Chapter 14: September the 14th Report
General Summary
Hail thee, o' honorable Mums and Mummers, take heed of our word!
Last we saw our heroes, the Guardians of the Horizon found themselves teleported to Tsolenka Pass bridge hundreds of feet over the Luna River and Lake. The Tsolenka Pass gatehouse was barred with sickly green energy preventing our Guardians form ascending the mountain. The group had just managed to rescue Master Dao and the real Emil from Castle Ravenloft. While they tended to their needs, Vorthos felt himself detected by a Scrying Spell and Charlemagne felt teleportation magics begin to activate the Teleportation Circle they had just used. Just in time, Ocarin managed to cast Dispel Magic on the circle, preventing the Dreadknight from following them directly through it. However, this was not the only threat atop the mountain; the Lady in Red, Patrina Velikovna, projected an image of her spirit to warn Ocarin of a descending predator. At the same time, Warren managed to spot the same feathered figure in the distance, though this bird turned out to be far larger and farther away than the group first suspected... it was a massive, but starved Roc!
The Guardians began to book it down the mountain, hoping to find shelter along the snow covered path, but none was to be found. Emil transformed himself into his full wolf form and carried the unconscious Master Dao, while Ezme used her ballistic protheses to attack the Roc. Quickly, the Roc descended to take on it's prey, hoping for an easy meal, however, once it passed over the group the first time, a quick thinking Ocarin Dimmension Door'ed atop the creature's back and held on for dear life. Then, just as it began to bank and turn to swallow it's prey whole, Ocarin blinded the bird, forcing it to stop its attack. The Roc managed to shake off the spell, but when it resumed its attack, Warren shadowsteped up to join his dwarven compatriot and cast a chain down for Vorthos to climb up. The three Guardians began to wreak havoc on the back of the Roc, though it still sought to find a meal in Charlemagne, Ezmeralda, Emil, and Master Dao below. Just before the Roc could swallow them whole however, Ocarin summoned all of his magical effort and cast Levitate on the monster, freezing it in its tracks, allowing for the Guardians to make quick work of the emaciated creature.
Safe once again, the Guardians continued down the mountain until they found rest at it's foot. Together they made a plan, to gather Ezmerelda's wagon from Khazan's Tower and journey to Vallaki and find a place to allow Master Dao to recover, as well as begin a venture into the northern Svalich Woods to find the alleged Mad Mage of Mount Baratok. The gang left Dao with Father Petrovich at the Lathandian Saint Andral's Church, but not before Warren swiped Dao's Sharian pendant, hoping to protect his teacher from prejudice. Emil chose to stay at the Blue Water Inn and recuperate himself after being tortured by Strahd and Rahadin.
The Guardians saw fit to check up on their ward, Ireena Kolyana at the Wachterhaus. They found her upset and concerned for her brother Ismark the Lesser back in the Village of Barovia. She had just received correspondence from him urging her never to return and to no longer write to him as three new maternal visitors have seen to the security and safety of the village. The Guardians suspect these visitors to be the Hags of the Old Bonegrinder windmill they had banished into the night. It seems that the sisters have cloistered in the village and turned its inhabitants into isolationist servants.
From Wachterhaus, the Guardians sought out arms from the smithies of Vallaki. The armorers revealed to the Guardians a grand conspiracy to forge and temper weapons of war for the defense of Vallaki from the Legion of Dread, Strahd's army of monsters and undead. Once sufficiently armed, the Guardians resolved to find the Mad Mage Mordenkainen before venturing out to Barovia to face the Coven of the Night Hags.
Once in the northern woods, the Guardians and Ezmerelda coordinated with the recently killed and resurrected Rudolph van Richten to track and trap the crazed Mad Mage. However, it turned out the Wizard had a trap of his own. The Mad Mage attacked the Guardians, attempting to Banish and destroy them, and used a secret Simulacrum to attack from the outside of his cave in a two pronged elk maneuver. The two mages proved to be a slippery quarry, as they seemed to have cast Grease on each other before the fight. Vorthos, frustrated with the Ocarin's calls to placate the dangerous mage, reached out to the darkness, as he has now made a habit of doing, and stopped time to incapacitate Mordenkainen with rope. Unfortunately, with his mind lost to paranoia and protected from sanity by repeated abuse of the Mind Blank spell, the Mad Mage was not so easily quelled and escaped from Vorthos' bindings. Then, using his own Time Stop Spell and a recently mastered skill in setting rope traps of his own, the wizard bound Vorthos in turn. While Ocarin used silence to stop the Mad Mage from destroying the Guardians, and Warren used his stunning strikes to bring one of them to heel, Charlemagne deduced that the years of paranoia and repeated Mind Blanking were preventing them from reaching the legendarily pragmatic wizard through words alone. She realized that if the group were able to destroy the Simulacrum and apprehend the real Mordenkainen, they could keep him from Mind Blanking himself again and allow for his mind to heal. However, the question then became, which was the real Mad Mage and which was the clone. Fortunately, Vorthos' repeated pacts with the darkness had begun to sow greater and greater rewards, gifting him a sight truer than truth and allowing him to see which body was the Simulacrum. Now with their objectives clarified, the Guardians made short work of the copy and incapacitated the real Mordenkainen long enough for his psychic barrier to end and his mind to return.
The now lucid Mordenkainen has offered assistance to the Guardians, as well as place to rest - Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion. The archmage represents the Guardians best hope of understanding the stakes and making a plan of attack against the Devil himself. What will they learn from this great mind? Where is the Dreadknight now? What have the Hags done to Ismark and the Village of Barovia? And by what magic can the Guardians even hope to defeat the Dreadlord and chosen of the Dark Powers, Strahd von Zarowich?
Warren Peace
None Swiftstride (Acolyte)
Monk 7
Monk 7
52 / 52 HP
STR
9
9
DEX
18
18
CON
15
15
INT
14
14
WIS
18
18
CHA
14
14
Charlemagne
None Shadar-kai (Hermit)
Druid 7
Druid 7
66 / 66 HP
STR
13
13
DEX
15
15
CON
18
18
INT
17
17
WIS
20
20
CHA
12
12
Vorthos D'Artagnan
None Changeling (Pirate)
Rogue 7
Rogue 7
45 / 45 HP
STR
9
9
DEX
19
19
CON
13
13
INT
12
12
WIS
12
12
CHA
16
16
Ocarin Stonehollow
None Reborn (Haunted One)
Bard 7
Bard 7
52 / 52 HP
STR
12
12
DEX
13
13
CON
15
15
INT
18
18
WIS
16
16
CHA
20
20
Report Date
14 Sep 2024
Primary Location
Secondary Location
Related Plots