disturbed by the conversation and trying to find a way out of there. She motions to Verushka standing anxiously outside the circle of guards. She implores Izek to let her friend stand with her, so she doesn’t get upset. Izek agrees to let her into the circle and Verushka calms down.

While they are standing there waiting, Marvolio and Wyssilka arrive. Marvolio sees Bronwyn is in danger and rushes over to comically introduce himself to Izek. Izek is annoyed by him and tells him to get out of there while they deal with the tiger situation. Marvolio offers to take care of the tiger problem for him. Izek tells him to go ahead then.

Marvolio heads into the shop with a flourish and greets Ireena and Elora on either side of the doors. The tiger rises up and knocks Riley aside as it pounces on Marvolio standing on its hind legs and hugging the man. Marvolio pets and soothes the cat calling it Ramses. Marvolio tells the group inside that they have quite the situation outside with Izek. He offers to cause a distraction for the guards and allow the group to escape and then meet him back at the Tower of Khazan. The group agrees and Marvolio bounds outside releasing Ramses and Piccolo into the city streets.

Seeing the tiger running free, Izek orders his guards to seize it, and they chase after it. At that moment, Bronwyn jumps on Verushka’s back and tells her to go! Verushka takes off sprinting through the rain, her powerful legs quickly taking her far from the shop. Izek runs after her in pursuit, but Wyssilka casually sticks her foot out tripping the man. He goes crashing down to the street. Wyssilka apologizes and offers to help him up, fumbling and delaying him.

McCoy and Johan run off after Bronwyn and Verushka straining to catch up with them. Bronwyn halts Verushka in the center of the street and steers her instead towards the Church of St. Andral’s. They meet up with McCoy and Johan and all travel there together.

The rest of the group sneaks away from the carnage out the back window of Blinsky’s shop, taking Arrabelle’s doll with them. Eventually, they all meet back at the church. They take Pietro with them after Johan warns him, he needs to be prepared to either run or fight if they end up in danger. Pietro tells his father he will run and hide if necessary. Johan disapproves, but he is able to work with it.

The group march through the pouring rain back to the Tower of Khazan without incident. Unwilling to risk the door trap again, they choose to wait another 45 minutes for Valentine and Wyssilka to arrive. They are both riding in Valentine’s wagon with Ramses secured in the back. As he gets down from the wagon, Valentine tosses meat to the tiger through a hatch in the wagon.

Still acting in his Marvolio persona, he flamboyantly reintroduces himself to the group. He asks why they are standing out here in the rain. The explain their nervousness in attempting to disarm the door trap. Marvolio asks Wyssilka to let them in, but she reveals she never actually figured out the trick herself. Elora speaks up and tells them she actually figured out it is form of dance that must be performed to open the door. Marvolio is intrigued and impressed and asks her to perform the dance. Elora is shy about doing so, but Marvolio encourages her and she does so.

After completing the dance, the name KHAZAN lights up over the door and it swings open. The group praises Elora and they all enter and make their way to the top of the tower.

Upstairs Marvolio asks everyone to get comfortable and take a seat. Bronwyn chooses to pace around the room. Johan instructs Pietro he is to take notes of the meeting and that he can request paper and pen from Elora to take studious notes. Pietro does as he asks. Bronwyn asks Marvolio to take of his mask now. Marvolio refuses to remove his costume but drops the Marvolio person and introduces himself to the group as Hugo Valentine, expert monster hunter.

Valentine explains he was a former doctor, animal tamer in the circus, and all-around showman, but he also leads a secret life as one of the premier monster hunters of the multiverse. He has come to Barovia to carry out his work as a monster hunter and destroy the infamous devil Strahd. He meant to carry out this dangerous mission alone, but both of “his girls” have followed him here. Strahd has heard that Valentine is here, so he has been traveling incognito under the guise of Marvolio the Marvelous, thus his earlier deceptions.

He was hoping to use Ireena or possibly Elora as bait for a trap to kill Strahd, but never had a chance to bring that plan to fruition. He has been gathering intel on Strahd and investigating his resources and allies. He was looking into the Martikovs while he was in Vallaki to see if they are aligned with Strahd. He is not sure if they are, but he knows they are hiding something. The group tells him the Martikovs are their friends and allies against Strahd.

