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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ealli" data-source="post: 3324133" data-attributes="member: 804">Chapter 2:  What Lies in the Middle of the MistThrough a ruined barricade, in the mists hanging over the empty town of Barovia, Thundina caught the first glimpses of the battle.  A horde of zombies, greater than any horde faced so far, was about to descend on a warrior in gleaming mail in Lightbringer colors.  Between the Lightbringer colors and the distinct sword style of a holy warrior, there were some mutterings as to whether or not this might be Ashlyn and perhaps all member of the previous expedition survived as well.  Before anyone could act to repulse the zombie menace, half the zombies broke away from the square and charged out the ruined barricade effectively sealing the party in the road and away from the heroine of Barovia.  Taking a heavy beating, Ashlyn was forced to begin to retreat.  In an attempt to rescue her, both BarBar and Krel weaved through the mess of zombies to engage the other half of the zombies.  Orning would have dashed forward as well, but he was pinned down unable to advance past the remains of the barricade or around the zombies engaging the party.  BarBar’s presence immediately had an impact as the zombies now had two options to eat brains.  He also made an important discovery rather quickly – by chance the one zombie he hit, though it looked no different, was not so resistant to the bludgeoning of fists.  This weirdness of the zombie became greater when it turned and tried to pull BarBar to the ground after a powerful strike.  Bleeding heavily, Ashlyn was forced to retreat and quaff a potion.  With her withdrawal, all the zombies in the middle of the town square turned on BarBar and sunk their claws into him.  Krel had skirted off to the side near Ashlyn to get a clear shot with his wand.  So fierce was the zombie attack on BarBar that the nimble hobgoblin was forced to retreat as well.  While a couple zombies did pursue BarBar back to the breach, there were still several who pursued Krel and Ashlyn across the square.  One of the four who did was the odd one and soon it became dreadfully apparent just what it was trying to do.  On a mighty swing, the creature drove Ashlyn into the ground and out of sight.  Now, Krel was surrounded and he attempted a desperate maneuver of infusing a sorcery into his shirt to be thrown at the horde.  Before he could complete the action, the zombies were upon him, grasping and clawing.  Just before he would have succumbed to their attack, he too was driven deep into the dirt.Back at the entrance, Thundina, Orning, and Tourg worked methodically to knock out the zombies that had cut them off from the town square.  BarBar returned and absorbed some healing.  As the fight looked like it was about to be turned, the zombies which had assaulted Ashlyn and Krel joined the fight at the barricade.  Tourg was overwhelmed in the renewed assault.  Orning layed into the strange zombie with the full might of his god and Thundina leaped onto the barricade to improve her positioning against the zombies.  Almost immediately after the boss zombie fell, so too did Orning.  Fortunately, Ashlyn had dug herself out of the ground and hastened to the battle.  In a desperate maneuver to quicken the end of the battle against the zombies, BarBar attempted a vicious uppercut to one of the zombies.  The air chilled as BarBar missed.  With Ashlyn back in the battle, she knelt and returned Tourg to the battle.  Humorously, Tourg was trapped between the two final zombies and could not stand lest he attract too much attention and risk another near-death experience.  After one final swipe at Thundina, the zombie menace was concluded.  Orning was healed and restored to his feet and Krel was dug out of the ground prior to suffocation.With the zombies no longer an immediate threat, it became apparent that there were indeed other survivors.  Two brightly colored workers later called vestani and a tall humanoid named Periwumple came forward and began repairs on the breached barricade.  Ashlyn formally introduced herself but relayed that Thendrick and Mathilda had gone missing searching for the source of the zombie infestation with rumors taking them towards the church three days past.  Her investigations on the subject of the Sunsword had progressed hardly at all before she needed to defend the living.  At Thundina’s inquiry about Kolyan Indirovich, Ashlyn said that Kolyan was dead, but his son was inside and pointed to the Blood of the Vine Inn.  Tourg, BarBar, and Krel investigated the Inn and found that the survivors of the town were packed inside.  At a table way in the back, they found Ismark, son of Kolyan.  Ismark denied that his father could have possibly sent the call for heroes and had been dead for more than a week.  He spun a tale of woe about the residents of Barovia borough being trapped by the lord of the vale, Strahd, who would not permit anyone to leave.  Ismark offered that perhaps Strahd had murdered Kolyan and stolen an artifact of worth, the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind and could possibly also be the source of the zombie troubles.  Then, almost as an afterthought Ismark mentioned that Strahd is a vampire.  On the subject of Ireena Kolyana, Ismark says that she is his sister and that she has likely holed up in the burgomasterial mansion.One name came up in conversations with Ashlyn and Ismark, that of Madame Eva who lives at the Seer Pool west of town.  Perhaps Bildreth, father of Periwumple, knows something that could be of assistance.  Except that Bildreth wishes for nothing more than to barricade himself in his shop and see and assist no one.  Well stocked, but fearful that the zombie presence meant he would be unable to restock if his supplies were purchased, Bildreth refused to negotiate.  Tourg tried to reason with him that the way to end the zombie menace would be to offer supplies for sale to those who oppose the zombies, but Bildreth was impervious to logic.  