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Lenora's Journal for Our Phandelver Campaign Transition into Curse of Strahd
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<blockquote data-quote="Rhenny" data-source="post: 7270797" data-attributes="member: 18333"><p>Session 22 and 23 – Quick Exit from Krezk..on to Barovia…We lose a friend and learn of Strahd</p><p></p><p>Before we left the gate guard, Yut asked if there was a curfew and if the town was safe at night. The guard said no curfew, but laughed about the safety. It was dark, we were tired, so we walked over to the larger inn/tavern, “The Old Tavern and Inn.”</p><p></p><p>Inside the tavern, we felt the warmth of the fire and noticed that the place was pretty crowded. Brigby, Syvrena and Yut went up to the bar, as I took out my violin and motioned to the bar tender, silently asking if I could play. Meanwhile, the others had ordered food and drinks and Syvrina even had a glass of wine. Eventually, the bar tender let me cozy up near the fire and play the violin for the crowd. Yut asked the bartender about other Elves, and the bartender said there were a few other “traveler’s from beyond.” He also said that we were in an area called Svalik; there was a werewolf problem, and something about the old master. By that time, it seemed as if the bartender had said too much because he fumbled with his words and refused to speak more. By this time, Syvrina had asked about a room with a bath. The bartender had one of the serving girls take Syvrina up so she could have that warm bath.</p><p></p><p>I attempted to play a melodious, calming tune to warm up. I wasn’t so bad for someone who hadn’t practiced for at least a few weeks, not to mention my exhaustion. Then, when I used a minor illusion to kick up an upbeat drum accompaniment, I noticed that no matter how I tried, the drumming sounded dirgelike rather than upbeat. I tried to adjust my playing accordingly, and was able to fumble through it in a proficient, yet not inspired manner. As I played, a man in a cloak, wearing a wide brimmed hat, stepped into the Tavern from outside. The room went quiet. As the man entered he pushed his hat askew. He walked closer to me, smiled and tipped his hat. He even addressed me by name. That was surprising since I didn’t recognize him at all. He said he needed to talk with all of us so I called the others over. It turned out that he knew all of our names. When I asked for his, he said he was Arrigal, and his master sent him to gain our assistance. Then he gave me a message with a wax seal, a beautiful tower with what might be a dragon or other flying creature depicted in the wax seal. Arrigal told us that the Burgomaster of Barovia wanted us to travel to that village, a 5 hour jaunt along the western road past the Svalik Woods. </p><p></p><p>While we were talking, Yut poked at Arrigal’s coin purse. Although he was quite stealthy, Arrigal seemed to notice. Yut, looked dejected and sulked, “no gems.” When Brigby saw this, he tried to distract Arrigal by faking a fall, spilling drink upon the man, at the same time he motioned to Yut, trying to get Yut to take Arrigal’s purse. Yut didn’t understand what Brigby was doing or what his gestures meant. After apologies and apologies accepted, Arrigal threw his purse to the bartender and told him that rounds were on him for the whole tavern. He continued to reiterate that the burgomaster would be expecting us early the next day. It was a timely issue.</p><p></p><p>After our conversation, and a few drinks, Arrigal left the tavern. Yut stealthily followed him out into the night to see where the man would go. While he was out, Syvrina came down, clean and quite beautiful. We told her what had happened and then we opened the message Arrigal gave us. It was a letter to us, by name, signed by Kolyan Iudirvich, the Burgomaster of Barovia. He was worried of an evil that seemed to wound and present ongoing harm to the love of his life, Ireena Kolyana. He said the community had wealth that he would share if we could help. To us, it seemed as if this was a noble cause. We decided that instead of searching to see if we could find the Wave Echo Cave where we fled from the Black Spider and her minions, we would get up early and travel to Barovia. Before long, Yut came back in. He looked a little pale. He said he saw no trace of Arrigal, but he did see a small girl scatter flower petals around a well, and he heard a strange voice in his head. He said no more. We coaxed him to eat and drink a little more and then we all turned in for the night. It seemed that the money Arrigal gave the bartender was more than enough for room and board.