The Wretched Souls of Vallaki - Session 21

General Summary

Day 11 - Late Afternoon

A few hours ago, a mysterious figure shadowed within a cloak attacked Morgana and then fled to the Wachter house. The party followed and searched the upper floors of the house before being led to a hidden door in the back closet by a strange lady named Kitty.
Now Nazgog leads the group through the door and down a set of stairs into the dark basement. As she descends into the darkness her vision shifts to grayscale and outlines a row of cotss against one wall while the stairs turn and continue downward. A soft squelching sound permeates the basement, but the gray floor seems to be empty. Nazgog continues down the second set of stairs with Morgana following just behind. The squealching increases as Nazgog approaches the bottom, suddenly amorphous blobs stretch upward from the floor attacking the party. These boneless creatures fight mindlessly as the party splits into smaller fighting groups with Sticky leaping over the stairwell landing over to the cots. The party quickly sends these wretched creatures back to the void that birthed them.
Everyone pauses as strange new sounds of earth moving reveal eight skeletons clawing out from the earth beneath the cots. These new foes are forced into a double-line of defense as the party quickly mows through them with bones clattering to the ground. As the last bone rattles away to stillness, the party looks around for the next threat, but finds only silence.

Quickly searching, the party finds multiple sets of tracks that lead to the middle of the basement wall. Irritated with the delays, Nazgog strides up and kicks the obvious hidden door, causing it to spin wildly for a moment before steadily slowing and coming to rest.

Through the doorway, the party spies several more grotesque creatures including one climbing through a void in the center of a pentagram and beyond that a shadowy cloaked figure against the far wall.

Using the doorway as a choke point, Sticky blocks the path while Morgana and Jagger work from cover.

Fidelia summons her energies and creates a column of spinning knives that slashes at the ghastly wretched creatures next to it. Slowly the party whittles away the nightmarish creatures until only the spy remains. As he looses another arrow, he shouts, "You may have defeated me, but Lady Wachter will have her revenge!" Annoyed, Morgana fires a crossbow bolt straight through his forehead.

Stepping into the room, Jagger states, "I swear that large multiarmed thing climbed through a hole here. But it's solid stone now."
Fidelia responds, "It likely was a focus for energies poured into it. If we destroy it, then it can't be used again."
Jagger scuffs his boots against the lines, but shifts only a bit of dirt. "Well, it's more permanent than paint. Any thoughts on how to destroy it?"
"Fire cleanses," Nazgog states flatly.
"You want to burn the whole house down," Fidelia gasps. "Although, that would destroy the built up energies. And it seems isolated enough that it shouldn't affect other buildings. It'll also be a sign to Strahd"
Nazgog grunts, "Sign? Yes. Demolission sign!"
Morgana interjects, "What about the innocent lives that live here? Kitty and, well, the kitties? How do we get them out safely?"
"No problem," quips Jagger as he pulls out a bag pipe, "I'll just lead them out with a merry jig! No feline can resist my airs." Filling the bellows he begins a lively screechy tune while ascending the stairs back into the Wachter house.
Sticky starts breaking the cots into shards in the larger room before carrying the kindling onto the pentagram. Looking up at Fidelia he answers her unasked question, "Lots of fuel to ensure this engraving burns away."
Fidelia, Nazgog, and Morgana head upstairs to check on Jagger and help Little Kitty out of the house. Gathering on the front lawn, Sticky comes around the back corner as smoke starts to seep out the basement easings.
"My house!" cries Little Kitty as she tries to head back inside, but Morgana hugs her to slow her progress as Nazgog firmly clasps her shoulder. "How could this happen?!"
Sticky replies, "There were a lot of open candles that just kept burning. Maybe one of those fell onto something."
Morgana comforts Little Kitty, "Why don't you come back to our house. We can let you rest there and maybe find some toys."
As they watch, giant flames start licking out from the eaves of the roof and Little Kitty whimpers as she allows herself to be lead away while the city guard begins responding to the house fire. The party can hear the fire brigand working to ensure the fire stays isolated even though the building is beyond saving.
Upon reaching the Burgomaster's mansion, Little Kitty balks in the road, "Mean boy lives here. He no like me."
Morgana soothes her by saying, "Victor's no longer here. We kicked out the Burgomaster and it's our home now. Come inside and we'll find a nice quiet room for you." Together they head inside and settle Little Kitty into Izek's room where Little Kitty becomes entranced with the dolls of the pretty lady.
The party grabs a quick supper in the kitchen and then heads to bed in the Nazgog's master bedroom.
Fidelia suddenly wakes up in the middle of the night. Listening intently, she hears footsteps in the attic so she nudges Nazgog awake and whispers, "Listen. It seems we still have a visitor in the attic."
Nazgog leaps out of bed and yanks the trap door open. An explosion blasts the bedroom, but only lightly injures the party. Nazgog leads the way into the attic as the party follows as she yells, "You still here?! I'll burn the whole house down!"
Victor responds, "Look! Just leave me alone! I won't do anything to you and you don't do anything to me. I just want out of this place."
Nazgog retorts, "Door's there! We not stop you."
"Not out of this house. Out of this land!" responds Victor. "This damn teleportation just won't work. No matter how many times I try."
The party continues to dicker and bicker with Victor as he reveals that he's killed two of the burgomaster's servants while trying to work out the arcane rituals for teleportation circle. Eventually, both Victor and the group agree to let each go their own way and then the party goes back to sleep.

