The Catacombs of Castle Ravenloft

Trevor and I shared a crypt with Oswald and Kasimir last night. Elaine, Brynden, Eerika and the dragon-man, Oren, set themselves up in one directly across the way. I immediately curled up in the far corner behind Trevor and fell asleep. I was so tired.
 
I don’t know how long it had been, but it definitely hadn’t been long enough, when I was awakened by Trevor. We had a visitor…
 
As ominous as it sounds, it actually wasn’t too bad - a small black kitten had arrived and seated itself between the two crypts. It was offering to sell us potions of healing, among other things. I bought all of the healing potions and the potion of speed that he was offering. He said he had a bag of holding, and he was offering it for only 50 gold… but I am no fool… if someone is offering a bag of holding for that price, it must be cursed or something. Nothing good will come of it, I am sure. Unfortunately, Oswald had no such compunction about overly-cheap magical items, and purchased it… I hope it doesn’t bring us ruin…
 
The cat left, and we went back to sleep. I just wanted to take advantage of what little time and safety we had, and get some sleep.
 
When morning came, we decided to search more of the crypts. We came upon one that said “Beloved Wife”, next to that of the architect. Deciding to go ahead and open it, we discovered the pristine body of a woman, with a silver stake impaling her heart. A vampire.
 
I offered to speak with the spirit of the architect and see if we could discern anything useful, before Trevor killed the vampire woman… the others agreed, so I asked my questions of the architect’s spirit. He didn’t give us much useful information, beyond that there are secret passageways running through the entirety of Castle Ravenloft, and that the most defensible places are the spires. It is probably in one of the spires that Strahd is keeping his mother’s heart - at least that is what I’m assuming, judging by the rest of the events of the day...
 
We looked through more of the crypts… somehow the party came to the decision that we each get to pick one, regardless of what the others say… Brynden entered the tomb of a lich, and came out with a desiccated corpse, with gems for eyes and amber for teeth. He put it into Oswald’s bag of holding (did I mention that was a bad idea?), then he said something and the lich emerged from the bag and handed him a staff. Judging by the reactions of Elaine and Brynden, it was some powerful artifact… a staff of power or something…
 
Trevor told Brynden that if he was taking the new staff, he should give me his old one… and that is how I came to be in the possession of a staff of frost. I hope this proves useful later…
 
We came upon a crypt that is nothing other than a bad omen… it had my name written on it, “Marushka Belmont.” I turned away and refused to look. Trevor wanted to see inside it, but I refused. I didn’t even peek inside. There are some things that one learns when they grow up in the Valley, and especially when they grow up with the Vistani… anyone who sees their body is marked by death. I felt a cold chill run down my spine, a feeling of ominous foreboding. I tried to ignore it and move on… but when the others started talking about finding my rotting corpse laid out on a marble slab, wearing the same clothes that I wear today… I couldn’t take it anymore. I told them to stop and forcibly moved the party onwards.
 
We explored several more crypts, one claiming to be “the Hellborn”. I wanted to avoid that one, but the others wanted to go in. Kasimir was being an ass, and asked if he told me that True Love was in that tomb, would I want to go in? Asshole. I get it, he’s upset and grieving, but does he always have to be such a superior jerk?
 
An imp was in there, and apparently he wanted to die. I could feel him staring at me oddly, and he asked me what I am. I ignored him and we moved on. I think Brynden might have killed him as we left, but I wasn’t paying that much attention.
 
Shortly thereafter, we came upon a named crypt that I was actually interested in… the inscription read “Korval Stoyanovich, Master of the Hunt”. I said I wanted to look into that one, honestly, I think I might have done it to see if I could get a rise out of Trevor… but I was also genuinely curious… I had no idea that the Stoyanovich family was that old… I knew they had some famed hunters, but I’d never heard of one being referred to as “Master of the Hunt”.
 
I asked Trevor if he could sense anything in that crypt, and he said “Yeah, I smell bullshit.”
 
In reality though, there were two massive beasts inside the crypt, and Oswald said that they stank. I think that means they are undead or demons or something - I haven’t quite figured out how Oswald’s sense of smell works…
 
I asked Trevor if that means we shouldn’t look in there, and he was flippantly sarcastic, telling me to “go right ahead.”
 
