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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: 7310756" data-attributes="member: 18333"><p>Session 32 – Arabelle, Madame Eva, and The Bonegrider</p><p></p><p>As we were getting ready to leave Vallaki, we were suspicious that people would notice Arabelle, so I broke out my old performing disguise kit and tried to make her look like an ugly boy. She enjoyed the game of pretend and I made a somewhat passable disguise. Then Fid suggested that we go to see if Rictavio was back in town on our way to rent a carriage and two horses. </p><p></p><p>We found Rictavio at his cart and got a chance to speak with him. Apparently, he thought that we left him so he had to go to Krezk himself to get the pool water to cure his pet tiger. We told him that he and his tiger disappeared from our coach, but he had no recollection of that. He said that he had met with Esmeralda too and told her about us. We also spoke to him about Luvish and Arrigal. He said that Arrigal was working for Strahd and Luvish was a big dumb ox. These were the Vistani that he did not like and now we understood why. We told him we still wanted to find Esmeralda, but we had to travel back to see Madame Eva. We offered for him to join us but he was still worried about his tiger so he thought it best for him to stay in Vallaki.</p><p></p><p>On our way out of town we saw a parade of children all dressed like flowers. Evidently, the Burgomaster was staging the sun festival he had mentioned. It was pathetic. After we hitched horses to the carriage, Arabelle, Syvrina, Brigby and I rode inside as Fid and Bynn rode a top. Bynn handled the horses well and within a handful of hours we traveled back to the other Vistani camp where Madame Eva was. </p><p></p><p>The Vistani story teller greeted us and told us that Madame Eva was expecting us. We went into her tent and she immediately recognized Arabelle. Then she told Arabelle to go out and play while we talked. It seemed she had information for our ears only. We found out from Eva that Arabelle had run away before and if the brothers found out we were involved they might make things difficult for us, but she assured us that the girl would be safe with them. Then she told us her own history. Her real name was Katarina and she was the daughter of King Barov (Strahd’s father). 400 years ago, she came to Strahd’s court for the wedding of Sergei and Tatiana. Strahd went mad and killed his own brother, Sergei. It was horrible. Since then, she has kept her distance and has tried to resist Strahd’s power by making a pact with Mother Night. We talked about the power of Mother Night and I mentioned that we may have already benefited from her help when we were in the bog and the moonlight seemed to fall upon us when we were in the darkness. Brigby told Madame Eva about how Strahd seems to be able to manipulate our travels, making mist that obscures towns and even teleports us to strange locations. He asked if she had anything that would help us and she dug out a compass and gave it too him. Not to be rude, I just assumed it was magical. She told us to begin chasing her prophecy by finding the Tree. We said we did some research and found that the Tree on a hill of graves was probably Yesterhill, but we didn’t know where that was. She told us it was south of Van Richten’s tower. We thanked her again and told her that we were still looking for Esmeralda. Then we went out and had some drink and good cheer before sleeping for the night.</p><p></p><p>In the morning we headed back towards Vallaki, but when we got near the mill, The Bonegrinder, we heard the scream of a child from within. This time, we knew we had to act. Fid got off the carriage and we followed. He kicked in the door of the mill and asked to buy some cakes. We all heard some cackling and a voice from upstairs said there were cakes inside. We made our way up the stairway, Fid leading. I told Brigby I should go next because if I could see the hag and she casted a spell, I might be able to use a counterspell. </p><p></p><p>Upstairs we saw Morgantha and after a few unpleasant words, Syvrina shot an arrow at the hag and we were in battle. We all fought the hag who looked like an old lady and realized that she was tougher and stronger than she looked. Fid tried to grab her and throw her out of the window, but she was able to escape his grasp and disappear. That’s when her daughter came down a stone stairway and tried to cast a lightning bolt at us. I countered the spell and Brigby called lightning of his own down from the stormy sky. Pretty soon, another daughter appeared and we were fighting two of them. Fid decided to use the new glowing sword we liberated from Burton Westcoat, and as he hacked at the hags, we could see that his blows were dealing more damage. The magic of the sword, although unknown and potentially dangerous to Fid, seemed to be helping us against the fiends. I tried to use burning hands against the daughters, but they resisted the fire and took only minor wounds. Then, one of them pointed a finger at me. My Elven body usually resists sleep, but somehow, I felt everything go black and I fell to the ground unconscious as if I had fallen to sleep. Brigby