Day 12 - Morning

With the sun filtering through the shaded window, the party slowly wakes and breaks their fast below. As the party savors the morning brew, a knocking is heard at the front door. A few moments later, the butler shows Lars into the Kitchen.
"A bright morning to you all," Lars starts. "I've gathered five persons in the square so that Fidelia can test them and pick one or two to start transforming our weapons. Are you ready to start?"
The party agrees and follows Lars to the square. "Allow me to introduce your applicants. First, we have Teresk Targolova. This is Alana Gygorov. Next to her, this lowlife is Harkus Belasco. Our next applicant is another poor farmer, Anton Swilovich. And finally is Zandra Antonova who apparently is a twin. I'm not seeing much out of this bunch, but maybe I can gather up more if no one is suitable. Anyhow, I'll leave you to it. I've got to brief the city guard again. Nazgog, Jagger, and Morgana can you walk with me a few?"
As Lars leads the trio away he explains, "We're running low on other resources too and until we can defend ourselves, it's difficult to gather raw resources. We are in very short supply of lumber. Can you all go gather some?" The small group splits ways with Lars as he heads west while they head north. During the day the trio fells and hauls about a dozen trees for supply.
Back in the square, "Arlight!" Fidelia commands, "Do everything as I say as I say it and you'll learn a few skills today while I learn about you." She then proceeds into a quick tutorial on shaping a small metal bar into a nail before letting each of the students try afterward. Over the next few hours Fidelia works with each applicant using skills of stoking a fire, plating a spoon, quenching metal, shaping a sword, and hammering out an edge. At the end of it, all of the applicants did a serviceable job, but the town could only spare two persons for this new job, so Fidelia selected Harkus and Zandra. She leaves them working on silver-plating a few short swords for the town guard as Lars comes back up.

Rewards Granted

Experience Points:

Facing Monsters - 980 xp/person
Trial of Apprentices - 150 xp/person
Total XP/Person = 1130


Characters should have 11,557 xp. Next Level 6 at 14,000 xp.

Character(s) interacted with

Lars (Your appointed City Manager)

Related Reports

The Vallaki Recovery - Session 20 Report

The Walls of Krezk - Session 22

Notes

Incomplete Tasks/Quests:

Stellla Wachter - The Little Kitty

She is right. I bet we smell of earth, rotted wine, and blood! However, let's just close and lock this door and deal with this bit of crazy later.

— Jagger the Dagger

DragonCrush - Baba Lysaga

I'm positive these constructs are the work of the witch Baba Lysaga, but she's too powerful for us to confront directly.

— Davian Martikov

Champagne Du La Stomp - The lost varietal

Our greatest vintage, the Champagne Du La Stomp, is lost until we can find that gem again and I've no idea where to search.

— Davian Martikov

A Sister's Plea - The Amber Temple with Kasamir

The Amber Temple holds secrets beyond even Strahd's imagining. I offer the Sunsword as payment for accompanying me to the temple.

— Kasamir Velikov

A Tale of Woe - Izek's Dreams

Sometimes I dream about sister though. I get Blinsky to make images of her.

— Izek Strasni

Dream a little pastry - The Windmill and the old ladies

If you aren't here for a dream pastry, then you need to move onward. Vallaki is just down the road from here

— Morgantha

The Cards of Fate - Vistano the Vistani Tarot Reading

Where did Vistano put that blasted...ah yes, please hold...ah! here it is!

— Vistano the Vistani

Starving Son - The undercroft in the Church of the Morning lord

You would offer him your very life's blood??

— Father Donavich

A Brother's Plea - Bringing Ireena to Safety

I need to escort my sister, Ireena, to a nearby town, but it's dangerous to go alone.

— Ismark the Lesser

A Brother's Plea - Priestly Advice

You would do well to get her as far from Castle Ravenloft as possible. Perhaps the Abbey of Saint Markovia or at least the fortified town of Vallaki

— Father Donavich

Experience Points Calculation:

Monster	Qty	XP Per	Total XP
Boneless	6	200	1,200
Skeletons	8	50	400
Wretched	8	50	400
Lost	1	2,900	2,900

Experience Points: 1,200 + 400 + 400 + 2,900 = 4,900 / 5 PLayers = 980 Xp for monsters

Campaign

Strahd the Sunless

Protagonists

Micaiah V

Report Date

17 Nov 2024