I think I pissed him off more than I meant to… Brynden’s skeletal visage was watching Trevor oddly and looking like he was trying to hold back laughter. I just meant to get a rise out of Trevor, I didn’t want to actually hurt him or make him think that I was regretting or reconsidering my choice to marry him. It was a poor attempt at having some fun when the whole world feels like it will come crashing down at any minute.
 
We opened the door, and there stood the ghost of a hunter and two massive hellhounds… they were nearly the size of horses! I’m not even ashamed to say that I was glad Trevor was in front of me…
 
The ghost said something to Trevor, asking if he was seeking a Master of the Hunt… I peeked around Trevor, and the ghost’s eyes looked to me. He asked who I am, and I didn’t answer – rude, I know, but his hounds were fucking terrifying and I didn’t want to give him a means by which to track me… I don’t know, maybe his hounds can be sent after people if he knows them or something. I don’t know, but names have power… and I wasn’t about to make a stupid decision that might lead to more pain down the road for me, Trevor, or my friends.
 
The ghost of Stoyanovich then asked Trevor why he didn’t accept the gift and become Master of the Hunt. Trevor said simply that he’d made a promise. Then, Stoyanovich leaned over to look at me, and shook his head, telling Trevor that I would have gotten over it.
 
It took me a second to realize exactly what he was talking about… Trevor must have been offered command of hellhounds when we were in the Amber Temple… and he turned it down, even though it would have made him nearly unstoppable… he turned it down because he made me a promise.
 
I knew that Trevor hadn’t accepted any pacts with the dark powers when we were in the Amber Temple, but I didn’t know he had been offered this! I can’t help but wonder if he regrets his promise and his decision to keep it, now that he sees the power he could have had. I hope not… for me, it’s just further proof of his love. He doesn’t seem angry with me for the Amber Temple…
 
Then the ghost told Trevor that the hounds are forever out of his reach, but there was one thing he could offer him. “I will offer you a taste of the curse that befalls my family. Then you will know what it means to hunt.”
 
When he said that, Stoyanovich’s visage took on the likeness of a wolf’s head.
 
I asked him what he meant by that, and he replied. “He will hunger, and should you give into that hunger, you will kill everyone you hold dear, and the curse will hold forever.”
 
Before I could speak, Brynden glared at me, telling me to let Trevor make his own decision. Who the fuck does he think he is to lecture me? Look at him! It’s obvious that he isn’t someone who should be handing out advice when it comes to dark gifts and curses. I wish that everyone had listened to me in the first place and had never gone to the Amber Temple… fuck.
 
Trevor asked if it would be only temporary. The ghost nodded and continued with a warning. “But know this… I am no dark power who will not give you all the facts. The taste of the one you love will be the most succulent flesh.”
 
My heart sunk as Trevor said “Then I accept.”
 
Brynden kept saying something about he’ll protect me, he and Elaine could control Trevor through magic if they had to…
 
The ghost of Stoyanovich simply said “It is done” and began to fade away. I called out for him to wait, wanting to know how Trevor was supposed to control it, but I was too late… without another word, the ghost was gone… and my new husband is apparently now going to turn into a werewolf and want to feast on me – and not in the fun way…
 
Fuck. This is bad.
 
I don’t want to die, but I really don’t want to die by Trevor’s hand, or… teeth and claws… oh fuck…
 
We continued through the catacombs, until we came to a set of staircases that led downwards into larger tombs…
 
One of them bore the name “Sergei von Zarovich”. Oswald began making his way into that tomb, we figured that, as a paladin, he was the best one for the investigation… before he entered, Trevor handed him the spearshaft that we had taken from Sergei’s pool beneath Krezk. There was no magic left in it, but it belonged to Sergei, and therefore, should be laid to rest in his final resting place…
 
I didn’t see what happened in the tomb, but Oswald came out, wearing a shining suit of plate armor – I can only assume that it is Sergei’s, judging by the symbol of the Morning Lord emblazoned on the breastplate.
 