Valentine explains that he has trained Ramses to hunt and destroy vampires and other monsters. The vicious tiger was meant to act as his partner here since he was meant to be here alone. The group asks if a tiger is an effective vampire killer, and Valentine explains the sabre-tooth tusks of the tiger are quite effective at staking them.

Bronwyn is mad at Valentine for deceiving her. Valentin apologizes saying he meant to tell her the truth and explain everything, but never had the chance. And he couldn’t risk teasing her a bit to find out if she missed her “circus daddy.” Wyssilka starts cracking up at that term again and smacks Pietro making sure he records that in his notes.

Valentine asks the group what their plans are now. The group isn’t sure. They mention needing to recover the three treasures mentioned by Madam Eva. They also need to retrieve the other Martikov gems to use with the Fanes. Riley also wants to deal with the hags in the Old Windmill. Wyssilka confirms they are indeed hags and need to be destroyed. Johan is concerned that the term “hag” has a lot of connotations and is used pejoratively against older women. Valentine clarifies that these “older women” are not women or witches at all, but actual demons.

Valentine tells the group that he and Wyssilka have been discussing how to breach Castle Ravenloft to attack Strahd. Since the group has been inside the castle, they ask them to provide any information they can about the castle and ask them to draw out a map. The group struggles to remember specific details of the layout. They start sketching a very crude map and Piddlewick becomes irritated and starts fussing on McCoy’s shoulder.

They ask Piddlewick what’s wrong and he starts pointing out errors on the map and making them redraw it. The group realizes that Piddlewick was the replacement jester in Castle Ravenloft and must be familiar with its layout. They set him down with Pietro to create a usable map. Piddlewick smacks Pietro with his peppermint stick every time he makes a mistake and Johan approves.

The group also mention the incident with Escher and the Abbot. Valentine wonders if Escher could be an ally who could be convinced to betray Strahd. The group thinks it’s possible, but they’re not sure how to do it. They know if Escher could be granted his freedom, he would take it.

Wyssilka retrieves her “better map” and gives it to the group. As they look over the map, they confirm a few details based on her notes. Valentine tells the group that there are no actual dragons in Barovia as far as he knows, but he has heard of an old knightly order known as the Order of the Silver Dragon. Wyssilka points out a ruin nearby she was planning to explore. Johan realizes the name of the ruin is Argynvostholt and this name is very similar to the scientific name of silver, which he knows from his years of trade in Dwarven goods. The group agrees there may be a connection there, and it’s worth exploring.

Elora mentions needing to find the hidden library to get the information they need to defeat Strahd. Valentine warns her that the library she seeks is not actually a library at all, but a temple, and the knowledge it is filled with is evil. She should be wary of traveling there as the journey and the knowledge could both be extremely dangerous.

The group rest for the night in the tower with Bronwyn taking Valentine’s bed and everyone else using their bedrolls.

Only McCoy choose to eat a dream pastry and have pleasant dreams. He dreams of more of his former crewmembers, Gordon “Too Vain” Vaybe, a man who thought he was better than everyone else at every task and who was always saying he should be the captain and Seward “Likes” Lincoln who always said he “liked” anything anyone else was interested in. He was disliked for being insincere and having no interests of his own. After waking from the dreams, McCoy lamented that he only dreamed about his crew and not more significant people from his life.

Riley dreamt about being on the ground with an androgynous shadow hovering over her. The shadow splits into two beings that stand on either side of her. They hold out their hands offering to help her up, but she refuses.

Elora dreamt about being in an amazing library surround by books, scrolls, and tablets of all kinds containing a great array of knowledge. She senses a figure behind her seated on a stone chair raised on a dais. The figure is covered from head-to-toe in a rippling, red sheet and it holds in its hands, the particular tome she is searching for. She steps closer to the figure and sees it is not draped in cloth at all, but rather a constant stream of blood flowing over it to give that appearance. As she approaches, the figure slams shut the tome and she wakes up in a sweat.

