Day 26: An Invitation
General Summary
Day 26 (Хололуна 2, 735/Marpenoth 1494)
Version 1
In the wee hours of the morning, the bitten pair are led to the top of Krezk's wall along with the others who were bit, carefully tied and hung upside-down from the wall as they waited for moonrise. When it comes, Ayduin and Sylvain are proven safe, but one of the men they saved is most definitely not: the party watches as he transforms and as he is pulled back up into a sturdy cage, where various guards and other helpful bystanders beat him to death with silvered weapons. As the party makes their way back to Krezk, Osrin hears from Cal again, and learns another year has passed. The party passes the fuck out, and Ayduin fails to break his pact. This becomes obvious to the others when, the following morning, Ayduin is fast asleep and can't be roused. Much of the day is spent looking after him and discussing their options. Vitaliya, Klavdiya, and Bray come up to the abbey and Vitaliya tells a story of a drow man who made a similar pact and succumbed to evil when he awoke from his illness. While discussing the soullessness of your average Barovian, Bodaway compares them all to chesterfields, a comment I will literally never let him live down (in large part because it was very funny) (but also because I'm mean). Sylvain begins receiving messages from Kyra. An invitation arrives in Krezk, delivered by Doru: Strahd would love to have you all for dinner, besties. After some discussion, the party agrees to accept, if only to see Ireena. Ri-An looks into the blacksmith, and discovers the blacksmith was one of the people taken by the werewolves. The NPCs of Krezk become progressively more frustrated with the party's inability to understand food shortages. The party becomes progressively more frustrated with the NPCs of Krezk. They discuss logistics, scheduling, and what to do if Ayduin doesn't wake up soon, including but not limited to asking Strahd to use his teleportation circle, and asking for a carriage. Sylvain tries asking a basic question and gets scarred for life when he learns what became of the Krezkovs. Ri-An tries asking a basic question and has to run around asking half the abbey's NPCs before they end up with a firm answer. Ayduin gets a solid nap. That night, Bodaway dreams of nothing and an alleged deva and maybe a god or two help Ayduin break his pact, thus ruining my plans of forcing the party to kill one of their own. </3Version 2
The party's trials continue with an unwelcome discovery that morning: Ayduin is unconscious, the smell of sulfur lingering around him, and no one can rouse him. His companions watch over him, Vitaliya and her daughter Klavdiya coming up to the abbey to attempt to help him through it. She tells the party a story of a similar sickness, a tale she was told by her grandfather long ago, of a drow who was brought to Barovia and succumbed to corruption. He developed a sulfurous cough, getting so sick with it he was bedridden, and when he woke, he was different. Colder. More violent. He summoned hell hounds, setting them on Barovians, and eventually his own party had to take him down. She suggests praying to whatever gods they have available to them, and Osrin takes an unusual path — she reaches out to a deva she used to know. That afternoon, a messenger informs them someone has come to the gates asking for them: Doru, in Strahd's carriage. Doru, looking much healthier now that he hasn't been starving for over a year, hands them an invitation from Strahd: a dinner one week from that day at Castle Ravenloft. Ri-An, Bodaway, and Osrin discuss — Sylvain back at the abbey, watching over Ayduin — and accept, sending Doru off with their reply. Osrin gets updates from Cal from another year passed back in Faerûn, with one notable piece of news: they have confirmation from a god that if any of the party's friends come to Barovia to assist them, the party will fail in their quest. That night, seeking to break his pact a second time, Ayduin finds an unexpected ally: he looks like a young human man, but Seriach greets him as "deva." With Alandras's power coursing through Ayduin, he finds the resolve he needs, and breaks his pact — leaving the entirety of the party far more vulnerable to death than they've been in a long time.
Report Date
16 Dec 2021
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