</p><p></p><p>In the morning, we ate a hearty breakfast and then set out for Barovia. It was a misty overcast day, still cold, but we were unable to find an open store to purchase warmer clothing. The bartender told us that Barovia should have what we were looking for. West of the village, the guards opened the gate for us, and we walked the road. The mist was much heavier, especially behind us. Yut and Bynn noticed that the mist seemed to cover our path, and they also noticed that the mountains we had seen when we arrived at Krezk, were no longer there. Instead, this road cut through woodlands. The road itself often had black pools of water that reflected the trees that seemed to stretch their gnarled branches over us. The mist continued to obscure our vision as we kept walking. Eventually we got to an area where Yut saw a group of crows near the woods. Yut said he could smell death. Then he yelled, “Run!” We did, but as we ran, we looked back to see Yut staring more intensely at the crows. It looked as if they were picking at something. We called back to Yut, which seemed to get his attention and he ran up to us. He muttered about seeing something shiny near the crows, but it seems as if he used all his willpower to run to us.</p><p></p><p>After a few hours, we saw a large gateway on the road with two large, headless statues on either side. The heads were on the ground near some brambles. I walked over to one of the heads to take a closer look. One was male and the other was female, but time and the elements had left their mark upon them, and I could not recognize either.</p><p></p><p>We kept walking west on the Old Svalich Road toward what we thought would be Barovia from Arrigal’s description. Pretty soon we were exiting the woods and about 30’ from us near the denser woods, we saw a gaunt figure with wild hair, bare feet, dressed in a tattered gown of skins. It was carrying a staff and twig creatures seemed to be crawling around him. Bynn recognized that the being, man or woman, was casting a barkskin spell. Thinking that the creature was being attacked by the twig creatures, we ran to aid. When we got closer, we realized that the figure was a druid, a mad druid. He turned to face us and the twig creatures grew in size. Five of them surrounded the mad druid as he cackled, “feed the trees!” Yut moved up to a tree creature and Syvrina who had readied her action, fired an arrow at one of the twig creatures, shattering its bark and toppling it to the ground. I was able to sing my bladesong, but I hadn’t casted my mage armor yet. Then I ran to the right side of a couple of twig creatures and blasted them with a burning hands spell. They seemed especially susceptible to fire and they turned to ash. The mad druid yelled, disappeared and then appeared right beside me. He brought his gnarled staff down upon me and it connected with a painful blow. After, I felt as if there were vines crawling up my legs, but I wasn’t held or restrained. Yut ran to help and soon the twigs were down. Brigby and Syvrina combined to take out the mad druid too. </p><p></p><p>After we checked the body of the druid, I picked up the staff to see if it was unusual. I swear I heard a voice telling me to “run in the woods” like an Elf. I threw the staff down and refused to carry it. Yut took it, but didn’t equip it, and we continued on our journey.</p><p></p><p>In a few more hours, we saw the village of Barovia before us. Yut, by now, had the staff in his hands, using it as walking stick. At the road leading into the village was a humanoid in tattered clothing carrying an axe. When we got near, she laughed and said we’d find “death.” We tried to speak with her, but she seemed a bit off her rocker. </p><p></p><p>In town, we passed by Bill Drath’s Mercantile, Blood on the Vine Tavern and Inn, a defeated building that looked like a ruined church, and a mansion with a rusted iron fence, along with many other shops and homes. Brigby spoke with a man on the street to try to find the Burgomaster’s home, and the man pointed it out. As Yut looked at some of the windows of homes in the area, the people inside looked out and then hid behind closed curtains. Yut looked away and then looked back, trying to catch their gazes again. Yut got frustrated with this game as we made our way to the Burgomaster’s home.</p><p></p><p>The front door of the house looked as if it were clawed and scratched at. The windows in the house were all broken and boarded up from the inside. Brigby noticed some protective runes written on the boarded windows. We knocked on the door and a woman answered from within. She was scared and when we asked about Kolyan, the Burgomaster, she said it was “too late.” I opened the letter we had received and pushed it under the door, and the door opened. The woman was dressed in armor. She carried a sword and had a sad look to her. We learned that she was Ireena, and she told us how Kolyan had passed on a few days ago. She told us how wolves and other creatures were attacking the house, and many memories were foggy, but she did remember red, hungry eyes staring at her. We asked her about her “wound” and she said her memory of what happened was foggy. She was distressed about Kolyan dying so she showed us his body and asked us to help her bury it. She wanted us to take him to the priest, Donovich.