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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ealli" data-source="post: 3346942" data-attributes="member: 804">Chapter 5: Dark DreamsWith the new dawn, the threatening mists finally began to turn into rain.  A light drizzle at first with the promise to become a heavier rain later in the day.  The first thing Thundina noticed when coming down the stairs from her beauty sleep was Romann and Orning huddled over a note on a table.  “Hey, what’s that?”Romann replied, “It’s a note from our Leader, Halas Martain.”Reading the note, Thundina could almost hear Halas reciting the text.  She moved through elation that he finally recognized that his lack of performance was a problem, to bemusement that he thought he could recover the two artifacts by himself, to annoyance at the constant repetition of Halas’s name, and finally to disgust that Halas thought he was the leader able to delegate leadership and frustration at him leaving instructions for Karl to make ready a chain shirt.When everyone had gathered for breakfast and had a chance to read the note, Romann stepped forward, “As your new party leader, we need to go to the church to begin looking for the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind.”Thundina immediately objected, “Hold it.  Who made you the leader?”“Halas did in the note.”Thundina snatched the note and held it behind her back and smiled sweetly, “What note?  However, yes, the plan had always been to start at the church, if only to pick up the shovels there.”By this time Ireena had arrived from her mansion and with the party complete, it was time to set out for the church.  Around the back of the church, as was remembered from the funerals of the day before, were several shovels.“Are we going to be searching here first or the graveyard at the crossroads?”  Romann asked.“The crossroads.” Thundina stated.“Why do you think it’s going to be there?”“Call it a woman’s intuition.  Let’s grab those shovels and set out.”“We can’t just grab the shovels.  That’d be stealing.”Krel interjected, “It wouldn’t be stealing if we leave gold.”Thundina insisted, “It’s okay, it’s redistribution.”Cyron meanwhile had his own rationalization, “We’ll bring them back when we’re done.”One of those must have been acceptable to Romann because he looked at a shovel and told Cyron to pick it up and bring it.  Once at the crossroads, everyone looked at the graves with a little concern.  Finally Romann grabbed one of the shovels and began excavating one of the graves.  Cyron said a quick prayer so as to not offend any gods.  Once the coffin was unearthed, he looked inside only to discover that it was empty.  Romann ordered Cyron to fill the grave back in and moved on to digging the next grave while Cyron desperately divided his attention between blessing the excavations and filling in the holes.Meanwhile, Orning was pointing at the gallows at the crossroads and insisting, “Stinks of evil.”  Curious as to what upset Orning so much, Thundina inspected the gallows, but could find nothing unusual.  Eventually, both Thundina and Orning returned to watching Romann and Cyron work with Orning even chipping in a little.  Some coffins were empty, a couple held long rotted corpses, and some graves were simply empty.  One coffin inexplicably held the remains of a small cat.  Defeated at the crossroads, Thundina turned to Ireena and asked, “Are there any other graveyards in the area?  Any where else where there are the dead?”“There are no other graveyards, although the vitches of Lysaga Hill may know something about dead.  They are vile creatures who curse our crops.”  Ireena replied.Romann wanted to know, “Can we go meet the vitches at this time?”Thundina scolded Romann, “Don’t you know anything about vitches?  Vitches are always dancing naked under the full moon.”Ireena coughed, “I don’t know about naked, but the vitches do gather under the full moon of Nymm.  We have often tried to catch them, but they have always evaded the townsfolk.”“See, full moon.  So, when is the full moon?”“The full moon is tomorrow night.”“Can we go there now and scout the terrain?”“They would know we had been there and would not come.”“Alright then, I guess we’re going back to the church to continue our search there.”At the church once more, Romann began digging near the church with Cyron hopping back and forth blessing and filling in holes.  A survey of the grounds found a place where some graves had been dug included one instance where a shovel was left stuck in the ground next to a hole.  