was able to shake me out of unconsciousness and then he blasted the sisters with a lightning bolt from the sky. Bynn in wolf form attacked using his pack tactics and although he could bite a hag, it didn’t do as much damage as usual. Syvrina jabbed at a hag with her angry huff and again did damage, but not as much as usual. One of the daughters was able to cast another spell at Brigby and Brigby was wounded with psychic pain and became frightened. </p><p></p><p>After trading blows with the hags Brigby fell to another spell and went unconscious. Fid kept attacking using the glowing sword, and it was his relentless attacks that caused the daughters to retreat. Eventually both of them used some kind of Ethereal Jaunt or Plane Shift to escape us. We got Brigby up using a healing potion I had, and then we searched the upper areas of the mill. Syvrina and I went upstairs while the others stayed at the second level prepared to attack any hag that materialized. </p><p></p><p>Upstairs we found some crates and when we opened them we found a little girl and a little boy. They were both from Barovia. We coaxed them out and brought them downstairs, but as I was studying from my ritual book to detect magic, the entire windmill started rocking and breaking apart. Outside Morgantha had appeared and was firing lightning bolts at the mill, the top of which as now collapsing in on us.</p><p></p><p>Broken debris rained down on us. Syvrina and I were able to avoid getting hit, but Bynn, Brigby and Fid were not as lucky. In fact, a large chuck of grindstone smashed down on Brigby knocking him unconscious once more. Another chunk also smashed the little boy. Bynn reverted to his Half-Elven form so he could cast healing magic on Brigby and then save the little boy. Fid moved to a nearby window and when he saw Morgantha below, he said he was going to jump down on her. Before he could act, Syvrina jumped out another window and fell acrobatically to the ground. Then Bynn turned back into wolf form and dove out a window too. All the while, the mill was still collapsing down on us so I grabbed the two children and ran with them down the stairway and to the front door. I pushed them both to the left side of the door away from Morgantha and I stood up to the hag as Fid came leaping down attacking her with his glowing blade. In a few seconds, Syvrina rounded the mill from the north and fired an arrow at Morgantha, hitting her. The hag pointed a finger at me and tried to cast a spell, but it didn’t succeed against me. Brigby used his boots to spring down with us and he joined our fight as well. </p><p></p><p>After Morgantha tried to cast another spell at me, which failed, we seemed to be gaining some momentum. Then one of the daughters appeared and she had Bynn, Brigby and me lined up for lightning bolt spell. When she casted, I countered her spell using my last bit of higher level magical energy. Pretty soon the other daughter appeared so Bynn charged to kill. Unfortunately, he could not take her down, so I misty stepped behind that foe to give the wolf an advantage.</p><p></p><p>We seemed to be close to taking at least the two daughters down, but then Fid’s sword flared and Fid went into a rage of blood lust. He attacked Brigby and knocked him unconscious, and it looked as if he wanted to attack our cleric even more. Syvrina was able to land one more blow upon Morgantha, and then Morgantha told her daughters to flee. Bynn had one more chance to attack one of the daughters so he attacked. His jaws sunk into her flesh, but her tough hide lessened the damage and she survived. Then she and her sister disappeared. Before Fid could attack Brigby once more, I remembered that I had a scroll of charm person. I took it out and casted it upon Fid. The magical charm took hold, so I told Fid that he was our friend. He needed to attack the hag not Brigby. It worked. He hacked into Morgantha a few times, but she did not go down. Instead she snarled and disappeared. Brigby looked on death’s door so I ran to him to fish through his jacket to find a healing potion. I could not find it. As Brigby fell closer to death, Syvrina ran over and found the potion within Brigby’s pack. That saved our cleric.</p><p></p><p>After the fight, I told the others my fear that these hags could shift dimensions or travel magically so we should get away from here. Brigby tried to take Fid’s sword away from him, but Fid didn’t let him. Fid wanted to search the ruins for magic, but I told him we needed to get away from here with the children and come back later. Brigby and I remembered a nearby cave that we had once used for shelter so we made for that cave. Once inside, I conducted a ritual to form a tiny hut so that we could rest the night. We had rescued two children and found out that Fid’s sword had a curse upon it. The sword helped us tremendously against the hags, but it almost caused Brigby’s death. We would have to be careful with this weapon.</p><p></p><p>Our plan is to go back to The Bonegrinder in the morning, search for magical treasure and then take the children to Barovia. Of course, we'll have to be on guard in case the hags return, but now we know some of their strengths so we might be more prepared. After that, we’d head off to try to find the Tree that Madame Eva told us about or Esmeralda.