</p><p></p><p>We spent a little time talking and deciding what to do. It was about 3 ish in the afternoon. Brigby didn’t want Ireena to go out of the house. I took 10 minutes to inspect Yut’s staff, trying to identify it since we were worried it had some strange effect. Apparently it had no magic, but Yut didn’t believe it so he decided to use it anyway.</p><p></p><p>Brigby decided that he and Bynn in wolf form still, would go to the church to seek out Donovich. We said we’d wait at Ireena’s home. After a little while, not hearing from Brigby, we decided to go out to find him. We were worried that something had gone wrong. Ireena would not leave without Kolyan, so she picked up his corpse and carried him out.</p><p></p><p>Later I found out that Brigby and Bynn had encountered a strange old woman, Morgantha, who was selling pies. Brigby bought two. Bynn the wolf ate one so Brigby ate the other. Bynn fell over and started to sleep and twitch, reverting to his Half-Elven form. Brigby was able to carry him to the church. Inside he heard screaming and when he walked in he saw the priest in a chapel lit with hundreds of candles. He was near a broken alter that had scratch marks on it. The priest seemed crazy too. Next to the priest was a rope that fell from the bell tower above. He was ranting about danger and how his son would be one of them. Then Brigby heard a voice from under the floor boards. “Father, let me out. I’m starving.” This was the same voice that was screaming earlier. The priest went on to say that “Toru must not become one of them.” Then he cackled and when Brigby asked if the priest could help revive Bynn, the priest laughed and said, “wouldn’t it be better just to let him sleep.” Brigby tried to calm the priest, even using a command spell, but the priest was inconsolable. He muttered about “spirits at midnight,” and said, “They’ll be coming for you.” Brigby had seen enough. He took Bynn up and walked out to the front steps.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, we had left to find Brigby because it had been longer than we expected. In the road, we were accosted by a frantic woman who said her name was Vivian. She asked if we were friends of the man and the wolf who were just in town. They had bought pies from a horrible woman. Vivian said that Morgantha had taken her son Lucian away this morning. He was only 7. She also said that she didn’t want her son to be made into pie. That didn’t sound good. I promised we’d try to help (more perfunctorily than sincerely…yes, even my heart is jaded now that we are here in this forsaken place). </p><p></p><p>While I was talking with Vivian, Yut and I lost sight of Syvrina and Ireena. We did see Brigby and the prone form of Bynn on the church steps. Bynn was performing a ritual with bones when we got to him. Evidently, he was trying to perform an augury to determine if releasing Toru would prove to be a weal or a woe. He actually saw a vivid image of the boy, pale and sickly, but when the boy grabbed Bigby in his vision, he saw him lunge and sharp fangs glistened as everything went black…a woe.</p><p></p><p>I told Brigby what happened and then we noticed that the others were missing. Brigby and I argued in the street for a while while Yut wandered off, searching for the others.</p><p></p><p>Later we found out that Yut had heard sobbing in a house and he went to investigate. He found a woman on the floor in one room clutching a malformed doll. Yut said the doll looked at him and spoke, “Is no fun, is no Blinsky.” He also said that the woman had lost her daughter…Ger..he forgot the name. Something about “eyes with so much hunger,” and the daughter in the castle. She told him that she saw a vision of a room with a canopy bed in it with golden tassels, and a headboard with a Z on it. It took a while to get it out of Yut, and I had to begin teaching him the A,B,Cs to get him to recognize the letter from the headboard, but eventually we had some information to go on.