The Party Accidentally Coups Vallaki
General Summary
Excerpt from Seir’s Little Black Book (Session 6/17/21): Penned in Borokin’s hand, via dictation
The man Izek attacked fell to the ground, looking seriously injured, if not killed. Khaylen tried to give Izek the impression that she was giving him a bit of a backrub, but she instead stabbed him in the back. She was able to penetrate his armor, but it was not a lethal blow. Then, she ran like hell away. I cast an illusion such that it looked like Letho dropped the baron (though I couldn’t extend its influence such that it actually covered up the one Letho was carrying, grr) and yelled to call attention to it. Khaylen seemed somewhat amused. I wanted to get Udo out of there, but he was hurt enough that I couldn’t move him without carrying him. People in the crowd were pushing to leave the field. Zin ran through the crowd, trying to make rile them up by mimicking a bunch of angry inflammatory voices. Lady Wockter cast a warding spell on Khaylen and Majesto started flying towards the stage. O followed along with what I was doing and made Letho and the baron invisible. I realized as she did it that perhaps this plan of letting Letho do crazy shit was a poor idea. Letho, however, did not seem to be following along with the plan and yelled at Izek and dashed over to attack him. While still carrying the baron. He then ran up and attacked Izek, with the man tucked under one arm. His attack went wild, and Izek along with his two guards attacked him. Now that fighting started, Thoradin seemed relieved to have implicit permission to start shooting his bow, but missed Izek after getting jostled by someone in the crowd. Izek smirked at Letho, and attacked him, but missed both attacks. The townsfolk started swarming the stage, getting in some hits on the guards but several falling themselves. Khaylen leaped up in the air and screamed “Izek Strazne, your hold on this town is no more!” and shot at him with a bow, then dashed through the crowd. Izek grabbed one of the commoners near him and used him as a human shield. A guard approached me. He seemed quite young, and asked me what was going on. I told him that I was trying to help Udo, and then cast a spell on the stage that made all of the guards glow, making them easier to hit, though I knew that would probably upset the guard nearest me. However, Zin managed to upset him first, as he saw Zin trying to arm the people and stabbed him pretty effectively. O ran amongst some of the guards and cast a spell that created a very loud noise, hurting a few of them. Majesto was near her, attacking some of the guards invisibly. Letho continued attacking Izek. Now that he was glowing, he was able to hit him (successfully this time!). Letho must have put some sort of magic into his attack, as it made black clouds seep from his wounds. Izek’s shirt tore, revealing his that the grotesque muscles of his demon arm extended all the way into his chest. Throradin attacked Izek with both of his crossbows, hitting Izek in the exposed demon shoulder. Izek switched his weapon to his off-hand and took a swing at Letho, hitting him pretty hard. Then, he reared his hand back and hurled a magical lance of flame at Thoradin. Khaylen shouted and tried to convince the guards and townspeople to stop fighting, then cast a cantrip on Izek. I followed in her footsteps, casting a spell to make my voice louder and instead tried to convince them to attack Izek, as he had been showing a clear callous disregard for everyones’ lives. Zin and Majesto continued fighting the guards, and O tried her best to deal with the guards surrounding her (I wish I could have helped her, but I needed to conserve my magic in case some of the people in more precarious situations fell). Letho and Thoradin also continued attacking Izek. Thoradin threw a spear at the man so hard, it went through his skull, downing him. Once the man went down, Letho began running around the crowd, trying to heal the commoners that had been downed near him. And the baron woke up. Lady Wockter approached the stage. And we heard a chorus of screams happening, outside the town square. And then, we were approached by Rahadin, one of Strahd’s followers. It seems like perhaps Izek was keeping him out. Excerpt from Seir’s Little Black Book (Session 7/15/21): Penned in Borokin’s hand, via dictation Rahadin proceeded into the center of town and closed the dead Izek’s eyelids. I couldn’t tell whether or not Wockter had been planning for this. People started kneeling, and Khaylen and I joined in with the kneeling, as we wanted to gauge the situation before provoking anything. He immediately identified our group in the crowd and asked us if any of us had contacted Strahd. Letho immediately identified himself, to the shock of the crowd. Wockter seemed very surprised about this. Rahadin seemed both afraid and hateful of Letho. He thanked Letho for “making us aware of the situation”, which made Letho rather confused, but Khaylen elbowed him to go along with it. He ordered some of the human guards to help him remove the baron and Izek from the area for the sake of punishing them. He also asked about the location of the baronness and their children. He clearly wanted to take them as prisoner- I wasn’t comfortable with that thought, but thankfully nobody spoke up. I’m not really sure what the right thing to do with them is, though- I’m worried that, if we leave them around, they may become victims of mob justice. Rahadin started walking towards the manor. O, Letho, and Thoradin followed him over, but Khaylen and I stuck behind to try and get a read on Wockter. The horse Rahadin rode in on was strangely misty, and it snarled at me with pointed teeth. Khaylen and I talked to Lady Wockter. She told us that she had no idea that Strahd would come in, and was upset that we had not told her about Letho’s contact. We tried to calm her down and speculated on how Rahadin and Strahd were kept out of the city by Izek or the baron. She said Rahadin was a dusk elf and that he could easily best Izek. She also said that she had met Strahd in the past, but her impression of him didn’t seem wholeheartedly positive but not negative (she called him “fickle”). She told us that she had been to Barovia in the past in an attempted diplomatic gesture, and while on the way there she made a trip out to the castle, where Strahd and his retinue took her out to the castle and she could speak with him. Said it wouldn’t do for a young lady to be out at night by herself. On