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rhenny, post: 7310756, member: 18333"] Session 32 – Arabelle, Madame Eva, and The Bonegrider As we were getting ready to leave Vallaki, we were suspicious that people would notice Arabelle, so I broke out my old performing disguise kit and tried to make her look like an ugly boy. She enjoyed the game of pretend and I made a somewhat passable disguise. Then Fid suggested that we go to see if Rictavio was back in town on our way to rent a carriage and two horses. We found Rictavio at his cart and got a chance to speak with him. Apparently, he thought that we left him so he had to go to Krezk himself to get the pool water to cure his pet tiger. We told him that he and his tiger disappeared from our coach, but he had no recollection of that. He said that he had met with Esmeralda too and told her about us. We also spoke to him about Luvish and Arrigal. He said that Arrigal was working for Strahd and Luvish was a big dumb ox. These were the Vistani that he did not like and now we understood why. We told him we still wanted to find Esmeralda, but we had to travel back to see Madame Eva. We offered for him to join us but he was still worried about his tiger so he thought it best for him to stay in Vallaki. On our way out of town we saw a parade of children all dressed like flowers. Evidently, the Burgomaster was staging the sun festival he had mentioned. It was pathetic. After we hitched horses to the carriage, Arabelle, Syvrina, Brigby and I rode inside as Fid and Bynn rode a top. Bynn handled the horses well and within a handful of hours we traveled back to the other Vistani camp where Madame Eva was. The Vistani story teller greeted us and told us that Madame Eva was expecting us. We went into her tent and she immediately recognized Arabelle. Then she told Arabelle to go out and play while we talked. It seemed she had information for our ears only. We found out from Eva that Arabelle had run away before and if the brothers found out we were involved they might make things difficult for us, but she assured us that the girl would be safe with them. Then she told us her own history. Her real name was Katarina and she was the daughter of King Barov (Strahd’s father). 400 years ago, she came to Strahd’s court for the wedding of Sergei and Tatiana. Strahd went mad and killed his own brother, Sergei. It was horrible. Since then, she has kept her distance and has tried to resist Strahd’s power by making a pact with Mother Night. We talked about the power of Mother Night and I mentioned that we may have already benefited from her help when we were in the bog and the moonlight seemed to fall upon us when we were in the darkness. Brigby told Madame Eva about how Strahd seems to be able to manipulate our travels, making mist that obscures towns and even teleports us to strange locations. He asked if she had anything that would help us and she dug out a compass and gave it too him. Not to be rude, I just assumed it was magical. She told us to begin chasing her prophecy by finding the Tree. We said we did some research and found that the Tree on a hill of graves was probably Yesterhill, but we didn’t know where that was. She told us it was south of Van Richten’s tower. We thanked her again and told her that we were still looking for Esmeralda. Then we went out and had some drink and good cheer before sleeping for the night. In the morning we headed back towards Vallaki, but when we got near the mill, The Bonegrinder, we heard the scream of a child from within. This time, we knew we had to act. Fid got off the carriage and we followed. He kicked in the door of the mill and asked to buy some cakes. We all heard some cackling and a voice from upstairs said there were cakes inside. We made our way up the stairway, Fid leading. I told Brigby I should go next because if I could see the hag and she casted a spell, I might be able to use a counterspell. Upstairs we saw Morgantha and after a few unpleasant words, Syvrina shot an arrow at the hag and we were in battle. We all fought the hag who looked like an old lady and realized that she was tougher and stronger than she looked. Fid tried to grab her and throw her out of the window, but she was able to escape his grasp and disappear. That’s when her daughter came down a stone stairway and tried to cast a lightning bolt at us. I countered the spell and Brigby called lightning of his own down from the stormy sky. Pretty soon, another daughter appeared and we were fighting two of them. Fid decided to use the new glowing sword we liberated from Burton Westcoat, and as he hacked at the hags, we could see that his blows were dealing more damage. The magic of the sword, although unknown and potentially dangerous to Fid, seemed to be helping us against the fiends. I tried to use burning hands against the daughters, but they resisted the fire and took only minor wounds. Then, one of them pointed a finger at me. My Elven body usually resists sleep, but somehow, I felt everything go black and I fell to the ground unconscious as if I had fallen to sleep. Brigby was able to shake me out of unconsciousness and