Session Report 16

General Summary

As the loot team for the heist goes below to get some spending money, the formuloli team sneaks up the stairs.
The ruffians remain silent as they sneak up the stairs towards the throne room. The ruffians enter the open audience and leave behind the stuffy and damp stairwell. In the audience room the air feels cold and smells of dust and death. Other than the light drizzle knocking on the window, the room sits still with the wooden throne on top the marble dais collecting dust.
Gunter asks Dino if this is it and he nods his head up and down, signaling yes. Gunter drops into a sprinter stance and rushes at once at the marble dais. With cones of metal firmly put onto his horns he is able to pierce the stone and starts to push it up. As Gunter is doing this Pablo and Kif run in as well. Pablo aids in Gunter's push my slamming his shoulder into the marble dais as well. With their combined force the marble dais begins to topple.
As the dais tumbles Kif does a barrel roll and grabs the locked box. They rush down the stairs.
As the party gets to the bottom of the first set of stairs a mist starts to flow out of the lockhole. The mist itself begins to coalesce into the form of a humanoid. Skin of purple forms over exposed blue, red, and yellow veins. The eyes materialize as obsidian black with beads of red. Below the eyes sits a hooked nose that rests atop a wide grin currently sported by the creature. The creature's grin exposes large and sharp fangs, with their sharp edges twinkling in the torchlight.
Dino screams, and after a quick dagger and dash, he tells the party to run for their life as that is the Lord of this Castle, Strahd von Zarovich. The formuloli ruffians agree and cook it down the stairs.
Gunter charges ahead first and as he comes to the bottom of the stairs he notices pillars with statues of winged creatures sitting atop the rising pillars. On the far end of these rising pillars, Gunter spots the get-a-way driver, Petrov the dusk elf, with pockets stuffed of coins. Petrov quickly dashes for exit. As he enters the main foyer one of the statues leaps out and attacks Petrov, tearing out a chunk of his shoulder.
Gunter witnesses this and rushes pass the statues for the closed double doors. He pushes open the first set and attempts with the second yet they are locked.
As Gunter rushes for the exit Pablo is turned into a chicken by none other than Strahd. At the same time Kif rushes pass the Lord and makes it to the bottom of the stairs where four gargoyles are flying around and surrounding Petrov.
While Kif runs Dino grabs the chicken that is Pablo and falls in line with Kif at the bottom of the stairs.
Two gargoyles break off and pursue Gunter. One turns around on Dinomite while the fourth stays on Petrov. Kif is left attended by Strahd who promptly tears off Kif's arms with a slash of the claws. Kif falls to the ground and begins to bleed out. Strahd bites him on the neck and Kif's vision grows fuzzy, gaining blotches in his sight until all fades to dark.
Gunter is able to tear open the doors yet he find himself surrounded now by enemies. Petrov and DinoMite are able to get into the little entrance room yet none are able to get out since the doorway is absolutely crowded. Petrov and Gunter fall to claw strikes from none other than Lord Strahd himself. Dinomite falls prey to the same spell Strahd casted on Pablo and turns DinoMite into a cake.
While all this is going on, the loot team climbs back up the lower plateau stone and then castle walls atop the stone. While standing atop the walls, Russel is able to smell the vistani cooking a feast, hear the circus acts taking place beneath the 100 foot large multi colored, patchwork canvas tent setup in the back courtyard, and see a few bodies slumped against the window of the throne room. After some further investigation the loot team is able to figure out that the creatures are none other than Kif, Gunter, and Pablo.
Carlos tells the other team members that he is going for his brother and Ezzie tells them she is peacing out. That she has got items to smith, people to see, and plans to make. Carlos tries to stop her but she does not let him and starts climbing down the wall. The ruffians of the loot team stay together and head for the slumped bodies.
After a close call with some bricks, Carlos and the ruffians make it to the window. With some quick medical checks it looks as if the party members inside are breathing and so slowly Carlos opens the window and keeps it that way by jamming his rapier into the windowsill.
The slumped bodies of Gunter, Pablo, and Kif are woken up yet not before a detect magic and a divine sense detecting undead, fiends, and the like are both cast on the bodies. While divine sense does not detect them, a magical aura of illusion sits atop each body. The awake ruffians decide to figure that mess out later and wake up their fellow ruffians and head out.
The ruffians leave the castle by wagon after an embarrassing assassination attempt by Carlos. They pass under the arch at the far end of the wooden bridge and come upon a tied up horse.
The ruffians then hear a voice calling rom above that turns out o be none other than Ezzie's who says she was worried about the loot team going in after them. She tells the party that her old master would definitely be interested in the party. She asks them to join her as she goes to visit her old master. The party agrees and they ride off.
Madam Eva
"A silver frost lays thick on the plate armor hinges of an adventurer. "
"A daisy is plucked from an unguarded garden."
"A cackle erupts from the bubbling swamp."
"A tree strikes at the ravens perched atop its branches."

Report Date

20 Oct 2021