Ravenloft Game Log - Session 17
After a much deserved vacation...
We find our party exactly where we left them, in the caverns beneath Lysaga Hill. Climbing out of the dark shaft, they find the sun is just beginning to set, and they make for town quickly. As night falls, the mists are not as oppressive as they have been in the past, which can only be a good sign... However, evil has been present in the village while they were gone. In the basement of the church, they discover the body of Lucien. Someone has killed him and sliced open, but has not removed, his heart. The party begins an investigation of the mysterious murder... No obvious signs of passage are found in the church, although the party has gone in and out fairly frequently. No spatters of blood are present, indicating among other things that Lucien was killed first, and cut open afterwards.
During the night, as they are holed up in the church, Ireena begins to hear a voice from outside. Heironymus goes to investigate and finds the voice belongs to the Countess, although she remains unseen. She asks for Yves-Michel, who is asleep, but the party declines to wake him. The Countess then becomes somewhat cryptic, indicating that perhaps she has been given certain orders, but is trying to work around them. She asks Heironymus to follow her and leads him to: the former Burgomeister's grave, the Tavern, the stables outside of the tavern, and the Vishtani camp, where the party last fought Strahd. Revealing no more, she takes her leave.
In the morning, after hearing of the events of the night, and as the spellcasters are preparing for the day, Ismark and Ireena decide to visit their father's grave. A few others investigate the grave itself, looking for clues that might have been left by the Countess. Ismark and Ireena retreat to the edge of the graveyard to have a private conversation. Suddenly, the area around them changes to pitch darkness! Rushing toward the site of the ambush, Rikard is able to grab a hand, but it proves not to be Ireena's, but rather one of her captors. Their prey caught, the cloaked figures flee by use of magical flight. However, one of them is brought down by the party before she can escape. She is Afina, one of the students that the group met at Count Strahd's dinner party. But most strangely, one of the other two attackers appears to have been Ismark! They flee with Ireena toward the castle. Rikard, Niccolo, and Thorne travel in quick pursuit, but are unable to catch up with the fliers.
In the meantime, Yves-Michel and Heironymus build a pyre while Zidara questions Arik, the tavernkeep, about what Ismark was doing the previous evening. Arik states that Ismark had a lot to drink and left for a while. Arik believes it was to go to the bathhouse, since when he returned, he looked more presentable and less drunken. As the party rejoins, Zidara continues her inquiries, this time by speaking with the shade of the deceased Lucien. Quite the opposite from the calm and gentlemenly figure that he appeared to be in life, Lucien's spirit is distraught to the point of near insanity. However, he is more than willing to answer their questions. He reveals the name of his killer as Tenabros. He states that a secret Strahd would not wish the party to know is the existence of the Dayheart, found in the tallest spire of Castle Ravenloft. It is this, apparently, that gives Strahd his ability to go out in the sunlight without harm. He states that the magical circle, which presumably is the Mist Fane, is in the catacombs. However, when asked to give a means of safe and undetected passage into Castle Ravenloft, he dissolves into uncontrollable, and insane, laughter!
We find our party exactly where we left them, in the caverns beneath Lysaga Hill. Climbing out of the dark shaft, they find the sun is just beginning to set, and they make for town quickly. As night falls, the mists are not as oppressive as they have been in the past, which can only be a good sign... However, evil has been present in the village while they were gone. In the basement of the church, they discover the body of Lucien. Someone has killed him and sliced open, but has not removed, his heart. The party begins an investigation of the mysterious murder... No obvious signs of passage are found in the church, although the party has gone in and out fairly frequently. No spatters of blood are present, indicating among other things that Lucien was killed first, and cut open afterwards.
During the night, as they are holed up in the church, Ireena begins to hear a voice from outside. Heironymus goes to investigate and finds the voice belongs to the Countess, although she remains unseen. She asks for Yves-Michel, who is asleep, but the party declines to wake him. The Countess then becomes somewhat cryptic, indicating that perhaps she has been given certain orders, but is trying to work around them. She asks Heironymus to follow her and leads him to: the former Burgomeister's grave, the Tavern, the stables outside of the tavern, and the Vishtani camp, where the party last fought Strahd. Revealing no more, she takes her leave.
In the morning, after hearing of the events of the night, and as the spellcasters are preparing for the day, Ismark and Ireena decide to visit their father's grave. A few others investigate the grave itself, looking for clues that might have been left by the Countess. Ismark and Ireena retreat to the edge of the graveyard to have a private conversation. Suddenly, the area around them changes to pitch darkness! Rushing toward the site of the ambush, Rikard is able to grab a hand, but it proves not to be Ireena's, but rather one of her captors. Their prey caught, the cloaked figures flee by use of magical flight. However, one of them is brought down by the party before she can escape. She is Afina, one of the students that the group met at Count Strahd's dinner party. But most strangely, one of the other two attackers appears to have been Ismark! They flee with Ireena toward the castle. Rikard, Niccolo, and Thorne travel in quick pursuit, but are unable to catch up with the fliers.
In the meantime, Yves-Michel and Heironymus build a pyre while Zidara questions Arik, the tavernkeep, about what Ismark was doing the previous evening. Arik states that Ismark had a lot to drink and left for a while. Arik believes it was to go to the bathhouse, since when he returned, he looked more presentable and less drunken. As the party rejoins, Zidara continues her inquiries, this time by speaking with the shade of the deceased Lucien. Quite the opposite from the calm and gentlemenly figure that he appeared to be in life, Lucien's spirit is distraught to the point of near insanity. However, he is more than willing to answer their questions. He reveals the name of his killer as Tenabros. He states that a secret Strahd would not wish the party to know is the existence of the Dayheart, found in the tallest spire of Castle Ravenloft. It is this, apparently, that gives Strahd his ability to go out in the sunlight without harm. He states that the magical circle, which presumably is the Mist Fane, is in the catacombs. However, when asked to give a means of safe and undetected passage into Castle Ravenloft, he dissolves into uncontrollable, and insane, laughter!