Bramo dreams of being in a plague town. He is surrounded on all sides by ruin, bodies are piled high everywhere, and the charnel stench of burning bodies fills his nostrils. Laying before him are two small bodies covered by a shroud. He inches forward hesitant to learn what lies beneath the shroud. He sees a tall woman with long, white hair covered in downy feathers or fur walking through the carnage. She has red markings around her eyes, mouth, and chest that may be blood. She locks eyes with Bramo across the devastation and her gaze burns him.

Johan dreams of being seated at a table covered by a long scroll filled with names. He holds a quill in one hand and nearby is a pot of ink. He hears a clattering noise above him and looks up to see a four-armed creature crawling on the ceiling. On its shoulders instead of a head it has a cluster of long, mask-like faces. The creature reaches down from the ceiling and seizes his arm forcing the quill over the scroll. Johan tries to write but sees that the quill is dry. He moves to dip it in the ink, but the creature forces him to stab the quill into his wrist instead. Then it makes him write his name on the scroll in his own blood.

Bronwyn dreams of running down a long white hallway. The hallway is pitch black lit by islands of light. Over her shoulder she hears a hissing, familiar voice whisper in her ear. The voice is excited to be free again and is anxious to resume their games again. Bronwyn runs down the hallway seeking to escape the voices. Lining the hallway are doors on either side of her. She realizes the doors on not solid doors, but rather cell doors lined with bars. The hands that grip the bars are tiger hands with backward palms.

She reaches the end of the hallway and comes to another barred door. She bangs on the door trying to open it. Something is lurking in the shadows of the cell on the other side. She sees a demonic, ghostly tiger stalking in a circle in the room. The tiger becomes a humanoid tiger on two legs as it passes through the shadows, then older human man resembling Valentine, then a rotting zombie, then a skeleton, then a tiger skeleton wearing a crown, then flesh regrows on the tiger until it becomes the ghostly tiger again. Behind her, all the islands of light disappear in sequence like the darkness is crashing in on her like a wave. The voice hisses in her ear, “Soon.”

In the morning, the group isn’t sure which of their goals to pursue. They decide they must return to the Vistani camp outside of Vallaki and consult with Arrabelle. Valentin and Wyssilka will pursue their own agenda and scout out Castle Ravenloft using Pietro’s map. Johan tries to convince them to wait or join their group, but they refuse. Valentine tells Johan if he needs to get in touch with them, he will leave word with the Martikovs at the Blue Water Inn.

Bronwyn has an emotional goodbye with Valentine with both telling the other to be careful. McCoy tells Valentine not to go rushing into the castle without them. Valentine tells him he didn’t get to be as old as he is by being so impulsive as that.

Lancelot stepped in front of the group and barked viciously at the wolves. One of them was scared off and retreated. The group is surrounded by the wolves and Bronwyn moved off on her own around the rocks to unleash her spells on them. More wolves pour in from the depths of the cave along with a growing number of werewolves and Bronwyn is quickly surrounded. Riley rushes to her side to protect her.

Bramo constructs a healing cannon near the center of the group which radiates positive energy fortifying all of them against damage. Piddlewick’s darts are unable to hurt the werewolves, but he uses them to distract and annoy them giving openings for McCoy to exploit. Ireena uses one of her maneuvers to advance and engage the white werewolf, Bianca at McCoy’s flank while allowing Bronwyn to fall back to the safety of the group.

Elora tells Verushka to protect Bronwyn “friend” because the wolves are trying to “hurt friend.” This makes Verushka upset and she rushes to Bronwyn’s side. She balls up her fists and smashes them down overhand on the “bad wolves.” Verushka is much stronger than she looked, and she easily kills several of the wolves and werewolves who are also harmed by her attacks. Both the wolves and werewolves try to claw and bite her but find her skin impervious to their attacks. The group is relieved to see that Verushka is not as delicate as they suspected, but also intimidated by her power.

Bramo casts a spell of grease over the wolves including Verushka in the puddle. The group warns him not harm or agitate her as she may not understand why a “friend” is attacking her. Bramo ignores their protests. Some of the wolves slip and fall in the grease as does Verushka.

Elora calls Verushka to come back to her side which she does. Elora sets one of the grease-covered werewolves on fire with magic. Verushka is very agitated by this, seemingly afraid of fire.