Thundina, still reluctant to be the one desecrating graves in town, explored the inside of the church once more looking for another hidden passage, or maybe to find Halas hiding inside.Satisfied that the church was still empty and without further hiding places, Thundina emerged back into the rain.  After watching Romann dig up another grave in the oldest section of the cemetery, Thundina announced, “I’m going back to the inn to take care of some business there.  If anything moves, just give a scream”Krel huddling miserably in the soaking rain said, “Um, yes, I think I’ll be returning as well.”  Before she knew it, Thundina was also being trailed by Orning and Ireena as well.At the inn, Thundina approached the barkeep and asked, “Has Halas Martain been back since dawn, telling any tales?”“No, he hasn’t.”“If he returns, I want a messenger sent to the church to inform us that he’s back.  Can we arrange that?”“I can send one of the serving girls.  But I think a little compensation in return for her time would be in order.”With a sigh, Thundina counted out a few coins to the barkeep, “Alright.  I expect to hear the moment he walks in the door though.”Turning to Krel, Thundina posed the question, “Well, do we want to go watch Romann and Cyron dig more?”“Perhaps we should pay Bildreth a visit.  Maybe he has some platinum that we could use for crafting a new hilt on the Sunsword.”“Good idea.  Prices should be normalized now that the zombies are gone.”Walking across the square, Thundina paused a moment.  Something was tugging at her mind, though she couldn’t place what it was.  A thought, fleeting, she simply couldn’t remember something important.Thundina knocked on the door to Bildreth’s shop and not getting an immediate response opened the door.  “Ahh, Bildreth, you scoundrel, it’s always a special day when we see you again.  We are looking for metals, steel, silver, gold, platinum, copper, and the like.  Do you such resources?”“Are you intending to steal my supplies?” Bildreth replied with narrowed eyes.“We are intending to buy, if you have them to sell.”“I have a little.  Raw iron, copper, platinum, even silver.  No gold though.”“Let’s see the platinum.”“This crate here.  How much are you looking for?”“Krel, how much are we looking for?”“Umm, I’d say about one pound should do for what we need,” Krel answered.“There you go Bildreth, we need one pound.”“Platinum is 750 gold per pound.” Bildreth smirked.“Seven hundred fifty, that’s ridiculous.  The zombie infestation is gone, you have no further cause to inflate your prices,” Thundina insisted.“It’s very difficult to get supplies out here.”“You got that supply simply enough I’m certain.  Where did you get that from?”“Oh, it came from the vestani.  But it’s very difficult to get supplies out here.”“It’s very difficult to get customers out here.  How long do you think that’s going to be gathering dust on your shelf?”Bildreth simply stated, “750.”Thundina countered, “500.”Absolutely flat, “750.”“We’ll walk.  You have no cause.”“750.”Thundina and Krel walked out and stood outside for a moment considering where to go next.  Thundina suggested, “Let’s try the vestani.  It’s upsetting that they didn’t mention such trade goods when we saw them yesterday, but now we know exactly what we’re asking for, maybe we can get it.”The visit to the vestani at the Tser Pools was brief.  The vestani denied trafficking in platinum, although they did have deer available if that was more what Krel wanted to make the hilt.  Krel however insisted that only platinum could be used for the hilt.Back at town, Krel had made up his mind, “I’m going back to Bildreth’s.  We need the platinum and he’s the only one who has it.”Thundina shook her head, “If you must.  I’m not going back to him if I can help it.  You’re going to need someplace to work on this, I’ll go track down the smithy and get things arranged.”As Krel entered the shop Bildreth smiled broadly and said, “I knew you’d be back.  750.”“Well Krel, do you have the platinum?”  Thundina asked as Krel arrived at the smithy.  “I’m ready to work on this.”Krel took down the smithy tools and asked, “Thundina, I thought you specialized only in armor?”“Weapons, armor, should be all the same.  You know, here, use my hammer.  That hammer isn’t as well balanced as mine.”Despite Thundina’s assistance, Krel managed to pound out a new hilt and fit it to the blade by early afternoon.  “Thank you for your help, Thundina, but now I need to meditate on this.  I will see you late tonight.”For the rest of the afternoon, Thundina relaxed in the inn, warm by the fire, while Romann and Krel were out digging.  Orning and Ireena wandered the town talking to people.  