Session 9 report

General Summary

The tower

The party leaves Papusza's decapitated corpse as they travel onward towards the wizard of wines.
On their journey they see a run down tower in the distance. The party decides to check it out. Fassi takes to the air and Markadoo becomes a cat. Quill, Heehoo and Markadoo continue stealthily towards the tower while Kriz waits by the road.
As they approach the tower they see it is quite worn down and that there is a lake behind it . The land is marshy and there is a path of land the extends towards it. it is otherwise surrounded by the lake. There is a gash in the side of the tower and it is topped by moss covered griffon statues. They also see a barrel topped wagon that is spattered with mud. It is purple with fancy gold trim. It is locked and has a cheap wooden sign that says "keep out".
Fassi flys up and begins to scout the tower but sees nothing particularly interesting. Heehoo spots that the tower has an interesting door sporting a bronze engraved plate. Quill sketches it. She notices that it looks like there are body positions and a line that denotes the order. She does the positions in the order and looks but nothing seems to have happened. Fassi flies back down and joins the party. After some deliberation Heehoo pushes the door and it opens. He walks in, the floor is strewn with debris, there is an indentation in the middle of the floor with a platform in it. The platform is attached to four chains, the chains seem to loop around pulleys and end in front of some giant stone statues. Markadoo suspects they may be clay golems but he's not quite sure.
Quill asks the party if she should climb one of the chains and the party agrees. She climbs up the chain and as she reaches the second level she raises her eyes above floor level. She sees that the floor is in bad shape and a bunch of dust and cobwebs. Quill sneezes a little making the chain sway. Quill asks if she should climb higher and Fassi re-assures her. She climbs up to the next floor and sees that it is similar to the one below but the floor is in an even worse state.
Quill smells the air and smells a burnt charcoal smell. She climbs up and pokes her eyes up in to the next floor. She notices it shows signs of recent habitation. It has been made to be comfortable. There is a standing suit of armour and wooden chest as well as a bed, a desk and a stove. Having scouted the room Quill climbs back down the chain and relays the information. Heehoo goes out and gets Kriz.
Markadoo steps onto the elevator platform causing the elevator to start to go back up leaving heehoo and Kriz behind. Fassi flys up and Quill climbs the chain. Quill immediately runs over to open the chest and Markadoo (still a cat) swats at her to keep her from opening the chest, causing her to be a little upset with him. He looks for traps and notices none. They notice the smell of lavender coming from the chest. Quill knows that lavender is often used to cover up bad odors. Quill let's everyone know, Makadoo meows and Fassi says nothing leading to Quill being a little upset that no one seems to care about her knowledge. The elevator reaches the ground floor and Kriz and Heehoo make their way up.
Quill opens the chest and sees a severed head. She immediately drops the lid and recoils, almost falling down the elevator shaft "Guys! yuck, yuck, yuck, i've seen two severed heads today!". Markadoo paws open the chest and observes it. He notices it belongs to a vistana and that it has been embalmed. Quill regains her composure and starts sketching the head. Heehoo and Kriz reach the level. Kriz can't detect any evil except for an extremely evil fly. Markadoo looks throught the desk and notices a bunch of writing implements and paper but no notes or anything particularly interesting. Heehoo opens the stove and sees what looks like burnt paper, like someone was burning notes. Markadoo tries to detect magic but the spell fails. Quill investigates the room to see if she can tell anything about who might have been here. All she finds is some strands of long brown hair and shows the party. Heehoo takes the head and he now smells of lavender.
Far off in the distance Quill sees a large cave. Markadoo looks out the window and doesn't see anyone below the tower. The party takes the suit of armor and notice the elevator is starting to lower. As the rest of the party make their way down, Markadoo turns into a mouse and Fassi carries him onto each floor of the tower to scout, though he doesn't find anything of note.

