Traveling to the Wizard of Wines
General Summary
Excerpt from Seir’s Little Black Book (Session 9/24/20): Penned in Borokin’s hand, via dictation
Khaylen asked the man (Vasili von Holtz) for some more info. She used some rather painfully flirty metaphors and innuendos, making the man draw back a bit. She tried to communicate something to Zin, but Zin didn’t understand it and went back to the bar. Khaylen scared the man off, and tried to reach in his pockets, though all she found was a single electrum piece. Szoldar apparently doesn’t have silvered weapons, and his friend doesn’t either, but they have some swords and bows. Szoldar says he’s killed dozens of wolves- he carves notches into his sword each time, while his friend takes a patch of fur from each one he kills. I wonder what I should do when I kill wolves; maybe take a bone and make it into a die. Apparently, nobody has been let into Cresk for a long time. It’s a pretty cloistered community. Szoldar says he doesn’t know anyone who has ever been there, and doesn’t know under which circumstances they would let us in. However, they apparently let people bring wine in, so we might be able to get in if we deal with the wine situation. Yfginni (communicating to me through hand signals) had apparently been there before- they let him in because he was injured outside their walls. They have hearts, at least. I let slip that I want to go to Cresk to deal with my condition, and Szoldar said a father Lucian at the church could heal us some, though I was a little afraid that doing so would get me kicked out as some affiliate of “the Devil”. After this, we headed up to our rooms to go to bed. I got ahold of everyone, as I wanted to meet to discuss what I had heard about Cresk before sleeping. We all decided checking out the church the next morning might burn more bridges than we wanted, so we chose to not go there and instead deal with the wine situation tomorrow and the move on to Cresk. As I was falling asleep, I realized I had forgotten to ask about the festivals. I popped on downstairs and asked the bartender’s husband about whether or not there is a festival tomorrow. He said there was one in three days, so thankfully we could leave the next day. Unfortunately, I accidentally let slip that we were planning on checking out the vineyard, which upset the man, as apparently this is a sensitive family issue for him. I tried to walk back the conversation by assuring him that I was sure his family was just being difficult. I seemed to eventually placate him by admitting that I’m probably never going to see my family again. I mean, it is true. I don’t have goddamn eyes. I wonder what my sister is doing. I hope she’s doing well in class. Maybe she can focus more than I could on her schoolwork. She is a brilliant little thing, but I know she was getting bullied... Oh, sorry, I’m going on a tangent again. In the night, apparently Thoradin saw that strange doll again, under his blankets. In his words, “I want to show her something under my blanket”. He tried to leave our room to go and get O, though he ran into the two little kids, who confessed to him that they were the ones who put the doll there. He said the doll was a little different- face a bit different, hair a different shade, and one foot “Blintzy’s toys”. He started talking to the kids (continuing to disrupt my sleep) and asked them where the toy was from and if he could keep it. They said they found it on the street and that he could keep it. Thoradin complimented them on the prank and they were thrilled. During the night, we all had some strange dreams. Apparently, the pies give us hallucinations. Thoradin dreamed of hunting and visiting his old lover. I dreamed of being the spymaster of some great city and receiving a letter describing my sister graduating from wizard collage as the highest-ranked wizard’s apprentice. Borokin was a senior knight of the order of the mystic lake, and he kept on receiving requests for help from young squires. Zin saw a great pile of delicious food on shiny golden plates. Letho dreamed that he was on his deathbed at the age of 28 years, 4 months, and Borokin, as a full knight, came up to him and introduced a new squire to him as his consciousness faded and he saw the lady of the mystic lake. Khaylen was sneaking through a tight hallway, with the silent pitter-patter of steps behind her. As she rounded a corner, she saw the back of a person in a crown- she grabbed them from behind and told them that everything would be okay as she killed them. She took off the crown and robe and looked around at her allies, who filed past her to check out the rest of the castle. She then went to the throne and sat down. O apparently didn’t eat any pie, so she had a less vivid dream, apparently just about swimming in a warm lake. As I jolted awake (exactly at sunrise), I was hit by a powerful sense of longing and loss. It was quite unpleasant, as if I was being manipulated… I hope my sister is doing well, and I feel useless and weak by comparison to what I wish I was. We headed downstairs to get