As they fight off the enemy on all sides, the pack leader Kiril appears. Kiril recognizes Johan and calls him out, saying he will take his other eye from him! Johan is indignant and levels a stream of curses and insults at him. The two lock into combat with one another.

The wolves and werewolves are vicious and relentless in their attacks but bolstered by Bramo’s healing cannon they start beating them back. Johan’s combat does not go well for him as Kiril is much stronger than the other members of the pack. Kiril’s claws tear through Johan and he drops to the ground unconscious. Kiril does not relent in his attacks and tears out Johan’s throat with his fangs! Kiril steps over Johan’s body and brings the attack to the heart of the group.

Elora sends Verushka to fight Kiril while she uses her magic against him. Kiril is dismissive of the patchwork girl until he is hurt by her mighty blows. At his feet, Johan bleeds out in massive puddle of blood, the light fading from his eyes.

Johan finds himself in a dark place unaware of his surroundings. He feels himself falling further and further away from the world of living and knows that he is dead. He angrily curses the fact that he came so close to achieving his goal only to die inches away from it. A strange voice calls out to Johan from the darkness asking him if he wants to live. Johan gives an enthusiastic “yes!”

At Kiril’s feet, Johan opens his eyes, vengeance burning in them. He crawls out and gets to his feet fully healed and restored, but covered in boils and sores, and attacks Kiril with his greatsword from behind. Each blow is filled with the divine vengeance of his goddess and deals heavy wounds to Kiril. Bramo launches a bolt of fire at Kiril killing him at last.

Bianca, the white werewolf is outraged and goes berserk while the other remaining werewolf, Wendell suddenly halts his attacks and surrenders. Ireena manages to hold back Bianca and finally kill her with the silvered short sword. She moves into position with Riley surrounding Wendell.

The group are wary of Wendell and his sudden change of heart. He tells them that Kiril was the alpha, and now that he is dead, he no longer needs to obey his commands to attack. He wishes to live. The group asks him if they have any children here in the cave. He tells them he does and leads them to the children.

The group is ushered into a large cavern. Wooden cages filled with children are spread around the perimeter of the room. In the center of the room is a large, wolf-headed idol of a woman covered in flowers and garlands. A large pile of treasure is laid at the idol’s feet. Two rotting corpses hanging from the walls behind the idol.

Kneeling in front of the idol is a dark-skinned woman in tattered clothes. She turns and greets them introducing herself as Zuleika, priestess of Mother Night. She has prayed for deliverance from Kiril and Mother Night has answered her prayers by sending the group to her.

Zuleika explains that Kiril and her mate, Emil, were fighting each other for dominance to see who would become the new alpha. During the combat, Kiril’s mate, Bianca, lost control, and the combat had to be halted. Rather than resuming the fight, which Emil was winning, Kiril ran away to Strahd. Kiril pledged the loyalty of the pack to Strahd if he would guarantee Kiril would lead the pack. Kiril returned with Strahd’s forces who seized Emil and dragged him away to be executed. Kiril became the alpha and pack served Strahd. Zuleika despised Kiril for this and for the death of her mate. She has been quietly scheming Kiril’s downfall and praying to Mother Night for guidance.

Zuleika explains that the pack attacked their world on Strahd’s orders, carrying out errands for the Abbot and striking terror on Strahd’s behalf. Kidnapping children was Kiril’s idea. He would make the children fight to the death in the arena and turn the winner into a new werewolf to grow the pack.

Zuleika says she will not seize control of the pack and they will follow the ancient ways. They will honor Mother Night and the Huntress and hunt only in their woods. Those humans who wander in the woods will be turned as they are gifts from Mother Night to the pack. She has no interest in kidnapping children, serving Strahd, or hunting beyond their forest.

The group conclude that this arrangement is fair and probably the best they can hope for in Barovia. Zuleika allows them to release the children and take them away. They leave one child who has already been turned in her care to be raised as a werewolf.

Among the captured children are the three orphan boys, Lazlo, Hamil, and Franz from the Orphanage of St. Andral’s. They are grateful to be rescued and excited that Milivoj was working so hard to save them. It is clear the boys love and idolize the older boy. One of the other prisoners is Johan’s son Pietro still alive, but now transformed into a werewolf. The boy has been forced to kill in order to survive.