Orning would earnestly point up towards the castle and look excited while Ireena would translate his eagerness into questions which the villagers then answer because Orning was just so darn cute.As dusk fell turned into darkness, Romann and Cyron came back dejectedly, covered in mud.“Welcome back, boys.  Make much progress in your grave robbing?” Thundina asked.Romann proudly declared, “Though we did not find the Symbol, we must have dug up half the graves there.”“That’s very impressive.  Very well done.”Cyron leaned over to Thundina and whispered, “It wasn’t half.  It was maybe ten percent.  Five percent was more likely.  It was terrible, and he’s going to make me fill in all the graves again tomorrow.”Orning and Ireena wandered back just before Krel came down from his room.  “Come up to my room for a moment, I have something to show you all.”  In Krel’s room the Sunsword was repaired as much as Krel could without having access to the top of the castle where hellish servants work.  The sword glowed a faint blue and Krel said, “I want to keep the sword a little longer so I can Identify it.  We need to consider who we want to wield this.”With night fully fallen, Romann and Krel retired to their room, Thundina retired to her room, Ireena retired to the Koylanavich manor, and Orning stood watch over Krel and the Sunsword.  In the middle of the night, Romann woke up, thinking he heard something out back of the inn.  He knocked on the doors of the others waking them.  “I heard animals making a commotion outside, we need to go investigate.”Cyron immediately agreed, “As you say, we should investigate.”Krel looked blearily Romann, “Have you ever been around animals?  They make a commotion all the time.”Skeptical, Thundina replied, “I don’t hear anything, Romann.  Will you feel better if we humor you?”It was thus that Thundina found herself outside in the middle of the night.  Approaching the stables, it was quickly obvious that the horses were frightened of something.  Looking in Thundina could see that the horses had kicked down their stalls and we’re getting ready to bolt.  Romann peaked in and declared, “Cyron, I can’t see a thing.  Light a sunrod already!”  The spark of light was the final straw for the poor horses and they ran out into the night.The innkeep rushed out from the inn and ran up to the trio standing by the stables.  “What happened here?”Thundina was the first to recover from nearly being trampled, “I don’t know.  Just as soon as we got here, the horses all bolted.  It looks like they kicked down their stalls.”“Go back inside.  I’ll round up the horses, I’m not going to ask paying customers to go around in the dark on a rainy night.”Fifteen minutes later, as Thundina was settling back to sleep, she heard the innkeep scream, “Help!  Come back!”  Dashing outside once again, Thundina saw the innkeep clutching his chest, blood oozing.  “No, no need to worry.  The horse just clawed me, I’ll be okay.”  With Romann and Cyron right behind Thundina, he was going to get assistance.  Cyron offered the innkeep some healing, closing most of the wound.Thundina looked suspiciously into the stable and muttered, “I wish I had my armor; I feel naked without it.”Romann came up behind Thundina and whispered, “Naked you say?”“Don’t even think it.” Thundina said without turning around.Returning to her room once more, Thundina strapped on her armor, waiting, expecting, further disturbances.  An hour passed, and yawning, Thundina decided perhaps nothing was going to be happening after all and went back to sleep.The next morning, against all expectations, everyone was alive and well.  Planning at breakfast focused on if there was anything to do before visiting the vitches that night around midnight.  Krel announced that he had learned more about the nature of the Sunsword and that someone with the heart of a child would find it to be lighter than it looked.  The sword was immediately passed to Orning who easily lifted it.  Once it was determined that nothing was likely to happen, Romann and Cyron returned to the church to continue their excavations. Thundina pulled aside Orning, “Let’s do a little sparring so you can get used to that new weapon of yours.”After sitting around inside for half an hour, Krel came out to ask, “Thundina, could I see that map of Barovia?”“Sure, but you’re not bringing it out here in the rain.  Let me get it.”Pointing at the map, Krel traced the paths out of the village, “If we think that Halas has the Symbol and was going to the castle to find the Tome, perhaps the vestani saw him.”“That would be more productive than sitting around here all day.  