"Resting" at the wagon

The party decide to take it easy. Fassi suggests they could take ownership of the wagon and Markadoo agrees as he can become a horse. Fassi is excited about painting her logo on the side in gold, Quill laments that she only has yellow but they decide they'll figure that out later. Fassi inspects the wagon and asks Quill if she can pick the lock. Quill tries and fails before getting frustrated and giving up. Kriz starts hitting the lock with his morning star and after 10 minutes manages to break it. Fassi get super excited and opens the door to see what's inside. She sees a bunch of items and also a bunch of jars of fire before they all drop, causing the wagon to explode.
The party gather themselves, some in the bushes, some on the ground, some on fire but everyone seems to be mostly fine. Quill laments what knowledge they lost. They ponder going to the Wizard of Wines or if they should go and see Rictavio about his show. Heehoo questions how they are going to do the carnival if no one can drink and the party agree.
The party spots someone riding towards the tower on a horse. The party runs to hide behind the tower. The lady on the horse reaches the tower and gets off her horse and calls the party to come out as she had seen them run behind the tower. "Fuck you" says Markadoo. "You'll never get our heads" says Heehoo. She ignores them and starts digging through the ashes of her wagon. Heehoo, Kriz and Markadoo rush out. Markadoo tries to arrest her for murder. She is too busy worrying about her wagon. Markadoo claims he found he her and she informs him that she has her head.
Markadoo tells her that he is investigating a murder and asks Heehoo to show her the head. He tells her that they suspect she is a murderer. She informs them that she has only been at the tower for a few days and she saw the head too but knew better than to take severed heads from chests. Heehoo tells her she is not allowed to be mad about the cart blowing up when she's the one that rigged it to blow up. The woman asks if he read the sign and Markadoo shoots back that they had a warrant.
The woman says "I don't care about any of this" and runs into the tower. She begins to rise in the elevator and Markadoo turns into a cat and Markadoo and Heehoo jump up and grab on to the chains. They asked why she was going up the tower and she states that she wouldn't have to if they hadn't blown up her weapons. She mentions that she pissed off Strahd and was coming back for her weapons but the party blew them up. She informs them that she is a vampire hunter. She asks if they know anywhere safe around here and informs them that her plans have gone to shit. She tells them that she tried to kill Strahd and has pissed him off. The party reaches the top floor. She sees Fassi outside the window waving at her.
She rummages around but can't find anything usefull so begins to ride the lift back down. Heehoo brings up the head again to which she replies that she doesn't know shit about the head, that she doesn't care about it and is in fact thankful that it is no longer in the tower. She says she tried to kill him near ravenloft and when it failed she fled on her horse to get back to the tower. She didn't go through any towns on the way. It was an unexpected meeting and she took a chance on trying to kill him but failed. Fassi suggests that she can hide in the church in the next town over and that their friend Ireena is hiding in Vallaki. She said "got it" and ran to her horse before riding off. On the way out the party asked her name and she yelled back "Ezmerelda".
Heehoo feels bad about wrecking her wagon but Fassi is too pissed off that she can't use it for herself.

Travelling to the wizard of wines

Markadoo finds out the armor is magical and is of the enchantment school.
The party load up into Kriz's cart and Markadoo becomes a horse.
He pulls the party west and they come across a sign. North points Krezk, east points Vallaki and south points Wizard of wines. The party continues on towards the wizard of wines. They come across some vinyards and road that leads south into some dark woods. They choose to go to the vinyard. You see grape vines with a mist surrounding them and an old stately building. A man in a dark cloak and cowl beacons from the treeline.
Fassi approaches him with Markadoo the horse and with Quill nearby.
She informs him that they have come to see what is happening at the winery and of a carnival that is happening that she would like the wine for. The man reveals himself as Davian the owner of the winery and tells them that they have had some trouble with druids who took over the winery three days ago by force. Fassi calls the party over. He tells them that he's been sleeping in the woods waiting for them to leave which they have not done yet. He is more than happy to supply them with some wine if they take the winery back but they look a bit rough and suggests they may want to tend to their wounds first. He tells them there are three or four druids that seem to have these little tree men with them.
The party don't seem concerned and tell him they can burn them. He says that he welcomes the idea but tells them not to burn down the winery. The party starts to heal up and Davian notices. He warns them that if they intend on going in to the winery that they should be careful and try to be quiet. Quill tells him to shut up and he shrugs and goes back to his tent.

The Hills are alive

The party looks around and notices that there are little tree men around the place standing still. They are everywhere. As the party lingers they start to move and limber up before walking towards the party from all sides.
The party try to figure out what they are and Quill and Heehoo are able to recall that they are something called needle blights. Markadoo tells them he means them no harm but they continue to walk forward. Markadoo create the smell of smoke but they continue forward. Quill lights a stick with her tinderbox and waves it at them and they continue forward. The party decide to fuck them up.
Markadoo unleashes a cone of fire on a group of them then ran in and destroyed two with his claws. Fassi tried to catch a group on fire but they dodged. Markadoo summons a beast and then turns invisible the creature takes out one of the blights. Quill sprints in and slashes one with her rapier and kills it and slashes another with her shortsword. Two blights shoot needles that sink in to Fassi. A blight shoots kriz with a needle. A blight shoots Quill with a needle. A twig blight claws Heehoo. Kriz whacks a blight with his morning star.
More blights and a druid emerge from the winery. Heehoo swipes at a blight and misses but then manages to hit another and kills it. Fassi brings out her dagger and kills a blight. A couple of swarms of ravens fly in and begin picking apart needleblights. Markadoo yells out to the druid "We were here simply to talk but now it seems you've gained the attention of Strahd himself". The druid tells him they don't care about talking. Markadoo is sad that the lack of communication has lead to the downfall of many of the druid tribes and then hurls an ice knife at her. The knife explodes, damaging a bunch of needle blights standing with her.
Quill runs in and kills a blight with her rapier and damages another with her sword before running off. Fassi dodges a needle that shoots past her head. Some needle blights close in closer to the party. Another group of blights shoot needles at quill and one sticks into her, Quill is panicing a little as she is really hurt. Heehoo cops another swipe from a needle blight. Kriz shoots and kills one with his crossbow.
The swarms of ravens transform into half raven half people and the party recognises one as the bartender from vallaki. She informs the party that they were being tested and that it seems like things are going sideways so she recommends they leave.

Report Date

29 Jun 2023