then he blasted the sisters with a lightning bolt from the sky. Bynn in wolf form attacked using his pack tactics and although he could bite a hag, it didn’t do as much damage as usual. Syvrina jabbed at a hag with her angry huff and again did damage, but not as much as usual. One of the daughters was able to cast another spell at Brigby and Brigby was wounded with psychic pain and became frightened. After trading blows with the hags Brigby fell to another spell and went unconscious. Fid kept attacking using the glowing sword, and it was his relentless attacks that caused the daughters to retreat. Eventually both of them used some kind of Ethereal Jaunt or Plane Shift to escape us. We got Brigby up using a healing potion I had, and then we searched the upper areas of the mill. Syvrina and I went upstairs while the others stayed at the second level prepared to attack any hag that materialized. Upstairs we found some crates and when we opened them we found a little girl and a little boy. They were both from Barovia. We coaxed them out and brought them downstairs, but as I was studying from my ritual book to detect magic, the entire windmill started rocking and breaking apart. Outside Morgantha had appeared and was firing lightning bolts at the mill, the top of which as now collapsing in on us. Broken debris rained down on us. Syvrina and I were able to avoid getting hit, but Bynn, Brigby and Fid were not as lucky. In fact, a large chuck of grindstone smashed down on Brigby knocking him unconscious once more. Another chunk also smashed the little boy. Bynn reverted to his Half-Elven form so he could cast healing magic on Brigby and then save the little boy. Fid moved to a nearby window and when he saw Morgantha below, he said he was going to jump down on her. Before he could act, Syvrina jumped out another window and fell acrobatically to the ground. Then Bynn turned back into wolf form and dove out a window too. All the while, the mill was still collapsing down on us so I grabbed the two children and ran with them down the stairway and to the front door. I pushed them both to the left side of the door away from Morgantha and I stood up to the hag as Fid came leaping down attacking her with his glowing blade. In a few seconds, Syvrina rounded the mill from the north and fired an arrow at Morgantha, hitting her. The hag pointed a finger at me and tried to cast a spell, but it didn’t succeed against me. Brigby used his boots to spring down with us and he joined our fight as well. After Morgantha tried to cast another spell at me, which failed, we seemed to be gaining some momentum. Then one of the daughters appeared and she had Bynn, Brigby and me lined up for lightning bolt spell. When she casted, I countered her spell using my last bit of higher level magical energy. Pretty soon the other daughter appeared so Bynn charged to kill. Unfortunately, he could not take her down, so I misty stepped behind that foe to give the wolf an advantage. We seemed to be close to taking at least the two daughters down, but then Fid’s sword flared and Fid went into a rage of blood lust. He attacked Brigby and knocked him unconscious, and it looked as if he wanted to attack our cleric even more. Syvrina was able to land one more blow upon Morgantha, and then Morgantha told her daughters to flee. Bynn had one more chance to attack one of the daughters so he attacked. His jaws sunk into her flesh, but her tough hide lessened the damage and she survived. Then she and her sister disappeared. Before Fid could attack Brigby once more, I remembered that I had a scroll of charm person. I took it out and casted it upon Fid. The magical charm took hold, so I told Fid that he was our friend. He needed to attack the hag not Brigby. It worked. He hacked into Morgantha a few times, but she did not go down. Instead she snarled and disappeared. Brigby looked on death’s door so I ran to him to fish through his jacket to find a healing potion. I could not find it. As Brigby fell closer to death, Syvrina ran over and found the potion within Brigby’s pack. That saved our cleric. After the fight, I told the others my fear that these hags could shift dimensions or travel magically so we should get away from here. Brigby tried to take Fid’s sword away from him, but Fid didn’t let him. Fid wanted to search the ruins for magic, but I told him we needed to get away from here with the children and come back later. Brigby and I remembered a nearby cave that we had once used for shelter so we made for that cave. Once inside, I conducted a ritual to form a tiny hut so that we could rest the night. We had rescued two children and found out that Fid’s sword had a curse upon it. The sword helped us tremendously against the hags, but it almost caused Brigby’s death. We would have to be careful with this weapon. Our plan is to go back to The Bonegrinder in the morning, search for magical treasure and then take the children to Barovia. Of course, we'll have to be on guard in case the hags return, but now we know some of their strengths so we might be more prepared. After that, we’d head off to try to find the Tree that Madame Eva told us about or Esmeralda. [/QUOTE]
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