The Party Splits: Thoradin is a Werewolf and Zin is Not
General Summary
Excerpt from Seir’s Little Black Book (Session 1/25/22): Penned in Borokin’s hand, via dictation
It turned out the paper we found belonged to someone named Rudolph Van Richten (close maybe to Ricktavio, but not Khazan, which the dragon indicated was the name of the owner of the tower), who claimed to be a monster hunter, cursed by Vistani. He gives a different name of the vampire, though- Baron Metus. Thoradin returned safely while we camped (the wolves ran towards the direction of the bridge where we last fought wolves, then North into the woods) , and I tried to help Letho figure out how to keep his armor. Letho tried to… talk to it? He told it he was Khazan, but it didn’t seem to… fully work? But it seemed to want to talk to Letho (none of the rest of us, unfortunately). Letho told it we were against Strahd (which we… aren’t…) and convinced it to join forces with him, telling it we were going to meet Strahd soon. He seems to befriend it and puts it on. While we were doing this, O started reanimating some corpses with her jar of teeth. She reanimated all three of the werewolves. Letho has the armor write in this notebook, so the next few pages are unusable, as they are merely covered in scribbles. They work out a communication system. On our way towards Kresk, we find the wagon tracks, heading south towards the winery. Thoradin and Letho want to go after it (riding on the elk), but I wanted to go to Kresk. Zin, O, you, Khaylen, and I head north to Kresk. The Kresk-going party has a relatively unexciting trek. However, the southbound group passes the winery, which seems to have been completely burned to the ground. The vineyards are half-burned, half-overgrown with brambles, with deep troughs in the earth leading north-south. The wagon tracks led towards the winery. In Kresk, we all nick ourselves to see if we are werewolves- we aren’t! Uh. Well, except for Zin. He can get cut, but it immediately heals. This is definitely a concerning development. We ask O to make the zombies play dead and we go up to the gates without Zin, who we ask to make it to the abbey in some other way. We talk to lady Kreskov, she identifies the corpses as werewolves, but says they’re all from the pack (born of werewolves). She says the pack has been harassing the area very frequently recently. She tells us it has been five days, so we haven’t lost too much time at the tower. We leave the city and claim that we’re going to bury the bodies, but instead tell the zombies to sit and wait- maybe the abbot will want them late Back to the winery. The house is not only burned down. The roof looks like it was blown off- maybe some of the alcohol vapors caught fire? Letho and Thoradin discuss investigating the cause of the fire, and see the wagon parked in front of the winery. It, however, is not Ricktavio’s wagon. Letho knocks on the side, but there is no response. Letho notices that the wagon does not seem to have any animal tracks around it. In a surprising bit of reason, Letho assumes the cart is magical and discourages Thoradin from trying to break in, figuring that it’s probably magical in some way. Thoradin sees some slight indentations leading to the winery, as well as the fact that the walker seems to favor one leg. When they go in, they find Ezmerelda, who is surveying the ruins. She says she’s trying to figure out what happened to the winery. She seems to believe the gashes in the ground are footprints. She says something about hill people doing it? She reveals the method of locomotion of the wagon, and reveals that it is enchanted such that it can manifest a pair of “quasi-real” draft horses. Letho offers to help her with her investigation. They are mostly digging with their hands. There are lots of unburnt branches, leaking black-red sap. Back to Kresk. We ask Lady Kreskov about wolfsbane, and she provides us with some. She recommends that we take any wolves to the abbot. We all start heading to the abbey. We start heading up. Zin easily gets up to the wall and joins us. He seems to maybe be interested in remaining a werewolf. Back to the abbey. More gooey sticks are found. Ezmerelda seems to think perhaps the destruction was caused by some large planet golem thing the druids may have summoned. Thoradin and Letho elect to stay with her to see if they can look into the missing giant plant creature. Ezmerelda provides them with an evening’s entertainment with her golden-stringed lyre while they cook dinner. They tell her about the wolf encounter, and they do the knife thing. Looks like Thoradin also got wolfed. They tie up Thoradin very securely before going to bed. Letho considers putting Thoradin into the animated armor to restrict his movement if he gets up in the night, but Ezmerelda didn’t seem convinced. Clovin greets the other party at the entrance to the abbey. We ask him to take us to the abbot. As usual, I hate my experience at the abbey. Lots of creatures begging to be released. We tell the abbot about the dress, as well as about Zin’s furry little problem. The Abbot offers to make an infusion of the wolfsbane. It tastes cold going down. He tries to convince Zin to not become a werewolf by offering some thinly veiled details about his backstory. The abbot basically volunteers O (probably because she’s a woman) to go make stew with Vasilca, who is still trying to learn how to be a living creature. She approaches O when they’re alone and asks her for help in a way that maybe seems to imply something more than just wanting a hand around the kitchen. Meanwhile, Khaylen returns to town and tries to pick up the zombies to take them to the abbey. But they don’t listen to her. Eventually she has to give up.
Report Date
08 Nov 2022
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