breakfast. There was a man dressed really colorfully at the bar, chatting with Irwin (the female barkeep’s husband). He didn’t look familiar. Irwin made enough food for all of us, and didn’t charge us for any of it. I tried to thank him, but there’s not much I can say. The man was giving me a strange look, so I introduced myself to him. He said his name was Rictavio. He said he was from outside the valley and that he would love to hear our stories, but abruptly left. It was honestly rather suspicious. Irwin told us that he was apparently some sort of “carnival ringmaster”, and that apparently the man normally acts oddly, but makes sure to stick around to talk to people. After all of this, we decided to head out in the morning and go straight to the winery. As we walked out, we passed the church, with its associated graveyard. The church was once-beautiful, with broken stained glass, and the graveyard was too small for the area. The building next door was a bit larger, and was labelled as being the orphanage of St. Andral. It seemed to be a nice place for Letho to pick up recruits for his order. At the west gate, we encountered some guards. One man was a large, rather imposing bald man. One of the men at the gates asked us for our papers, checked them off, and let us out through the gate. He said that, if something went wrong, they could issue us new registration papers (Khaylen asked about it). We headed down the road, finding yet another gravesite. As we approached, we were all hit by a wall of stench, like something was dead and decaying. We went to check it out, finding a desecrated corpse. It looks like something ripped it apart, perhaps a few days ago, with teeth. Probably more wolves. We came across an intersection. Consulting our map, we saw that we should travel along the southwest portion of the fork. Khaylen read the sign, which indicated that the northwestern path led to lake Baratok, and the southeast portion went to berez (the southwest went to Krezk and Tsolenka pass). We kept moving along- there was another road leading south, but it wasn’t on our map so we ignored it. At another intersection, we saw the road to lake Baratok seems to reconnect with the main pass. There was a bridge leading to Krezk, but we continued past it towards the vineyards. We came across a mist-shrouded meadow, with the path split to lead between the valley and the woods. A sign pointed to the west said “vineyard”. We walked west, passing a vineyard and approaching a building as it began to drizzle and the fog around us thickened. The fog seemed to be taking strange forms on the edges of our vision. Barrels sat in the dirt and there were large stands of trees dotted through the field. As we walked through the field, we saw several ravens perching about, as well as farmers, who seemed to be going about their jobs. There were some graves nearby, as well. Khaylen noticed a cloaked, hooded figure standing at the edge of the grove of trees, beckoning towards her. However, wisely, she continued on walking towards the house. Thick ivy covered every wall of the building, and there was a sturdy loading dock. West of the building, we saw a crumbling well and a wooden outhouse. There was also a slightly more recently-built stable. Khaylen indicated to us that the figures in the field (too far away for me to see) were moving strangely- very stiffly, as if they didn’t really understand how living creatures act. She stopped me and let me know about what she could see, and I was quite concerned. Apparently, the farmers had the faces of scarecrows. There was a rustling as she spoke. We all began to dash towards the house as various shapes in the field coalesced into humanoid shapes, covered in vines. They, and the scarecrows, tried to attack us. There were hordes of them. There were several entrances to the house. I went to the front door and tried to jog it open, while some of the rest of us tried to come in through the loading bay or the door on the veranda. The door handle could move, but it seemed to be barred or something from the inside. Letho took a swing at it with his sword. We managed to squeeze through, but the door was fucked enough that it would be difficult to barricade it later. Zin, on the veranda, saw two doors- one barred, one a sliding door that seemed to be chained shut. He decided to rejoin us. Thoradin saw an open door leading into a storage room, with stained wooden handles and another wide-open door, through which he could see shapes moving. He ran out and screamed to us, “they’re inside! Be careful!” Thank goodness he was able to catch what was up so quickly. After that, he ran back inside, figuring the enemy inside was better than that outside, and barred the door shut with a plank. He pulled his crossbow and prepared to attack. Khaylen examined the loading bay doors. There were two doors, one locked and the other ajar. She looked around and then ran back to join the rest of us (well, the rest of us minus Thoradin) in through the front door.
Report Date
08 Nov 2022
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