Entering Krezk and Meeting the Abbot
General Summary
Excerpt from Seir’s Little Black Book (Session 12/29/20): Penned in Borokin’s hand, via dictation
We told them we were delivering wine from the wine wizard winery. That got ‘em moving pretty quick. A very burly man with dark skin approached. Khaylen began to repeat her speech about what was happening, but thankfully one of the guards briefed the man on the manner. He seemed to be in charge. He asked what happened to the Martikovs, probably thinking we killed them and stole their things. Khaylen was a little evasive, so I clarified the situation so that it wouldn’t look more suspicious than we needed to. The man asked for “the child” to carry the letter through to give him the letter. He asked her to cut herself too. She reproduced a non-silvered dagger from somewhere in her clothes. She cut herself and, of course, bled easily (poor child!). The guards looked at the letter, and told us our story worked out. We all had to get cut (I had to let Khaylen cut me with her dagger, a little distressing given how many things I’ve seen her cut with it). Thankfully, everyone, even Letho, bled. We could see all of the houses from the entrance to the town. The large man thanked us for the wine, and told people to take the wine to the wine stores. Me, Letho, and Borokin stuck around to talk to the man while everyone else walked off towards the stores. Khaylen seemed like she wanted to avoid him, claiming that the group needed to go on their own to keep the horses calm. I was honest with the man, who seems to be the local Baron (Baron Krezkov). I told him of my affliction, referring to it as some sort of curse, and mentioned the man who had possibly been in town earlier. The baron told me to go up to the abbey and talk to the abbot, but seemed hesitant. He wouldn’t tell me much besides the fact that he found the man “strange”. He arrived here a hundred years ago and hasn’t aged since then. He was a good, kind man when he first moved in, but became less and less social as time went on. Apparently, strange noises come from the house at night. I decided to ask the rest of the party about going there, because I assume it won’t be as safe a task as I thought. Letho asked about payment. The man gestured towards the smithy, and says that we can have our weapons silvered as payment. Unfortunately, we don’t have much in terms of silver, besides some coinage. We decided to speak to the rest of the party about whether or not this was a fair trade, because all of my weapons were stolen. I suppose some of my arrows could take some silver? Aaaah, I’m annoyed with this. I miss having a rapier. The group with the horses decided to do a bit of exploring around the village after a relatively uneventful wine drop-off. Khaylen wanted to see if there were any shops or information to find on the Baron. The group were great at keeping hidden from the general eye, but all they could find were single-storey houses and chickens. There didn’t really seem to be any shops. They noticed that there appeared to be a freshly-made grave near one of the houses, but couldn’t tell whose it was. We asked the baron about places to eat and sleep for the night. The baron found two families, one with cows and one with chickens, who let us stay with them in return for having us care for their farm. Thoradin got pecked in the face and Khaylen accidentally clawed at an udder, but things were otherwise uneventful. Over a dinner of fresh cheese, we learned how the Baron and his wife recently lost their children, Illia and Alanna. Apparently, a werewolf snuck in at night and killed Alanna, and Illia is missing. This was about a week ago. The werewolf has not been caught. Me and Khaylen went on a nighttime stroll. There weren’t too many guards out, far less than it felt like there should have been. We strolled up the slope towards the abbey, stopping upon hearing a howl and perhaps a donkey’s bray. Then, a shriek of a large bird. Some of the sounds seemed to repeat, as if he had a bunch of animals there. A couple of hours past, as we were trying to leave, I saw, at the edge of my vision, a small figure skitter up the rocks towards the abbey. I pointed out to Khaylen, who bolted after it, using her claws to scale the cliff. Unfortunately, she wasn’t fast enough to catch up with it. She saw a nearly-humanoid shape, though it was small and its legs were twisted. She tried to cast a spell to put it to sleep, but it resisted the magic. Thankfully, she wasn’t hurt. We ran to the nearest guard tower. Khaylen insisted on getting the guards’ attention with a note instead of calling out to him. He looked down at us, and the second the word “werewolf” left my lips the guards began ringing a bell, waking up the whole town. Everyone gathered in the square to talk about what had happened, and Khaylen and I shared the story. Khaylen mentioned that the potential werewolf was rather small, and I formulated the theory that the werewolf may be the missing child. The Baron seemed a bit distressed about what I was saying, but seemed to take it seriously. He told everyone to stand on guard with silvered weapons for the night. The town organized a headcount in order to make sure that the werewolf (which appeared from the central woods) hadn’t hurt anyone. It seems like everything went off without a hitch. It seems that there is a werewolf in the abbey. We probably should silver some weapons before going in tomorrow. Zin and O have some silvered blades, but Letho, Khaylen, and Thoradin probably should pack something. I had some unsettling dreams that night. Perhaps it was some aftereffects from the pie. That morning, we were woken up by a scream by the Baron’s house. Mrs. Krezkov was kneeling from her daughter’s grave, which had been freshly dug up from the outside. There were a lot of twigs and pine needles around it. There was also a collection of pawprints and footprints (Khaylen says that they seemed to be leading northwards), as well as green lizard scales and tufts of amber fur. We all investigated the area, while Khaylen gave her a hug. Thoradin did a more thorough examination of the area in an effort to understand the tracks. As far as he can tell, there are only two sets of tracks. They came through before we were put on alert (probably). One set of tracks was distinctly nonhuman, instead resembling those