</p><p></p><p>Brigby and I finished our argument (about whose fault is was that we lost Syvrina and Ireena – he blamed me for taking Ireena out of the house) – and we searched for clues. I went back to the last place I had seen them and found some boot marks that may have been Ireena’s. Bynn helped me track them. It led to the old church graveyard. As we traveled, every so often, I shouted out for Yut, but we didn’t see him. </p><p></p><p>When we got to the graveyard, we found Ireena by an open grave. She had placed Kolyan in the grave. We stood by her silently and she told us she was sorry for our friend. She had felt the “hungry eyes” but when they saw Syvrina, Ireena felt the power fade. She felt free again, but Syvrina became the new fixation. Ireena said that she was gone. He took her. Brigby and I had another argument as we both cursed each other. He blamed me again for losing both Ireena and Syvrina, but I just started laughing. I told him that he and his friends, Yut and Bynn were the ones paid by Syvrina’s father to protect her, not me. I felt bad about it, but questioning my decision making and my skill had brought me to a slow boil. We decided that we would need to find out more about this and we would need to find a place to stay the night. Ireena said she wanted to go home, alone. She said she felt no danger and the presence of evil upon her was gone. Frankly, I didn’t care. I was upset about Syvrina and the mess we were in. Before we parted, Ireena told us that we needed to seek the Vistani, a woman by the name of Esmeralda. If we travel to Vallaki, we could learn more. </p><p></p><p>After Ireena left to go home, we decided to go to the Blood on the Vine Inn and Tavern. As soon as we got there, a handsome young man greeted us and bought us drinks and food. His name was Ismark and he was with another named Erik. Ismark was very friendly, and he started to ask us about helping Ireena. We told him what happened and he grew noticeably angry that we let her out of the house. He even mentioned that she was a victim of Strahd, the master who lived in the castle. He bit his tongue when he caught himself. To allay his worries, we told him that Ireena was ok. The evil had passed, but now our friend, Syvrina was taken by Strahd. This was the sad reality as we knew it. </p><p></p><p>That night, Yut took first watch. He woke me in a few hours and pointed out of the window. We both watched as a ghostly processional of glowing green forms that resembled men, women, Dwarves, wizards, men at arms marched from the graveyard into the village and down the roads. People in town closed all their windows and doors as the strange, ghost parade traveled through the streets. I told Yut that we should ignore it. I explained that some of the sights and sounds we experience here are strange and not real. I listed the experiences we had so far to show him what I meant and I was able to convince him to ignore it. I went back to sleep and when I woke up the next morning, I prepared for the new day. We all prepared for the new day and said a prayer for Syvrina.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rhenny, post: 7270797, member: 18333"] Session 22 and 23 – Quick Exit from Krezk..on to Barovia…We lose a friend and learn of Strahd Before we left the gate guard, Yut asked if there was a curfew and if the town was safe at night. The guard said no curfew, but laughed about the safety. It was dark, we were tired, so we walked over to the larger inn/tavern, “The Old Tavern and Inn.” Inside the tavern, we felt the warmth of the fire and noticed that the place was pretty crowded. Brigby, Syvrena and Yut went up to the bar, as I took out my violin and motioned to the bar tender, silently asking if I could play. Meanwhile, the others had ordered food and drinks and Syvrina even had a glass of wine. Eventually, the bar tender let me cozy up near the fire and play the violin for the crowd. Yut asked the bartender about other Elves, and the bartender said there were a few other “traveler’s from beyond.” He also said that we were in an area called Svalik; there was a werewolf problem, and something about the old master. By that time, it seemed as if the bartender had said too much because he fumbled with his words and refused to speak more. By this time, Syvrina had asked about a room with a bath. The bartender had one of the serving girls take Syvrina up so she could have that warm bath. I attempted to play a melodious, calming tune to warm up. I wasn’t so bad for someone who hadn’t practiced for at least a few weeks, not to mention my exhaustion. Then, when I used a minor illusion to kick up an upbeat drum accompaniment, I noticed that no matter how I tried, the drumming sounded dirgelike rather than upbeat. I tried to adjust my playing accordingly, and was able to fumble through it in a proficient, yet not inspired manner. As I played, a man in a cloak, wearing a wide brimmed hat, stepped into the Tavern from outside. The room went quiet. As the man entered he pushed his hat askew. He walked closer to me, smiled and tipped his hat. He even addressed me by name. That was surprising since I didn’t recognize him at all. He said he needed to talk with all of us so I called the others over. It turned out that