The next tomb we came to was blocked by a portcullis. This one had to be Strahd’s...
 
Elaine used a dimensional door to take her and Kasimir to the other side of the portcullis. Then a few minutes later, we received word from Elaine that they had found Strahd. She came back up the stairs to us, and Kasimir joined her. Apparently there was a wide area of turned up earth and a bunch of vampire spawn sleeping around a single wooden coffin. Beside the coffin was a lever, that Kasimir thought would raise the portcullis.
 
With some clever uses of silence spells, we managed to make our way down into the chamber. I could vaguely see Oren lowering himself down from the ceiling over the coffin. He deftly removed the lid and raised a silver stake to strike at the vampire lying within. Oren’s blow stopped short and then flung himself off of the coffin. I wasn’t able to make out any details, but I knew that it was going to be bad… he had tried to stake Strahd, and failed.
 
That’s when all hell broke loose, and everything went to shit...
 
It was sheer chaos… Strahd rose out of his coffin and all of the vampire spawn awoke.
 
Strahd pinned Oren with his gaze and then the dragon-man turned on us. Elaine went down and I tried to revive her, while avoiding Oren at the same time. Strahd blocked us in with a wall of force, but we managed to get around and over it.
 
Mist began to swirl around the chamber, until it coalesced into the familiar cloying mists that cover the entirety of the wilds in the valley. Strahd appeared next to me, viciously attacking Elaine with his black sword. He moves almost too fast to even see at times.
 
Elaine collapsed in the wake of his attack. As she fell, but before she had even hit the ground, Strahd whirled his sword around to me. Pain seared through my body as his blade found the gaps in my armor, and I could feel the warm wetness of blood begin seeping through my clothes.
 
Brynden began shouting to Oswald, demanding to know who held his phylactery. He insisted that Oswald needed to make sure he got whoever held it out of the chamber immediately. He was holding his new staff aloft, and I feared what he was planning.
 
As I staggered under the pain of my injuries, I to called for Oswald, beseeching him for aid. Trevor was too far away… and I wasn’t able to fend of Strahd myself, much less do so while I was trying to keep Elaine from dying – well, dying again… not to mention trying to keep away from Oren and the wicked blade that Brynden must have given him… the poisoned dagger from Baba Lysaga.
 
I heard a massive crash, as the coffin in the center of the room exploded into tiny pieces. Trevor began shouting for everyone to retreat, as he began pulling Eerika from the vampire corpses in the center of the room.
 
Strahd’s gaze snapped over to Brynden, and he rushed him, roaring with rage, as he went after Brynden. He cut the staff out of Brynden’s hands, and the staff went flying to the ground behind them.
 
I didn’t know what else to do, so I healed Elaine as best as I could, and then cast dimension door to move next to the staff and picked it up. As soon as I grasped the staff, I heard Strahd’s voice shout “NO!” and as I lifted my gaze, I could have sworn that I saw a momentary flash of fear in his eyes. Then, he raised his hand, and began to cast. I tried to counterspell whatever he was doing, but he spoke a single word, and my body was instantly wracked with pain unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. It felt as though that word had sucked the very life from my body. I hit the ground.
 
The world was spinning, and blackness seeped along the edges of my vision. I could hear Brynden and Oswald yelling at each other, but it was so very far away… there was still fighting going on around me, but it was so far away…
 
I looked up, and my vision cleared just enough to see Brynden standing over me. For a moment, I thought he was there to help, but then I wondered why his staff was pointed directly at my face. He wasn’t even looking at me though… what was going on? My vision tunneled, until all I could see was Brynden pointing his staff threateningly in my face, before everything went black.
 
When I regained consciousness, it was to the healing warmth of Trevor’s hand. Everything still hurt, and I couldn’t move, but at least my senses were back – just in time to hear Strahd say “Speak your bargain, boy.”
 
Brynden started talking, but I did not catch what was said, I was too focused on the blood soaking Trevor’s shirt. I didn’t want to lose him.
 
Strahd said something about not having the phylactery, and Brynden claimed that Trevor did. Trevor asked “Do I?”
 
Strahd then spoke, this I remember… he said “Your position is hopeless. Leave the staff. And choose one of your friends to die. The rest may walk out. Or I will kill all of you.”
 