the way to the manor, Letho and Thoradin talked about Letho’s chat with Strahd. Letho seemed convinced that the apparition he spoke to in the mirror wasn’t the real Strahd. Thoradin told Letho he’d be keeping an eye on him and make sure he got paid. While the two were whispering, Rahadin overheard them and insisted on talking to them. He also seemed to spot O and tried to invite her in closer. She misinterpreted the gesture and ducked into the nearest building, which was inhabited by three adults and their children. She tried to play it off by pretending to be a travelling missionary of the morning lord. After seeing all the suns around the house, she quickly stepped out. The parents started talking to their children about how “it’s never too early to start spreading the good word”. Rahadin told Letho that he may not have contacted Strahd directly, but after his messages Rahadin and Strahd increased their intensity of scrying on our party. Letho told him that seemed like a violation of his privacy. Strahd “is aware if he chooses to be of happenings in his domain, and I (Rahadin) as a member of his household share in some of his privileges”. Letho asked him about the size of Strahd’s family, but Rahadin did not respond. Letho started to talk about his family and his relationships with them and apologized to Rahadin. Rahadin talked about leaving his family behind and becoming an adopted member of Strahd’s household. He also said that the group knew about what was happening in the festival, and had been waiting outside the town. When he received word that things were going down, he rode in. He claimed to be in to mop up the mess. Letho claims that, as he talked to Rahadin more and more, the screams became less and less. The door to the house was barred when they got there, and they could hear the lady of the house gasp and flee from the door. Letho searched for points of ingress based on his past patrols. Thoradin asked about what was going to happen to the family. Rahadin claimed that he wanted to move them out for their safety, but it’s hard to say if he was being truthful. He said they would be kept under watch and have fewer safeties. As the doors opened with some prodding from the guards, Rahadin drew his scimitar as the dogs inside ran out to attack him. He quickly dispatched them and entered the house. Letho approached the room he identified as having the mirror, where they heard the sobs of the woman inside. Rahadin told her to follow along with him, and “all will be well.” She didn’t open the door, so Rahadin picked the lock open and pushed in. Thoradin noted that, in the room, there was a magnificent bridal gown, along with the mirror. Letho draped his rug around the lady’s shoulders and tried to comfort her. The group walked into the next room, where they found a trapdoor and went up it, at Izek’s request. O snuck into the building behind them. Rahadin pointed the group towards signs of the dust getting disturbed, and told the group that he feared that “the boy may have not been all that he appeared”, referring to some magical abilities. There was a clear footpath over the ground leading through rooms, and the group could hear some sounds of motion. The group passed by a door with a skull carved into it with a pocket knife, and a sign that said “ALL IS NOT WELL”. As Rahadin pulled on the door, the skull’s eyes lit up and a glyph appeared, creating a magical blast that hurt him, though he claims that it didn’t hurt him too bad. All this did was enrage him, however, and he shoved in through the door. Inside the room was a haphazardly created study, with a bookshelf and a collection of bones. Also strewn around the room were several skeletal cats. Perhaps most notable, however, were three small children, facing the corner. The group all headed on in, and Letho naturally approached the children, but realized as he approached them that they were dolls. Toradin heard an intake of air, and then whipped out his crossbow and yelled that he would shoot whoever was there unless they showed themselves. Naturally, that led to the situation escalating. Victor, the son, appeared, and then looked at the skeletal cats, which roused themselves and began to attack Rahadin and Thoradin. Rahadin was able to easily destroy three with a few swipes of his scimitar. Victor cast a spell, causing the rug underneath him to fade into an arcane design. Letho identified it as a teleportation circle. He cast a defensive spell on himself as he tried to prepare his getaway. Letho thought fast and tackled the boy with his rug. Thoradin tried to push them off of the circle, unsuccessfully, and Rahadin raised his weapon to try and attack Victor, but Letho convinced him to stay his hand. Then, Victor successfully got his spell to start. Letho noticed that Victor made a mistake in his spell circle, as it was very complicated. The spell failed and a wall of mist hit both Victor and Letho, hard. Letho tried to pin Victor in the corner with his rug, both to keep him from moving and to keep Rahadin from murdering him. Thoradin notched an arrow and threatened Victor into freezing. Rahadin insisted on trying to murder Victor, saying he’d escape too easily. Letho pushed back, saying that he didn’t think that Victor would be able to lead a resistance against Strahd, so killing him was not necessary. Thoradin also took Victor’s side. He said something about innocence, and Rahadin told him to talk to Lady Wockter’s child about the concept of innocence. They started walking out, and ran into O, who was a little too shook by what she just witnessed to hide well. She noticed that Victor was trying to work through his bonds and pointed it out to Thoradin, who hit him in the face and told him to “just give me a reason, boy”. Thoradin also grabbed the wedding dress on the way out. The wife, Victor, and baron were rounded up into the center of town. Rahadin asked if we wanted anything. I asked him about the curse of Norgannis, but he claimed that he wasn’t familiar with any way of alleviating it. Khaylen asked about something that we could use to communicate with them. Rahadin told us that any reflective surface would do (“speak to Letho for the details”), though that mirror that Letho used apparently has some special properties that we are supposed to avoid. As Rahadin left the city, some strange forms stepped out of the mist and carried Izek while his very mean horse took the living people out.
Report Date
08 Nov 2022
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