His father asks if he is all right and if they have hurt him. Pietro explains he was forced to do horrible things. The father and son reunion is not as joyful as the group expected. Johan is cold and stern with his son who calls him “sir” and seems nervous and uncomfortable with his father. He is surprised his father even came to rescue him. Johan matter-of-factly tells him that his mother and brother are dead. His father sold everything he had to come here and save or avenge him, and they have no way to go home. Pietro grimly accepts this news.

When discussing the turned boys, McCoy asks if there is a cure for lycanthropy. Zuleika says that lycanthropy is a blessing from the Huntress and honored by Mother Night. She doesn’t understand why anyone would want to be cured of this. They have been chosen for greatness! She doesn’t know if such a cure exists, and she is dismissive of it. McCoy wonders if he has been infected during the battle or if such a thing is even possible for him. The group also wonder if Johan is now a werewolf and that is explanation for his sudden resurrection.

Bramo is sorely tempted by the treasure laid at the feet of Mother Night. He believes it a suitable reward for their efforts against the werewolves. Zuleika sees him eyeing the treasure and tells him “it is very bad to steal from Mother Night.” Bramo is skeptical. Zuleika makes no move to prevent him from stealing the treasure and simply smiles broadly. The rest of group is vehemently against taking treasure from a goddess and finally talk Bramo into leaving it behind.

The group depart with the rescued children in tow. As they exit the cave, they encounter more wolves and werewolves, but Zuleika appears and tells them Kiril is dead, she is the new alpha, and the group is free to go. All the pack bows to her commands and let the group pass.

Waiting for them at the mouth of the cave is Strahd’s vampire bride, Anastrasya. She is flanked by two of the vampire spawn from the attack on St. Andral’s Church, Vadu and Tereska along with two large dire wolves. Anastrasya has been sent here by Strahd to retrieve something that belongs to him, the Tome of Strahd. If they hand over the tome, she will let them go. Otherwise, she will kill them and take it from their corpses.

The group debates handing over the tome, but decide it is too valuable to hand over. A fight breaks out and the vampires move in to attack. Anastrasya summons specters to fight by her side against the group. Vadu attacks and feeds off of Bronwyn while Tereska does the same to Johan.

One of the dire wolves closes on the children and gobbles up a little girl named Marica in one bite! Ireena is horrified. She rushes in front of the children and attacks the wolf allowing all the children except for Pietro to run away. Bramo casts a spell on the platinum necklace Anastrasya is wearing, burning her with it. Johan attacks her with his sword imbue with divine radiance.

Elora tells Verushka to protect Bronwyn. Verushka rushes over to Vadu and smashes him into a bloody paste. Anastrasya tries to fall back and heal, but Bramo chases after her, firing a fire bolt at her and finishing her off with the burning necklace. A dire wolf bites Pietro and the boy does nothing to defend himself. Johan is incensed and chastises the boy for being useless. Bronwyn kills the dire wolves with her magic while Johan finishes off Tereska.

The group takes a moment to patch their wounds. Johan reluctantly uses his divine healing touch on Pietro and scolds the boy telling to “stand there and fight or have the sense to run away with the other children!” Pietro apologizes, telling his father he was afraid, but he will do whatever his father asks of him. The group departs taking the surviving orphans with them to the Tower of Khazan.

They arrive at the tower and realize they have no way inside except for the trapped door. Unwilling to risk setting off the tower’s trap, they instead call out for Valentine and Wyssilka. Neither of them is in the tower, so the group decides to head to Vallaki instead.

As they approach the town, the weather turns into a torrential downpour of rain, the likes of which they have never seen before. They arrive cold, shivering, and miserable, particularly the children who have no protection from the rain. The guards allow them inside and they find the town is in chaos. They see the discarded remnants of the Festival of the Blazing Sun lay in the street. Several panicked townsfolk run through the streets wearing costumes.