he knew all of our names. When I asked for his, he said he was Arrigal, and his master sent him to gain our assistance. Then he gave me a message with a wax seal, a beautiful tower with what might be a dragon or other flying creature depicted in the wax seal. Arrigal told us that the Burgomaster of Barovia wanted us to travel to that village, a 5 hour jaunt along the western road past the Svalik Woods. While we were talking, Yut poked at Arrigal’s coin purse. Although he was quite stealthy, Arrigal seemed to notice. Yut, looked dejected and sulked, “no gems.” When Brigby saw this, he tried to distract Arrigal by faking a fall, spilling drink upon the man, at the same time he motioned to Yut, trying to get Yut to take Arrigal’s purse. Yut didn’t understand what Brigby was doing or what his gestures meant. After apologies and apologies accepted, Arrigal threw his purse to the bartender and told him that rounds were on him for the whole tavern. He continued to reiterate that the burgomaster would be expecting us early the next day. It was a timely issue. After our conversation, and a few drinks, Arrigal left the tavern. Yut stealthily followed him out into the night to see where the man would go. While he was out, Syvrina came down, clean and quite beautiful. We told her what had happened and then we opened the message Arrigal gave us. It was a letter to us, by name, signed by Kolyan Iudirvich, the Burgomaster of Barovia. He was worried of an evil that seemed to wound and present ongoing harm to the love of his life, Ireena Kolyana. He said the community had wealth that he would share if we could help. To us, it seemed as if this was a noble cause. We decided that instead of searching to see if we could find the Wave Echo Cave where we fled from the Black Spider and her minions, we would get up early and travel to Barovia. Before long, Yut came back in. He looked a little pale. He said he saw no trace of Arrigal, but he did see a small girl scatter flower petals around a well, and he heard a strange voice in his head. He said no more. We coaxed him to eat and drink a little more and then we all turned in for the night. It seemed that the money Arrigal gave the bartender was more than enough for room and board. In the morning, we ate a hearty breakfast and then set out for Barovia. It was a misty overcast day, still cold, but we were unable to find an open store to purchase warmer clothing. The bartender told us that Barovia should have what we were looking for. West of the village, the guards opened the gate for us, and we walked the road. The mist was much heavier, especially behind us. Yut and Bynn noticed that the mist seemed to cover our path, and they also noticed that the mountains we had seen when we arrived at Krezk, were no longer there. Instead, this road cut through woodlands. The road itself often had black pools of water that reflected the trees that seemed to stretch their gnarled branches over us. The mist continued to obscure our vision as we kept walking. Eventually we got to an area where Yut saw a group of crows near the woods. Yut said he could smell death. Then he yelled, “Run!” We did, but as we ran, we looked back to see Yut staring more intensely at the crows. It looked as if they were picking at something. We called back to Yut, which seemed to get his attention and he ran up to us. He muttered about seeing something shiny near the crows, but it seems as if he used all his willpower to run to us. After a few hours, we saw a large gateway on the road with two large, headless statues on either side. The heads were on the ground near some brambles. I walked over to one of the heads to take a closer look. One was male and the other was female, but time and the elements had left their mark upon them, and I could not recognize either. We kept walking west on the Old Svalich Road toward what we thought would be Barovia from Arrigal’s description. Pretty soon we were exiting the woods and about 30’ from us near the denser woods, we saw a gaunt figure with wild hair, bare feet, dressed in a tattered gown of skins. It was carrying a staff and twig creatures seemed to be crawling around him. Bynn recognized that the being, man or woman, was casting a barkskin spell. Thinking that the creature was being attacked by the twig creatures, we ran to aid. When we got closer, we realized that the figure was a druid, a mad druid. He turned to face us and the twig creatures grew in size. Five of them surrounded the mad druid as he cackled, “feed the trees!” Yut moved up to a tree creature and Syvrina who had readied her action, fired an arrow at one of the twig creatures, shattering its bark and toppling it to the ground. I was able to sing my bladesong, but I hadn’t casted my mage armor yet. Then I ran to the right side of a couple of twig