Chapter 3: Sounds Like A Great Gig
General Summary
The characters leave the mists and the manor, and enter the village of Barovia for the first time.
Part 1: Zero Horse Town (Khaylen)
When the mists cleared, a small town was revealed just before us. At the same time, we saw a basket with a gift of mediocre wine and a note from Strahd thanking us for taking care of the Durst’s house for him. I thanked him through the black orb I had taken, but hopefully I expressed my discontent that our reward was so meager. In the tiny village’s main square, we found only a pub called Blood on the Vine and a clothier called Bilgerat’s Mercantile. The swap shop’s titular tender tried to charge me 5 gold for a torn tee shirt, and showed no interest in haggling. If he’s going to be rude, I figured I’d get my time’s worth. Nobody would buy that fancy robe anyway at those prices. I offered it to Seir, but only Zin would wear it. Shrug. Blood on the Vine is run by a trio of very fun vistani women, and attended by a very slow barkeep. After sharing stories, I looked to the most beautiful of them (whose coin amulet sparkled temptingly) and requested if we could use their shower, and if I or some of my friends could stay in some guest rooms. They offered one to me, but gave us leads on who else we could stay with in the evening. I hung with them for a while longer before taking my own chance to bathe. While Seir and I spoke with the Vistani, I overheard the rest of my companions having a conversation with someone at another table, apparently named Ismark. He gave them some information about the town, and mentioned that some adventurers have come to Barovia to kill Strahd. More reasons to rethink seeking his favor. After O got Ismark “The Lesser” with a great burn and spit at him (I confused Seir by cracking up at that exchange), he offered them some work if we met him at his home later. Letho went alone to follow a crying sound down the street, and told us about the source when he found us in Blood on the Vine. Straud apparently killed this woman’s daughter, she had no proof but was confident, and asked Letho if he would save the child, and also to get her some food. He left, ignoring the food request, but intending to find the kid.Excerpt from Seir’s Little Black Book (Session 7/27/20): Penned in Borokin’s hand, via dictation
The town was a small village, but it’s the first civilization we had seen in a while. I wondered whether or not it was haunted by ghosts as my compatriots described it to me. While I couldn’t see much, I didn’t see the road we were following. It seems as if it were gone. This is bizarre. A small raven with blue wings watched us from a nearby house. It cawed and flew out of my sight. I felt no compulsion to follow it, but there was little else to do. We passed between sad-looking, close-packed houses. People told me there was darkness inside each. I heard a mournful sobbing echoing everywhere. At the very least, I didn’t have to half-carry Borokin, though all I wanted to do right then was grab a drink. And a real blindfold, that’s not made of haunted moth-bitten fabric. And a shower. Though of course I had no money, so I would have to rely upon the charity of my peers. There was a shop nearby, though I couldn’t ascertain its name easily. The odd sobbing got louder as we approached. In addition, there was a small tavern with an off-kilter sign. The paint was such that I could somewhat see the word “blood” upon it. O pointed out that some of us were covered in rotting flesh at the moment, which would have been a bit distressing to those in the shop. The smell carried heavily upon the air. I went into the shop anyway, as I doubted that the owner would give a shit. The bird appeared to be following us. I gave it a wave. Garotte did not seem to be impressed by the other bird. WIth a quick spell, O produced the cawing of a raven to the other side of the raven (perfect form on the casting!), distracting it. Khaylen and I do similar (I’m impressed with Khaylen’s progress on her spellcasting, she seems to have been looking at that spellbook I leant her), but this all does very little. The shop is large inside. A human male was at the counter, as well as a buff fellow sweeping. There were some vials of some sort of acid, as well as some lightly used ammunition. There appeared to be arcane focuses, as well as backpacks. Zin walked around, petting the more velvety selections of clothing. Khaylen picked out a casual, cheap outfit. It seemed to have been recently damaged, possibly by a knife. He charged her five gold- an outrageous price. We started walking out. I asked the shopkeeper about why nobody was out, and he told me that it was too early for such a thing. While I was doing this, Khaylen evidently thought that I was inviting her to commit some larceny, and she decided to grab the velvety clothing that Zin had touched, though they also appeared damaged. O also seemed to want to join in this. I don’t know why all of these idiots wanted to steal a bunch of broken shit that they didn’t need. Zin started putting on some sort of crying routine, and the sweeping boy carried him out. He was honestly nicer about it than any of these people deserve (he even apologized!). Much more reasonably, Thoradin asked the shopkeep if he could provide him with anything, though the man refused, saying that he didn’t believe Thoradin would hold onto anything he bought for long. The man offered Thoradin a discount but little else. Thoradin, you, and Letho headed out, with the intention of looking for an armorer. You found nothing, right? Yes. Sir Letho, Thoradin and I decided to clean up