The group make their way back to the Church of St. Andral’s. Father Petrovich welcomes them inside allowing them to warm up and dry off near the fire. Milivoj comes out overjoyed and embraces the rescued boys, setting to work feeding and caring for them. Father Petrovich explains that the group have missed all the excitement of the Festival of the Blazing Sun. A sudden rainstorm spoiled the Baron’s planned bonfire. A poor guard who laughed at the situation was dragged through the streets behind the Baron’s horse. After that spectacle, a massive tiger started rampaging through the streets. Now the entire town is panicked trying to hunt it down.

Before they can even dry off, the group heads out again in the rain to try and track down this tiger. Pietro is left behind at the church with the other children. Johan tells the boy to try and make himself useful. Riley and McCoy track the tiger through the streets by following its tracks. Elora is able figure out where the tiger is headed based on the evidence they discover, and they are able to locate the animal. They find a crowd of curious townsfolk have gathered around a shop where the massive tiger has broken in, Blinsky’s Toys.

The group woke after a fitful sleep and had an awkward breakfast with the Abbot and Clovin. After breakfast, the Abbot wished them well on their journey and reiterated his threat should any harm befall Verushka. As they were leaving, Clovin rang the abbey bell signaling feeding time for the Belviews. The entire abbey erupted in mad screeches and howls as the group hastily departed.

On their way through Krezk the group stopped to speak with Dmitri. Bramo spoke with him about the illnesses that had affected their children. Bramo at first thought they might be similar afflictions, but the disease in Krezk was not one of muscle weakness, but a sickness brought on by the failure to properly absorb nutrients in the body accompanied by excessive diarrhea. Eventually the afflicted could no longer eat or remain hydrated and became weak and jaundiced until they passed away. Dmitri explained that their small village had no doctors or magic other than the Abbot. The Abbot had healed many different afflictions in the village, but to Dmitri’s knowledge had never healed this one.

Dmitri and Bramo had a friendly parting as two fathers dealing with the death of their children. Dmitri offered to keep Bramo and his children in his prayers and wished him well on his journey. Bramo gave the man a friendly goodbye, but muttered curses under his breath, calling the man useless in his quest to save his daughters.

The group departed Krezk intending to track the werewolf pack to their den and rescue Johan’s son. They entered the nearby woods and Johan and Riley worked together searching for any sign of tracks that might lead them to the den. While in the woods they came across an odd spool of black thread all wound up. The group though this was a curious item to discover in the woods and were somewhat wary of it.

Bramo inspected the spool and could tell there was some minor magic on it. He spooled some of the thread out but could not figure out what the enchantment was. With no other recourse, he pocketed the spool and the group moved on.

The group worked their way further through the woods eventually coming out the other side in the mountains. At the base of the mountains was a small lake. Bronwyn was immediately excited and looked around quickly spotting a tower on the lake. She implored the group to investigate the tower and see if Valentine was there. She convinced them that a famed monster hunter could be of use in hunting down the werewolves. Since it was still morning, they agreed to stop by the tower.

They came to a tall, decrepit, stone tower overlooking a cold, mountain lake. The tower extended onto a small, marshy peninsula. A large gash split the wall of the tower on the third floor with a collapsing scaffolding leading up to it. Parked outside of the tower was a large, barrel-topped wagon with fresh purple paint on it. The group gave it a wide berth as Wyssilka had warned them it was her wagon, and it was rigged to explode with alchemist’s fire.

The group investigated the door to the tower and saw strange symbols and patterns on the door, a series of lines connecting what looked like little figures. Carved above the door was the name, “KHAZAN.” Bramo discovered that the door was magically trapped, and the group searched for another way inside.

Johan and Bronwyn circled around the tower and found that the scaffolding was the only other way into the tower. Seeing that the scaffolding was unsteady, they decided to send Bramo up first to investigate. He made his way up the rickety scaffolding which swayed in the wind. Reaching the hole in third floor, Bramo peered inside. He found the floor was empty for a large square hole in the center of the room. Chains in the four corners ran down the hole and up through an identical hole in the ceiling. The walls here were covered in black mold and the floorboards appeared to be rotting.

Bramo asked Johan to join him up there but first secured himself by grabbing onto the stone wall of the opening. The scaffolding groaned under Johan’s weight as he scaled it. Making his way along the platform, the entire scaffolding collapsed bringing Johan down with it! Bronwyn dodged out of the way of the falling scaffolding and Johan rolled to safety.