of a cat. The other set looked “pretty much human”. The barons told us that this hasn’t been the first graverobbing in the area. I talked to the guard who had been in the area. He claimed that he had been nearby, but hadn’t been in the yard. It’s possible someone slipped in through the woods or that this crime just happened before me and Khaylen alerted the town in the first place. Khaylen asked the baron for permission to investigate the event, and the baron offered us some silvered spears. Letho asked them to start silvering his sword while we went to the abbey. Apparently, he has a huge amount of silver in his bag. We all got together to follow the tracks, leading us to the abbey. The human set of footprints went up the path while the catlike footprints went up the cliff. The human footprints seemed to have come through the area before me and Khaylen were near the abbey. So, my guess is, the abbot came down and dug up the girl, and turned her somehow and had her run out. Either that, or the son was the werewolf and the abbot just dug up the girl and carried her out. Khaylen tried to use some magic to make the tracks appear more obvious. The trail up the abbey was narrow and windy. It was covered in loose gravel and chunks of broken rock, with a rather steep slope. The air grew colder and colder as we went up. We finally approached the abbey. The ground was lightly dusted with snow, and there were several small stone outbuildings. Blocking the road was an iron gate with rusty hinges. It appeared unlocked. The building had thick, fifteen-foot stone walls, with smoke pouring from the chimney. We looked around for a bit before pushing open the gates. There were no obvious signs of life besides the smoke in the chimney. Khaylen pointed out that the tracks seemed to follow along the path and go into the building, but the person apparently spent some about of time milling about in the yard past the gate. The gate released a loud, groaning squeak as we pushed through it. Several figures in fur blankets appeared from the outbuildings. They appeared to be strange, half-animal, half-human creatures- not partial wolves, but partial lizards, or partial lion, or donkey? One person seemed to be half-cat, half-lizard, while the other was a bewildering amalgamation of things. They asked us what we were doing there, and Khaylen asked them if they needed any help. The donkey-man seemed to be incapable of speech. Khaylen tried to complement the two creatures on their form, and the scaly creature told us that they had been born with their “gifts” with the help of the abbot. They asked us why we were here, and I told them I wanted the abbot’s help, though I was starting to get worried he’d implant cat eyes in my face or something. They opened the gate into the abbey, which was guarded by two figures with form-obscuring robes. A copper plaque read “the abbey of St. Markovia, may her light cure all illness”. We entered a courtyard full of a thick fog, which swirled as if eager to escape. As we entered, we noticed the guards were just scarecrows propped up against the battlements. A well sat in the courtyard, as well as some sheds and padlocked wooden stores. There was a wooden pole, with a short almost-human chained to it, with leathery wings and almost-arachnid mandibles. The lizard told us that she is bad, as “she does not let us feed her. She bites.” We headed through a large door that Zygfrek opened. The little girl with bug features panicked as animal noises echoed about. We entered the main hall, where some gentle music trickled to the floor from some delicate-sounding string instrument above. Above the fireplace, a golden disk resembling the sun was mounted on the wall, while stairs leading up and down were on the floor. A young woman with alabaster skin and torn clothing sat at a long table, looking quite forlorn. She had no animal features. Next to her was a handsome young man in brown monks’ robes and a holy symbol resembling the sun. He took the woman by the hand and looked towards all of us. He called me and Letho up to the front of the room. He could tell that there was something wrong with us, and began to speak to us. He says the cursed man through here had been touched by a realm detached from our own. One of an ancient dark power. He says the power has gone by many names through these past time, this time by Norgannis, the finger of oblivion. Supposedly this is a force much more ancient than Strahd. I hesitantly took off my blindfold, and he touched mine and Letho’s faces. He told me that it looks like I can be saved, but he says that Letho can’t be saved. Letho took it remarkably well, to your shock. He doesn’t seem to mind… whatever is going to happen to him. He told us that he would heal me, in return for producing a wedding dress for the woman, who is to wed Strahd (????????????). I tried to talk to her to ask her whether she was willing to marry Strahd, but she couldn’t speak. I assumed she was enchanted, but the abbot happily told me that she was unable to speak. Apparently she is essentially a flesh golem, produced by the abbot to marry Strahd. Apparently, Strahd suffers under a terrible curse, and will not be free of it until he is “united with his love”. As she has passed, the abbot has decided to create a facsimile. The curse Strahd is under is apparently the one which has cast the valley into its foggy, sunless state and forced him to subsist on the blood of others. The curse of vampire. Strahd was the first vampire, apparently. Letho asked about the disinterment of Alanna. The abbot told us that he needed to harvest her corpse for raw materials. Thoradin brought up the good point that the little girl didn’t need her skin anymore. The abbot asked us about the inciting incident that brought us here, and we talked about the werewolf attacks and how Khaylen saw Otto. The abbot told off Otto, which was a bit uncomfortable. The abbot told us that the baron’s son transformed into a werewolf and killed his sister. He apparently was born as a werewolf, the same as his father and sister. So, the baron is a werewolf, and has been kindly holding his tongue on it. Thoradin asked a damn good question about Madam Eva. All the abbot could say was that madam eva has been in the valley, perhaps as long as Strahd.
Report Date
08 Nov 2022
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