creatures and blasted them with a burning hands spell. They seemed especially susceptible to fire and they turned to ash. The mad druid yelled, disappeared and then appeared right beside me. He brought his gnarled staff down upon me and it connected with a painful blow. After, I felt as if there were vines crawling up my legs, but I wasn’t held or restrained. Yut ran to help and soon the twigs were down. Brigby and Syvrina combined to take out the mad druid too. After we checked the body of the druid, I picked up the staff to see if it was unusual. I swear I heard a voice telling me to “run in the woods” like an Elf. I threw the staff down and refused to carry it. Yut took it, but didn’t equip it, and we continued on our journey. In a few more hours, we saw the village of Barovia before us. Yut, by now, had the staff in his hands, using it as walking stick. At the road leading into the village was a humanoid in tattered clothing carrying an axe. When we got near, she laughed and said we’d find “death.” We tried to speak with her, but she seemed a bit off her rocker. In town, we passed by Bill Drath’s Mercantile, Blood on the Vine Tavern and Inn, a defeated building that looked like a ruined church, and a mansion with a rusted iron fence, along with many other shops and homes. Brigby spoke with a man on the street to try to find the Burgomaster’s home, and the man pointed it out. As Yut looked at some of the windows of homes in the area, the people inside looked out and then hid behind closed curtains. Yut looked away and then looked back, trying to catch their gazes again. Yut got frustrated with this game as we made our way to the Burgomaster’s home. The front door of the house looked as if it were clawed and scratched at. The windows in the house were all broken and boarded up from the inside. Brigby noticed some protective runes written on the boarded windows. We knocked on the door and a woman answered from within. She was scared and when we asked about Kolyan, the Burgomaster, she said it was “too late.” I opened the letter we had received and pushed it under the door, and the door opened. The woman was dressed in armor. She carried a sword and had a sad look to her. We learned that she was Ireena, and she told us how Kolyan had passed on a few days ago. She told us how wolves and other creatures were attacking the house, and many memories were foggy, but she did remember red, hungry eyes staring at her. We asked her about her “wound” and she said her memory of what happened was foggy. She was distressed about Kolyan dying so she showed us his body and asked us to help her bury it. She wanted us to take him to the priest, Donovich. We spent a little time talking and deciding what to do. It was about 3 ish in the afternoon. Brigby didn’t want Ireena to go out of the house. I took 10 minutes to inspect Yut’s staff, trying to identify it since we were worried it had some strange effect. Apparently it had no magic, but Yut didn’t believe it so he decided to use it anyway. Brigby decided that he and Bynn in wolf form still, would go to the church to seek out Donovich. We said we’d wait at Ireena’s home. After a little while, not hearing from Brigby, we decided to go out to find him. We were worried that something had gone wrong. Ireena would not leave without Kolyan, so she picked up his corpse and carried him out. Later I found out that Brigby and Bynn had encountered a strange old woman, Morgantha, who was selling pies. Brigby bought two. Bynn the wolf ate one so Brigby ate the other. Bynn fell over and started to sleep and twitch, reverting to his Half-Elven form. Brigby was able to carry him to the church. Inside he heard screaming and when he walked in he saw the priest in a chapel lit with hundreds of candles. He was near a broken alter that had scratch marks on it. The priest seemed crazy too. Next to the priest was a rope that fell from the bell tower above. He was ranting about danger and how his son would be one of them. Then Brigby heard a voice from under the floor boards. “Father, let me out. I’m starving.” This was the same voice that was screaming earlier. The priest went on to say that “Toru must not become one of them.” Then he cackled and when Brigby asked if the priest could help revive Bynn, the priest laughed and said, “wouldn’t it be better just to let him sleep.” Brigby tried to calm the priest, even using a command spell, but the priest was inconsolable. He muttered about “spirits at midnight,” and said, “They’ll be coming for you.” Brigby had seen enough. He took Bynn up and walked out to the front steps. Meanwhile, we had left to find Brigby because it had been longer than we expected. In the road, we were accosted by a frantic woman who said her name was Vivian. She asked if we were friends of the man and the wolf who