Sounds good, let’s go.”Setting out on the road with Orning, Krel, and Ireena, Thundina’s conscience niggled at her a little for not grabbing Romann and Cyron.  She had some foresight that perhaps it would be wise to have everyone along.  Quashing those feelings, Thundina set off towards the vestani camp.At the crossroads, one of the vestani came out of the woods.  Thundina always knew there were vestani in the woods, but having one come out to meet the travelers was unusual.  This particular vestani looked nervous though.  As he approached, he stuttered, “I bring greetings from Strahd.  He wants you to come to the castle.”Thundina had to ask, “And if we refuse?”“I suspect Strahd vill be displeased.”“Will anything happen to you?”“If I didn’t deliver the message, he said he’d kill me.  He didn’t say anything about if you refuse.”“One final question, did you see anyone on the road yesterday?”“Or the previous night?”  Krel added.With a shake of his head, the vestani melted back into the woods.“I guess we’re going back to town quickly to fetch our final two members before we visit the vestani.” Thundina said.With everyone assembled, the party once more approached the dancing fire of the vestani encampment.  One of the vestani came forward to inquire of the party, “Why have you come to our encampment again?”Krel was the first to speak, “We’d like to consult with Madam Eva again.”The vestani speaker replied, “She is now here.  She has gone to the woods to meditate.”“When will she back?”“Not until about midnight.”Thundina, knowing a dismissal when she heard one, asked the final question, “Have you seen anyone coming towards the castle yesterday or the night before?  Specifically, Halas, if you remember him.”“No, we haven’t seen anyone matching that description.”“Alright.  I know your people haunt these woods, so I’m giving you fair warning, we’re intending to follow the river upstream to the Tser Falls.”Leading the party up the river, Thundina spotted a flickering light in a clearing a little away from the river.  The party moved to investigate and found Madam Eva in her meditative trance.  A hushed discussion on whether or not to disturb Madam Eva before it was decided to leave her alone and continue up the river.Reaching the Tser Falls, the party found the road up to the castle once again and set off along it.  Finally the castle loomed in the rain.  An old, partially crumbled castle which hadn’t been well kept up.  Before entering the castle, the party would have to cross a drawbridge with a gatehouse on each side.  Romann muscled his way to the front of the party and attempted to cross the drawbridge.  As soon as he had entered the first gatehouse, a green slime dropped on him.  “Aaaah!  Cyron!”Cyron rushed forward, drew a dagger, and started scraping the slime off of his friend.  No sooner had the slime been scraped off of Romann then the dagger being used had been completely destroyed by the slime.  Cyron looked over Romann, “You lost a lot of blood, even from that very brief contact.  Be careful, this is beyond what I can heal.”With the drawbridge and second gatehouse still looming, Romann moved to the back and refused to come forward unless someone else had already crossed.  Thundina walked up to the second gatehouse, looked up into the shadows, muttered, “Fortune favors the bold,” and dashed through into the courtyard.  When nothing dropped onto Thundina, everyone else came into the courtyard as well.Had it been night, surely a rich warm light would have been spilling out of the castle into the courtyard.  However, it was day and no light sources, warm or otherwise, were to be seen.  Bypassing the recessed portcullises set to either side, the party advanced to the main doors.  Krel opened it only to be met with a wall of darkness.From the back, Romann called out, “Cyron, light a sunrod.  I want to see in.”“Uh, sir, there are no more sunrods.”“What?  Alright, I guess we can use my Everburning Torch.”“Sir, why haven’t we been using this before now?”“Cyron, just take the torch and go light the way.”The flickering green light of the Everburning Torch did not illuminate very far into the castle.  Cyron, recognizing that something was wrong with that, decided that when the interior needed was some Daylight.  That created enough light to see into the next room as well.  A couple of statues in stood near the back of the entry parlor, perhaps to lull visitors into a false sense of security for in the next room the statues were actually gargoyles.  They held their position even once Thundina was in their midst.  From off to the left, from up the grand staircase came a cackling laugh.“Velcome to Castle Ravenloft.”  