Day 6 - Night
Trapped within the
Coffin Maker's Shop,
the party is caught in a battle with death itself. Six foul creatures, with ashen skin and deadly smiles, swarmed out of a room upstairs with most heading down the stairs while the reamaining two stalked and knocked Sticky unconscious. The party has permanently dispatched two of these vampiric creatures. The remaining four are split between Sticky upstairs and the workshop downstairs.
Rejoining the battle, one of the two vampires upstairs steps over Sticky's body and joins the fray in the workshop downstairs. Jagger strikes out with her silvered rapier at the vile creature flanking Nazgog. Upstairs, a vampire kneels over Sticky and sinks his fangs deeply into Sticky's neck draining away some lifeforce.
Suddenly, three figures, wearing leather armor and with swords drawn, swoop in from the dark night. As they join the battle, the first literally flies over the party and up the stairs towards Sticky.
It quickly tosses an envelope onto Sticky's unconcious body before pouring a potion down his throat revivying him. The other two quickly flank the vampire behind Nazgog and join the melee assisting the party. As everyone gets a closer look, they can tell that these figures are human sized but have the head of a raven and black feathers that cover their bodies.
The vampires hiss in disgust at these new creatures as the largest vampire cries out, "This is not your fight ravens! Leave now!" The vampires then fixate on trying to kill the newcomers. Feeling the effects of the potion, Sticky climbs back to his feet, quickly scans the note, and realizes that these figures are part of a resistance group. He shouts out, "Believe it or not, our feathered guests have come to assist us."
As the battle continues, the wounds on each of the
vampire spawn seem to evaporate. It seems every few seconds a small section of wounds knit themselves back whole and fade away. The party splits into two groups as Sticky comes down the stairs and flanks a vampire. Meanwhile upstairs the remaining vampire engages with the strange ravenesque creature.
On one strike, Jagger feeling frustrated yells out "You coffin dwelling cold cut!" and Nazgog eggs Jagger onward by yelling at the same vampire, "Why are you still alive?! Also, cold cuts sounds nice right about now. Do you have some on you Jagger?" Slowly the party weakens their current target as Morgana summons a fiery blade brought forth by her goddess's divine spark using it to flank another vampire.
Sticky tries to intimidate his vampire foe, yelling out, "Die you wretched thing! Why won't you die already!" while quickly plunging his daggers into the vampire's chest. The vampire glares coldly at Sticky as his claws gouge deeply into Sticky draining Sticky of consciousness as he calls out "Oh! Not again." before slumping down on the stairwell.
Responding almost instantly, a raven flies over to Sticky and pours another potion down his throat reviving him again as the battle drones onward. Within the fray, Fidelia summons her arcane energies to cause a scorching ray to blast down upon a vampire as she mocks, "How's that fiery blast feel?" The vampire responds in a mocking tone, "You think a flickering spark strikes more pain than the curse I bear?" Elsewhere, Jagger viciously mocks, "How's it feel to be the last piece of jerky in an old dusty bag?"
Slowly, ever so slowly, in the darkened workshop, the party takes out another vampire and then regroups around another. One vampire glares hauntingly at Nazgog while striking deeply through Nazgog's armor causing her to slump forward as she loses consciousness, then Nazgog's eyes flicker with fire as she roars "NO! Not today spawn of satan!" and rises back from the edge to strike outward again.
As the excrutiatingly slow battle tide begins to turn the party's spirit bouy up and Fidela laughs out, "Hey Nazgog! Do you like your steaks well done?" as she blasts three more scorching rays toward another spawn of the devil. Jagger on the other side mocks, "No one mourns at your grave!"
As the final vampire spawn tries to flee, Nazgog's axe severs it from behind as she laughs out, "Wait! I have a thank you present for you!! It's your liver!!" Suddenly the warehouse becomes eerily quiet for a heartbeat and then the ravenfolk fly outside squawking in triumph. The party quickly loots the vampire spawn with Nazgog pulling forth a leatherbound diary from the female vampire. She grunts, "Ugh!! Paper!" and tosses it back over her shoulder where it accidently smacks Fidelia in the face. Fidelia picks the book back up and brings it back to Nazgog demanding, "Read it! This might contain important clues of who hired them."
Nazgog reluctantly agrees and opens the
journal. Upon reading the first line, she asks, "This looks like a date, but what is Mirtul? And 1377 DR? What year is that? The last date I know was the tenth of Reaping in the year 571 CY." When everyone looks at her in silence, she grunts and reads about this fell's creature journey into the land of Barovia. The party recognizes the events of the
Death House as well as the
Village of Barovia but there are also landmarks that the party doesn't recognize, like Lake Baratok and the Village of Krezk which apparently has an abbey.
After finishing the journal, the party asks Sticky, "Did you find the bones of St Andral?"
Looking up from the coffin he's sitting on, he replies, "There was just a kitchen and bedroom up there, I didn't find any bones. Hey Van Der Hoort! You said the bones were up there. Why'd you lie?"
The cowering man comes around the corner, sniveling, "I didn't lie. They are up there hidden in my wardrobe in the bedroom. My life might be forfeit to that lady, but I'll get the bones for you as long as you don't hurt me." Several minutes pass as he heads upstairs and then returns gently carrying a sack that contains the bones of a body. "Here. Take them and just leave. I don't know what I'll do, but I don't think I'm staying here ever again."
Nazgog hefts the bag as Fidelia urges, "We should get these to the church now. Yes, I know we are all hurting, especially Sticky, but this just can't wait. If we held on to them till morning, then what happens if we get attacked in our rooms tonight?"
Sticky wearily nods his head, "As much as I need to rest, let's do this. We'll be as sneaky as we can as we head through town." The party files out of Van Der Hoort's
Coffin Shop and slink through town as rapidly as they feel the party feels they can. Several times, the party hears or sees a small group of persons walking the darkened streets, but no one seems to notice our band of travelers. Within a half-hour the group arrives at the door steps of
St. Andral's Church and Nazgog strides up to the locked door and loudly pounds against it.
Several tense minutes tick by and Sticky pulls out his tools to pick the lock as the party faintly hears, "Who goes there?" as the lock on the door clicks open and Father Petrovich cracks the door peering into the gloom.
Nazgog thrusts the bag at him while stating, "We bring human sticks for protection!"
The befuddled priest stares at Nazgog for a long moment before it clicks in his head, "OH!! Come in! Quickly now, let's step into the sanctuarary." With the party's help, Father Petrovich pries up the floorboards beneath the altar and opens the small crypt that used to contain St. Andral's bones. He prays over the now returned bones while sprinkling holy water above them in a stylized ritual for several minutes. Finally, the ritual seems complete and the priest leans back on his heels, "That should do it. Our patron saint rests as he should within this holy church. Thank you my friends. I have no money to give, but please let me assist you."
Fidelia yawns as Nazgog places the floorboards back down, "You're welcome. For now, let us rest within your walls for an hour or two?" Receiving an affirming nod, the party lays out on the various pews to recoup and recover before heading back to the
Blue Water Inn where they crash into their beds long after midnight.