Brynden’s reply was cheerful. “Trevor, obviously!”
 
Rage burned at those words. How dare he? I tried to pull myself up to attack him, or to protect Trevor somehow, but I couldn’t. My body wouldn’t respond to my commands. Instead, I just lay there, helpless, as I glared at Brynden. “Fuck you!” I said, pouring as much venom into my voice as I could. Oh, how I wished I could have gotten up to curse him in that moment. Even now, as I write this, I am filled with such anger. How could he betray us like this? I know that he gave up everything when he became a lich, but really? Somehow, I was hoping that there was still something of Brynden in there, and he wouldn’t have betrayed us like that. But such is the foolishness of hope.
 
Strahd ignored me, and said “so be it”, before laying into Trevor with his black blade. As Trevor collapsed beside me, Brynden snarled at me “Does Trevor have it?”
 
I didn’t know for sure, but even if I did, I wasn’t going to tell him. Not after what he just did. Instead, I raised my middle finger at him (which Trevor said is one of the worst insults in Faerun) and told him to fuck off.
 
Strahd held out his hand to Brynden and said “You will leave Trevor and the staff behind, and the rest of you will live.”
 
Fuck that! There was no way that I was going to just up and leave Trevor there to Strahd’s care. “Give me the staff, and take the girl, and leave.” Strahd said again.
 
Brynden didn’t hand him the staff, so Strahd came after me. Pain seared through me again, as his sword slashed across me again. The pain ended when I fell into a merciful blackness.
 
I don’t know what happened immediately after, but when I regained consciousness, Strahd was gone.
 
Brynden was gone.
 
The others told me what happened… apparently, Brynden flew up into the air above Strahd and shattered his staff, setting off an explosive wave of force that seriously injured Strahd – enough that he turned into mist and disappeared into the ceiling.
 
We made our way down the black marble staircase that led to the left of the chamber, and there we found a sarcophagus with a good portion of gold in it, apparently it was Strahd’s father’s tomb.
 
The other staircase, carved from white marble, led us into another crypt, but this one held an aura of peace, one that made me want to curl up in Trevor’s arms and go to sleep… even though this is neither the time nor the place for that…
 
As I write this, I’m thinking back on the path that I’ve taken, walking alongside these people…
 
Elaine was an awkward girl when she arrived, who tried adorably to flirt, without knowing how… now she is an undead shell of what she once was. I don’t even know if she feels anything at all anymore. It certainly doesn’t seem like it…
 
Brynden was kind of cute, in a juvenile sort of way… he was filled with angst, as though he didn’t know his place in the world – sad, considering he seems to have been raised in a good, kind family… but then, he took a curse from the dark powers, even though they called it a gift… he became a lich and betrayed all of us. I must say that I am somewhat relieved that he is gone… for I would not want to have to fight him and try to kill him when he inevitably would betray us again…
 
Oswald is much the same as he was when he arrived, I think… perhaps a bit more realistic, and less caught up in the idealism of his religion.
 
Eerika joined us late in our journey, so I don’t know her all too well… but she does seem to be of a trustworthy sort, even though she seems to have misfortune in her choice of friends…
 
We lost Erkki in Argynvolstolt, and Adrastos in the Amber Temple. Kasimir is also lost to us, as he disappeared when he lifted the lever in Strahd’s crypt.
 
And Trevor? Well… I don’t even know where to begin… he was an ass when he arrived, well, he probably still is, but now he is mine. I know now that his attitude surrounding the Barovian hunters was likely just jealousy (although he will never admit it), and he seemed to have gotten over a lot of that ever since we spent a private night together in the Vistani camp.
 
I don’t fully know if it is Trevor who has changed, or I. But I do know this… I refuse to lose him lightly… If we are going to die in this godsforsaken castle, then we will take as many of Strahd’s servants with us as we can. We have already taken Rahadin from him, and freed Tatyana and Sergei’s spirits to be together… I think that even if this is all that we do, at least we have done something. And perhaps, if we do die, the next reincarnation of our souls will find each other again, and be able to finish what we started…