Forty feet up, Bramo clung to the wall for his life. Bramo eased his way inside and walked carefully across the creaking floorboards. He tried to reach one of the chains in the center of the room, but the floor gave way beneath him, and he crashed down twenty feet to the floor below injuring himself.

The second floor was virtually identical to the third, but the floorboards were sturdier here. Bramo made his way to the chains and lowered himself down to the first floor. There he found a wide platform attached to the chains. At the corners of the platform, the chains ran through pulleys. Standing next to each pulley was a large, clay, humanoid statue.

Bramo made his way across the room to the front door which he opened for the rest of the group. They entered and were immediately wary of the four statues. With some investigation they determined that the statues were in fact magical golems that operated a primitive lift to the upper floors. It required some experimentation to figure out how to activate the golems, but eventually Bramo figured out the command words and went to the top floor.

At the top of the tower he discovered a comfortable bedroom that had been recently cleaned and maintained. While the others were using the lift to join him, he investigated some scientific apparatus setup on the desk. The setup there included equipment to make both potions and poisons.

Riley, Bronwyn, Lancelot, and Elora followed up next. Bronwyn searched the room for any sign of Valentine and quickly discovered his favorite tea on the stove! Bramo investigated a suit of armor in the corner but could find nothing unusual about it. Elora searched through the room and discovered a chest that smelled of lavender. She opened it eagerly only to find a severed head inside! She screamed and the group rushed over to help.

Johan, McCoy, Ireena, and Verushka came up the lift as Elora was screaming. Verushka was nervous on the lurching lift and the echoing screams, but Johan and Ireena managed to calm her down. The group came to Elora’s side and calmed her down. Elora was still rattled from the previous night in the abbey and could not handle the shock. She took a minute to sit down and Ireena held her hand.

The rest of the group wanted to ignore the head, but McCoy was interested in trying to speak to it. To everyone’s surprise, the head opened its eyes and answered! The head introduced himself as Yan, a Vistana who had traveled with Valentine until Yan had tried to rob and kill him. In return, Valentine had beheaded him and enchanted his head to ask him questions. Valentine had asked Yan a lot of questions about Barovia and was interested in locating a particular girl. Bronwyn asked him if he was looking for “a” girl or “the” girl, but Yan wasn’t sure.

Riley didn’t like Yan and thought he got what he deserved for trying to rob and kill Valentine. Yan continually implored Bronwyn and McCoy to help him and take him out of the tower with him. Bronwyn was insistent on not messing with any of Valentine’s things including Yan and no one else wanted to help him. McCoy finally agreed to place Yan on a nearby table but refused to rest him on the bed’s soft pillow as requested by Yan.

Bronwyn searched the room thoroughly and eventually discovered a secret compartment hidden behind the suit armor but was unable to access it. Elora studied the suit of armor and concluded that it was enchanted and could be commanded with the right command word. Yan told them he had seen Valentine use the armor before, and he offered to help them if they would free him. Bronwyn lied to him and promised that she would. Yan told them that the command word was a single word, someone’s name and that it sounded magical.

The group tried many different names until Riley recalled seeing the name KHAZAN on the front door of the tower. Speaking the command word, the armor came to life and opened the secret compartment revealing its contents. Bronwyn reached in and drew out a heavy, leather tome with the Von Zarovich crest on the cover.

Reading through the tome, Bronwyn saw that most of the passages had been ruined by time, but a few were still readable. The book was the Tome of Strahd, one of the three treasures Madam Eva had told them to search for. It told the story of Strahd’s past, his conquest of Barovia, his life of sadness and regret, the relationship between Tatyana and his younger brother Sergei and how he became a vampire.

Strahd had once been a good man who settled Barovia and built Castle Ravenloft for his family. By that time, he was old and bitter regretting all he had given up in pursuit of doing his duty as the lord. Sergei brought home a young and vibrant woman named Tatyana who was a commoner. It would be unseemly for the lord to date a commoner, but young, handsome Sergei had no such restrictions. Strahd was jealous of his brother and found that Tatyana also had an interest in him. She was a willful, young woman who would do as she pleased. She spent her days with Sergei and every night crept to Strahd’s bed and carried out a long affair with him.