Eventually wheedling and cajoling got him to say that he’d consider selling his goods, but only after an initial payment of 50 gold.  Tourg was outraged at such extortion and Thundina had trouble seeing any use for the man, but Tourg was willing to consider the offer and ask the rest of the party their opinions.  Krel said that he was desperate for supplies and suggested using the traveling expenses for the bribe.  As this proved acceptable to all, Bildreth’s emporium was now open for business.As Krel dug through the shelves looking for all his various unguents, Thundina glanced around and decided to see what strange and wonderful items might still be in a place that so tightly refused to release anything.  She chanced upon a map of the region.“I wish to make a purchase,” Thundina exclaimed.  In response, Bildreth quoted the price to be 150 gold.“Outrageous!  This map is worth no more than 70 gold.”  Thundina countered.Bildreth attempted to defend his map by saying, “It is my only copy and would be far too dangerous for me to attempt to go out and make another.”“You’ve seen the countryside once, you do not need to visit it again to make a second map.  You will sell this map for 70 gold.”  Thundina insisted, waving a finger under Bildreth’s nose.“Impossible, I could not do such a thing.  The map is 150 gold,” Bildreth obstinately repeated.Thundina went to another shelf, grabbed another parchment and ink and laid them on the counter and said, “Fine, then make a copy.  You can even keep the original.”At this Bildreth wavered uncertain how to defend against the sudden storm.  “Well, maybe I could let you have it for 100 gold then, but that’d be cutting me own throat.”“Deal,” Thundina agreed.  With a prize in hand, Thundina then watched as BarBar attempted to haggle over a warhammer for Orning, and Krel slowly went through an extensive list of materials that he required.  Orning pushed forward a warhammer and five gold.  BarBar tried to translate Orning’s intentions to Bildreth who ultimately declared that he was keeping the five gold.  At this, BarBar handed the warhammer to Orning and hilarity ensued.Outside, Tourg and Ashlyn were discussing the defenses of the barricades.  At least, Ashlyn discussed the defenses and Tourg nodded along.  He guided her on to the subject of how to approach the various problems besetting the town and they reached the conclusion that a visit to Madame Eva would be a good start for further information.  Ashlyn did not possess the knowledge of the seer’s location and Tourg bemoaned a lack of good directions from anyone local.  Perhaps resting the night, healing the wounds, and then approaching the problem again in the morning would give new light onto the quandaries.  Sick of watching Bildreth bilk her companions, but unwilling to pull a blade and challenge him, Thundina burst out of the shop to join Tourg and Ashlyn outside.  Ready for bed, Tourg asked, “Thundina, could you please gather everyone still in the shop so that we can finalize our plans for tomorrow?”  “Sure, but hold this.”  Thundina pushed the map into Tourg’s hands as she turned and dashed back inside to herd her companions out.  As Thundina left, Tourg could only stutter and stammer as to what she had given him, it was the answer to his prayer.  Clearly marked on the map was the route to the Tser Pools as well as Lysaga Hill and Castle Ravenloft.Once Thundina had brought everyone outside, Tourg asked, “What is this?  Where did you find it?”“Oh, that’s a map.  It was on one of the shelves in the shop, I thought it looked interesting.”  Thundina shrugged.Right as the party was about to return to the inn for the night, someone came strolling out.  “Hello, my name is Halas Martane, and I’m an adventurer.  Say, aren’t you the ones who defeated all those zombies?  Where are you all going, perhaps I could join you.  I am an adventurer you know.  I bet I could be of great help if you’d just tell me where you’re going, maybe I could join you.”Thundina was temporarily taken aback, but quickly countered, “We already have one, why do we need you?  But since you’ve come out into the night, maybe you can help us with setting watches against any further zombie attacks tonight.”Halas went pale at the suggestion, “No, I can’t fight zombies.  I’ve got a rapier, see, and those aren’t any good against zombies.  Nope, can’t even scream properly if I see one, because I just cannot fight zombies.”Thundina shook her head and proceeded into the inn, noticing that someone had vandalized the sign at one point, changing it from “Blood of the Vine” to “Blood on the Vine.”  A meal was ordered at the bar, but Halas immediately claimed a seat in the middle to force someone to talk to him.  In the end, the joke was on him as Orning was seated next to him with Tourg placed on the other side giving him a cold shoulder.  Due to the crush of humanity, no further rooms were available, but a space could be made by the door (so the party could leap to the defense if the zombies returned.)  Such accommodations were not for Thundina though, Ashlyn offered to share rooms.  The two stayed up later than they should have discussing girlie things such as is the best way to a man’s heart really through his stomach when it’s clearly more efficient to go through the ribcage?  Orning stood watch out in the dark all night and raised the alarm the few times zombies showed up, but the barricades held and the zombies were quickly dispersed.At the crack of dawn, hopes of sneaking away without letting Halas know the party’s destination were dashed as Halas was already awake and by the exit.  Ashlyn mentioned that she should stay and defend the peasants.  With three possible destinations, mansion, pools, or church, the party layed out the possibilities to Orning.  He seemed to recognize what a church was, and that also seemed to be the destination least likely to have Halas trail along and so the church was decided to be the first destination.  With Halas backing out, Ashlyn decided perhaps the church wasn’t so far after all and she would accompany the party.</blockquote>

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