at a well. It was smelly.. The Sir washed his carpet. Toradin left. Sir Letho, still wet, went back to the shop and sold his stuff for five gold.. He told me that he wanted to check out the source of the crying. But it gave me the willies, yes it did. I told him to get the rest of the group. Golly gee whiz, I have to say, the Sir didn’t listen to me. The building was all boarded-like and seemed all creepy and stuff. Sir Letho, in all his bravery, decided to go in. I couldn’t just leave him alone, so I went in after him. The building smelled all rotten and abandoned. There was still crying. I trust Letho and he’s brave and all, but he’s maybe too focused whenever he hears crying, don’t tell him I said that. There was a dirty chamber pot (yuck!) and bathwater. Sir Letho called out for the crying person, but they didn’t stop! They sounded like something horrible had happened to them! There was a middle-aged woman (not a ghost or a monster!) sitting inside, with a creepy doll. She said her daughter was gone a week ago, by the devil! I don’t know how we could rescue a child from a devil. Letho bravely offered to help rescue her daughter. She asked him about his eyes, and he wisely chose to lie to her about what caused them (she probably would have been terrified to hear the truth, as it is awful!). What, you think it would have been better to say the truth? Yes, you should never lie, Borokin. I feel like perhaps your mentor is not always the best role model. No, Sir Letho is wise. Well, back to my side of things, the strong man (introduced as Periwimple) told me there was not much of interest in town. He said his favorite days were when travellers passed through, as not much happens locally. He said maybe a traveller comes through every five months, as there aren’t many towns nearby. There’s one that starts with a V, though Periwimple said he’s never been there. Periwimple said we might be able to stay at the tavern, as he can’t go there as he doesn’t drink. Father Donovich at the church supposedly is also nice. The “Burgermaster” supposedly also hosted people before he died. His kids still live in town, though they may give us a bed. The boy seemed nice enough, if a bit slow. As we headed out, Khaylen tried to give me the cloak she stole. I suppose I appreciate the gesture, but it irritated me somewhat. She gave me ten gold from the party storage (I guess her morality is that as long as we pay for one thing that’s overpriced, it’s okay to steal some?). I felt badly enough for the shopkeeper that I just ran over and left five gold on the table without purchasing anything. We entered the tavern, still caked in filth. There weren’t many people about, but there was a roaring fire, a barkeep, and three Vistani. Off in one corner, we saw a lone young man sipping some wine. The barkeep was a vacant, pudgy little man. Khaylen told me that the Vistani have various families, and these people were unlikely to be related to her family. I decided to drink with them anyway, just to see if they knew anything. Khaylen was told by the barkeep that the bar only sold red dragon crush, and of course they only sold it in pitchers. Khaylen, bless her, bought five while the barkeep rotated between cleaning the same two glasses. The classless fool proceeded to pour perfectly good bottles of wine into pitchers. It took a very long time to coach him into pouring us five pitchers of wine, as he didn’t seem to understand how to count. Khaylen and I went to sit with the three Vistani, all of which were women. Khaylen said some gibberish to them (some traditional greeting, she says “khalooen” for in family and “khen’dra” for out of family). I hoped to get some information from them, or, if that didn’t work out, get pickled with my full pitcher of red dragon crush. They ask us where we’re from. We are in the village of Barovia, which is also the name of the region. I… ahh… May have embarrassed myself somewhat in front of them. They told me that it seems a lot of people in the region are in not-so-great shape, as the area is pretty bleak and joyless. The trio apparently own the bar (Eric the barkeep is just a hired hand), and they tell me that the other man (Ismark the lesser) might have a place for us to stay. We headed upstairs to get cleaned up, though there was only one room for the tavern itself to offer us. It was lovely, getting cleaned up. The following information is secondhand: Thoradin and Zin went to talk to the man in the corner. They asked the man about the haunted house. Supposedly it’s a well-known landmark. I particularly remembered this line from Thoradin: “Is the crying in the streets a daily thing, or is it just this morning?” Supposedly the crying is from a mother. Thoradin asked about what adventurers in the area typically do, and he suggested that we could go after Strahd himself. The man introduced himself as Ismark to them. The rest of the group introduced themselves, though Zin lied and said his name was Aaron. The man out of curiosity asked them if he was a dusk elf, and he seemed offended about questions of his race. I probably should learn more about Zin- I had never really given much thought to his coloration, but I am a bit curious about it. O had apparently been drinking (she’s far too young for that!) and she tried to spit wine on him (how inappropriate for a child!). Eventually, this was resolved somehow and, commenting that we didn’t seem to be the suicidal types, Ismark said he would like to hire us to work with him. I just want to get out of here and not deal with this nonsense.
Report Date
08 Nov 2022
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