Strahd lamented deceiving his brother but could not resist Tatyana. Eventually Sergei and Tatyana were engaged to be married, an act which broke Strahd’s heart. Strahd prayed for deliverance, for a happy future together with Tatyana where he could be young and vital and spend all his nights together with her. The Dark Powers answered Strahd and offered to grant his wish in exchange for sacrificing his beloved brother Sergei. Strahd refused, but when Sergei came to summon him as the best man to his wedding, Strahd found himself stabbing his brother through the heart. He rushed to confess what he had done to Tatyana and beg her forgiveness, but she ran from him. As he chased after her through the garden, he found she had flung herself from the castle cliffs to her death.

Before the act could register, Strahd was cut down by the arrows of his treacherous guards avenging the death of Sergei. But Strahd did not die, he instead became a vampire and began his reign of terror over Barovia. Strahd talks a bit about his immunity to most vampire weaknesses but expresses genuine fear of his brother’s sword. He entrusts his wizard Khazan with the destruction of the sword.

Bronwyn shares this information with the group. Elora starts looking through the book but is disgusted by its contents and returns it to Bronwyn. Bronwyn also shares that possession of the book offers protection from the charms of a vampire.

The group gather up a few of Valentine’s supplies, some holy water and stakes, and head out in search of the Werewolf Den. Despite the group’s protests, McCoy brings Yan along with him tied to his belt.

The group makes their way around the lake and back up into the mountains. Riley follows signs of tracks and movement leading them to the Werewolf Den. The cave mouth is just as described, resembling the open maw of a wolf. Torchlight pours out from the cave opening between the wolf’s teeth.

Bramo goes ahead to scout, sneaking between the wolf’s teeth. He sees that the inside of the cavern is brightly lit by torches and there is no immediate danger in sight. Realizing he cannot sneak through the brightly lit passage; he returns to the group and waves them forward.

The group enter the den and are spotted by two feral women on a raised platform. McCoy rushes up the platform and into melee range with them striking with his blood spear. Lancelot holds at Riley’s command and waits to accompany her up the platform. They move into position together. Johan stands in front of the party and casts a divine spell to aid them, granting the ability to take more damage to himself, Riley, and McCoy. Then he moves to the base of the platform.

The three spellcasters attack the feral women with fire bolts and eldritch magic. Bramo moves along the wall and advances while Elora and Bronwyn stay behind.

The two feral women tear off their clothes and transform into werewolves in front of the group. They claw and bight at Riley and McCoy. Verushka is unsure what to do, but Bronwyn and Elora ask her to stay back with them. Riley and McCoy continue attacking the two werewolves. Lancelot tries to frighten the two werewolves with his barking, but they ignore him. Johan struggles to get up the platform but cannot make it up the steep slope. The spellcasters launch more spells at the werewolves.

Seeing Johan struggle, Verushka rushes forward and lifts Johan up to the platform with ease. Johan is shocked by this feat of strength but grateful. Ireena makes her way up to the platform flanking one of the werewolves with Riley only to discover her rapier is useless against the creature’s hide. Piddlewick is also disappointed to find that his darts are useless against them. From McCoy’s belt, Yan futilely tries to bite at the werewolves as he swings towards them.

One of the werewolves lands a vicious bite on McCoy. As the fangs sink deep into his artificial flesh, he feels a strange sensation, but cannot explain what it is. After dispatching one of the werewolves, Riley tosses her the silvered short sword she has. Ireena catches it and thanks her, switching over to that weapon. Johan moves into a flank with McCoy on the last werewolf and McCoy finishes her off.

Worried reinforcements are on their way, the group quickly moves down one of the passages further into the cave. The find a cavern with a hole in the ceiling letting light into the room. A large pool of fresh rainwater is gathered beneath the opening. There are platforms on either side of the room. The group heads up one of the platforms where there are several crates. Johan smashes one of them open to discover it is filled with adult clothing. The group conclude that werewolves must go through a lot of clothes due to their transformations.

The group crosses through the pool of rainwater to the other platform. McCoy and Verushka help the group onto the platform with Riley taking care to help Elora. The group heads out from the platform only to find themselves face-to-face with a pack of angry wolves.