were just in town. They had bought pies from a horrible woman. Vivian said that Morgantha had taken her son Lucian away this morning. He was only 7. She also said that she didn’t want her son to be made into pie. That didn’t sound good. I promised we’d try to help (more perfunctorily than sincerely…yes, even my heart is jaded now that we are here in this forsaken place). While I was talking with Vivian, Yut and I lost sight of Syvrina and Ireena. We did see Brigby and the prone form of Bynn on the church steps. Bynn was performing a ritual with bones when we got to him. Evidently, he was trying to perform an augury to determine if releasing Toru would prove to be a weal or a woe. He actually saw a vivid image of the boy, pale and sickly, but when the boy grabbed Bigby in his vision, he saw him lunge and sharp fangs glistened as everything went black…a woe. I told Brigby what happened and then we noticed that the others were missing. Brigby and I argued in the street for a while while Yut wandered off, searching for the others. Later we found out that Yut had heard sobbing in a house and he went to investigate. He found a woman on the floor in one room clutching a malformed doll. Yut said the doll looked at him and spoke, “Is no fun, is no Blinsky.” He also said that the woman had lost her daughter…Ger..he forgot the name. Something about “eyes with so much hunger,” and the daughter in the castle. She told him that she saw a vision of a room with a canopy bed in it with golden tassels, and a headboard with a Z on it. It took a while to get it out of Yut, and I had to begin teaching him the A,B,Cs to get him to recognize the letter from the headboard, but eventually we had some information to go on. Brigby and I finished our argument (about whose fault is was that we lost Syvrina and Ireena – he blamed me for taking Ireena out of the house) – and we searched for clues. I went back to the last place I had seen them and found some boot marks that may have been Ireena’s. Bynn helped me track them. It led to the old church graveyard. As we traveled, every so often, I shouted out for Yut, but we didn’t see him. When we got to the graveyard, we found Ireena by an open grave. She had placed Kolyan in the grave. We stood by her silently and she told us she was sorry for our friend. She had felt the “hungry eyes” but when they saw Syvrina, Ireena felt the power fade. She felt free again, but Syvrina became the new fixation. Ireena said that she was gone. He took her. Brigby and I had another argument as we both cursed each other. He blamed me again for losing both Ireena and Syvrina, but I just started laughing. I told him that he and his friends, Yut and Bynn were the ones paid by Syvrina’s father to protect her, not me. I felt bad about it, but questioning my decision making and my skill had brought me to a slow boil. We decided that we would need to find out more about this and we would need to find a place to stay the night. Ireena said she wanted to go home, alone. She said she felt no danger and the presence of evil upon her was gone. Frankly, I didn’t care. I was upset about Syvrina and the mess we were in. Before we parted, Ireena told us that we needed to seek the Vistani, a woman by the name of Esmeralda. If we travel to Vallaki, we could learn more. After Ireena left to go home, we decided to go to the Blood on the Vine Inn and Tavern. As soon as we got there, a handsome young man greeted us and bought us drinks and food. His name was Ismark and he was with another named Erik. Ismark was very friendly, and he started to ask us about helping Ireena. We told him what happened and he grew noticeably angry that we let her out of the house. He even mentioned that she was a victim of Strahd, the master who lived in the castle. He bit his tongue when he caught himself. To allay his worries, we told him that Ireena was ok. The evil had passed, but now our friend, Syvrina was taken by Strahd. This was the sad reality as we knew it. That night, Yut took first watch. He woke me in a few hours and pointed out of the window. We both watched as a ghostly processional of glowing green forms that resembled men, women, Dwarves, wizards, men at arms marched from the graveyard into the village and down the roads. People in town closed all their windows and doors as the strange, ghost parade traveled through the streets. I told Yut that we should ignore it. I explained that some of the sights and sounds we experience here are strange and not real. I listed the experiences we had so far to show him what I meant and I was able to convince him to ignore it. I went back to sleep and when I woke up the next morning, I prepared for the new day. We all prepared for the new day and said a prayer for Syvrina. [/QUOTE]
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