Sweeping down the stairs with a long flowing cloak was a tall, handsome man.  Thundina realized immediately that this must be the dark figure which had haunted all the tales of the town, Strahd.  Strahd continued, “Please, come dine with me.  I will tell you why I summoned you.”In the adjacent room, food was laid out on a banquet table.  Strahd took a seat and invited everyone else to sit and eat.  Thundina sat next to Strahd and began shoveling the fine foods onto her plate.  Romann took a seat as far from Strahd as possible and mostly refused to eat.  Cyron glared at the food suspiciously and then said, “Does anyone mind if I say grace?”  He then walked around the table blessing every morsel.  While everyone was eating, or not, Strahd simply sipped a glass of red wine.  Eventually Strahd said, “I have a proposition.  There is a coven of vitches who are harassing my townsfolk.  I want you to eliminate them.”Romann first had to register a complaint, “When we arrived at the castle, some green slime dropped from your gatehouse.  What are you going to do about it?”Thundina meanwhile had a more pressing question, “If we do this, what kind of compensation can we expect?”Strahd replied, “You can have something from my treasury.  Do we have an accord?”Before a deal could be struck, Krel inquired, “Why is it that someone of your nature cannot deal with this yourself?”“I am an aristocrat.  This is something that is better suited for adventurers, like yourselves.”Romann tried again, “At your gatehouse, some green slime dropped on me.  Are you going to do anything about it?“I just don’t see why we …” Krel began.  Strahd caught his gaze momentarily and Krel sat back, relaxed and continued, “We should go fight the witches.”Cyron looked momentarily from Strahd to Krel and back to Strahd again, bursting out, “You invited us as guests and then you attack us!”  A glance from Strahd held Cyron’s gaze.  They stared at each other for a moment before Cyron said, “We should go fight the witches.”Sensing things slipping out of control and desiring access to that treasure room, Thundina made the statement for the remainder of the party, “Yes, we will go to Lysaga Hill tonight.”“Excellent.”  Strahd stood and began to walk towards the back of the room.Romann tried once more, “The green slime at your gatehouse fell on me.  You should do something about that.”“Shut up.”  Thundina snapped at Romann, then turned back to Strahd, “before you go, we were wondering if we might wander the castle a bit between now and when we go to Lysaga Hill?”“If that’ll please you.  However, not all the inhabitants are accommodating to vandering guests.  You do so at your own risk, and you still have that appointment on Lysaga Hill tonight.”  Strahd reached the back of the room and tapped on the wall.  A portion of the wall slid back and Strahd walked through.  As soon as he was through, the wall slid back into place.  Always excited to imitate, Orning went to the same section of wall and tapped, but there was no sliding action for him.“Well, I guess dinner is done.  Let’s see if we can find the top of the castle.”  Thundina perked up.“We should leave.” Krel declared.“I agree.  We should leave.”  Cyron immediately added.Krel and Cyron began to leave without waiting for any further discussion.Ireena added, “I do not like the feel of this place, I too wish to leave now.”“Cyron, wait.  I demand you come back here with my torch.”  Romann hurried to keep up with Cyron.“Well Orning, I guess it’s left to just you and me to explore.”  Thundina began.With the edge of the green torchlight about to leave him behind, Orning said, “Stinks of evil,” and he too exited.Standing alone in the dark, Thundina felt like screaming.  “Where is everyone’s sense of adventure!  Why, I am so confident, I feel like I could remove my armor and wander around this strange castle like that!”  With a final glance at the enticing spiral stairs, Thundina stomped her foot and stalked back to the entrance where the rest of the party had already gathered.“Since we have a couple extra hours before the vitches will be gathering, I’d like to pay a visit to this other gate at the northwest edge of the map of Barovia.”  Thundina led the party.  At the gate, closed and looking basically like the one they had first encountered while entering Barovia, Thundina touched the gate and began walking.  “I think I’m just going to take a little walk around this.”  As Thundina walked, she lost sight of her friends through the mists and rains and inexplicably began to feel nervous.  The pressing mists finally was just too much and Thundina practically ran back the way she came.  “Okay, I’m satisfied, let’s go on to Lysaga Hill.”Approaching Lysaga Hill from the north, Thundina spotted a bright green glow a top the hill.  An old, ruined monastery with just pieces of its outer walls still standing, rubble strewn about, and other walls fallen into rocks formations was now occupied by a coven of witches.  In green flame, they had drawn a seven pointed star with a witch standing at each point.  A green bonfire in the middle of star burned brightly.  On the far side of the ruins stood a twenty-foot tall giant with many tigrish features also bathed in green flame.Once the bright firelight was spotted, the party doused their own light sources and began to sneak up to the ruins.  Thundina turned to the others, the light of the fire seeming to catch in her eyes, causing them to appear to glow.  “This doesn’t feel right.  Do we really trust Strahd, do we really want to be doing his bidding?”“We want to kill the vitches,” Krel and Cyron said in unison and began advancing the final distance to the star.  Slowly everyone advanced to within striking distance and commenced the attack.  The witches at the nearest two points fell in the opening barrage.  At the third near point, a witch taller than any of the others lashed at Romann with a clawed green hand which glowed black right as it struck him.  “I feel weak.” Romann moaned.With the first two witches down, Ireena moved to assist Romann against the tall witch.  The witch spotted Ireena and shrieked, “You are the one Strahd has chosen!  Then die!”  Before she could carry out her threat, the tide of battle turned against her as Orning too joined his sword against her.  With a final screech, she disappeared.While the other minor witches were being dispatched, Cyron ran into the center of the star to set up a Magic Circle against Evil.  The flaming green tiger-man spotted Cyron.  Its eyes glowed red as it gestured towards Cyron.  A black flame sprung up around Cyron before jumping to singe Orning as well.  Bursting through the lines, Thundina stood ready to battle, balancing on the balls of her feet.  “Come on you beast, let’s see you do that to someone who is ready for you?”The tiger-man gestured towards Thundina and the black flame leapt out to her.  It slammed into her and she bit back a scream.  “You’re going to pay for that,” and Thundina weaved forward deftly evading the claws of the beast.  Supported by Ireena with the others too moving forward after downing all the witches, Thundina began the assault on the flaming tiger-man.  Thundina’s assault was short lived was rather short lived as a swipe from the tiger’s claws and the ensuing blast of dark flame brought Thundina to her knees.Seeing the severely wounded Thundina, Cyron dashed to Thundina’s side only to catch a claw when the creature’s reach was greater than he had expected.  Thundina glanced up towards the towering inferno of the tiger-man and decided this was the time to make her retreat.  Weaving past the creature’s claws, Thundina made it to the edge of the ruins where she crouched behind a broken wall and drank one her healing potions.The tiger-man took another swipe at Cyron and in his heavily battered state, Cyron was unable to get his shield up and the claw plus dark energy shattered what remained of his health.  Eyes full of bloodlust, the creature immediately pounced on Ireena as well, cleaving her.Orning’s entrance to the battle was ferocious.  He charged, his sword glowing bright with holy energy and the charging Smite bit deep into the creature.  A follow-up stroke sent more righteous fury penetrating the creature.  Romann, inching around the creature, looking for the perfect opening, found it and struck.  His blade sliding up between the creature’s ribs and into its vitals.  The monster wavered an instant, and became nothing but a puff of acrid green smoke.Romann dashed over to the lifeless form of his brave companion and screamed, “Cyron, no!  You can’t be dead.  Drink, drink this and live!  Cyron!”Cyron woke up coughing, “I saw a light, but I couldn’t leave you.  I don’t feel very heroic after that though.”Thundina surveyed the carnage.  The witches’ power was broken surely, for good or for ill, but there was still that one witch who got away and she had surely been the most powerful.  Thundina shuddered a moment as she looked at Ireena.  The girl had been something special, both to the villagers and to Strahd.  Breaking the news of her death would not be pleasant.  For now though, Thundina had the wounded of her party to tend to.  Reporting on the events at Lysaga Hill could wait until morning.</blockquote>

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