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<blockquote data-quote="Ealli" data-source="post: 3465531" data-attributes="member: 804"><p><strong>Chapter 13: Let’s Make a Date</strong></p><p></p><p>Back in town, Thundina took pieces of the treasure pulled from the scarlet vampire to Bildreth. Sir Urik and Cyron came along as well. As soon as Urik entered, Bildreth perked up, “Ah, Urik, my old friend. What are you doing with these outsiders?”</p><p></p><p>Sir Urik gruffly replied, “They’re good people. I’ve been working with them some, they genuinely oppose Strahd.”</p><p>“Ah, well, then, perhaps I can extend them a modest discount.” Bildreth smiled slyly.</p><p></p><p>Thundina and Bildreth bartered over exchanging some of the trinkets and jewelry from the scarlet vampire for diamond dust. Thundina consulted with Cyron to measure out enough doses to fix all the negative energy the party had suffered. While waiting for Bildreth to measure out all the little diamond dust doses, Thundina wandered the shop, running her hands over some of the various weapons. She stopped in front of a guisarme with an unusual blade.</p><p></p><p>Urik came to stand beside Thundina, “See something you like?”</p><p>“I think I like that guisarme.” Thundina replied.</p><p>“Silver, good for fighting vampires if you can also infuse some magic into it.”</p><p></p><p>After Restorations to fix the drained energy from the vampires, the party decided to take the rest of the day off. While Jessuf and Cyron were studying their holy texts, Romann once more bragged to any townsfolk who would listen about his latest exploits. For once quite a few townsfolk seemed genuinely interested in the destruction of the Dayheart, although a few muttered that the outsiders were likely to bring Strahd’s wrath down upon the village.</p><p></p><p>After the crowd dissipated some, Romann walked over to Thundina, “Did you see all that? They all loved me.”</p><p>“Most, yes,” Thundina nodded. “There were a few who were less than pleased. I was watching them.”</p><p>“Going to knife them?” Romann winked at Thundina. “If you know what I mean.”</p><p>“Yes. Not right away, but it might come to that.”</p><p>Romann looked a little shocked, “You’re joking, right?”</p><p>Thundina smiled, and laughed. “Of course.”</p><p> </p><p>Sir Urik found Romann and Thundina lounging in the inn. “I’m sorry I won’t be able to assist you tomorrow. I’ve heard from Madam Eva and she has asked me to come attend to her. You deserved to know.”</p><p></p><p>The next morning, the party, sans Urik, set out to Castle Ravenloft. Thundina and Romann discussed the direction to try in the next approach. Thundina sketched out what they knew and recommended trying to find the secret door in the dining room.</p><p></p><p>“Dining room?” Romann asked, “when were we ever in a dining room?”</p><p>“Our first visit to the castle, when we were still on friendly terms with Strahd.” Thundina replied.</p><p>“I was kind of distracted I guess. Say, didn’t we search that exit at that time?”</p><p>Thundina thought a moment, “Orning poked around, but we didn’t really search.”</p><p></p><p>Thundina quickly located a secret door, poorly concealed. She flicked the switch and pushed open the door. The hidden chamber was stark and bare, illuminated by thin slashes of sunlight poking through the arrow slits all along the outer walls. A narrow corridor led out of the room first to a high domed room with more arrow slits, and then to a stairwell running up and down.</p><p></p><p>Thundina led the way up the stairs and pried open the door on the first landing. Cobwebs and dust filled the hallway, tickling Thundina’s nose. She turned to her companions, “Anyone feel like plowing through all that?”</p><p></p><p>After a rousing lack of responses, Thundina decided that since she was going to be in the lead and she didn’t feel like getting covered in cobwebs, the door would simply be closed again and the party would continue up to the next level.</p><p></p><p>The stairs opened up to a wide walkway aside the keep, still damp from the previous day’s rain. The walkway atop the wall extended only 10 feet in one direction, but in the other ran towards the tall tower, but gave no entrance. Three sets of double doors led back into the castle from the open-air walkway. Thundina stopped at the first one and began working at the lock. Cyron cocked his head as if listening to something.</p><p></p><p>“Does anyone else hear that song?” Cyron asked.</p><p>“Hmm?” Thundina replied as the lock yielded to her nimble fingers. She swung the door open to reveal the room. The opening of the door caused a puff of dust to suspend in the air making the room look hazy. A large table filled the middle of the room, covered by an old rotting table cloth and dusty place settings. Also on the table was a moldy cake topped by a small figure of a woman in a dirty white dress.</p><p></p><p>More important than the unoccupied table with its forgotten wedding cake was another figure in the far corner of the room. The ghostly figure wore ghostly court minstrel attire and held a ghostly lute. The creature struck up a horrendous screeching on its lute, dazing Thundina, Romann, and Talor. Jessuf dashed into the room brandishing his halberd, ready to attack if the creature moved forward. Meanwhile, Cyron, having recognized the incorporeal spirit as a crypt chanter, knew that he needed to silence the song quickly. He glanced towards the open door, sizing up the likelihood that closing it behind Jessuf would cut off the song. Instead, Cyron stepped into the doorway, called for Jessuf to get out of the room. Cyron raised his holy symbol before him and concentrated through it, sending holy energy flooding into room. The crypt chanter fled from the holy energy, straight through the wall and out of sight.</p><p></p><p>Cyron sighed a breath of relief as the others snapped out of their reverie. “That could have been bad. The song of the crypt champion is very dangerous.”</p><p>Romann shrugged, “I kind of liked it.”</p><p>“Well, there’s no accounting for taste,” Thundina said.</p><p>“There’s another song I’m hearing. Does anyone else hear it?” Cyron mentioned next. When everyone shook their heads, he continued, “A local folk tune, sounds like it’s being sung by someone not undead.”</p><p>“So where is it?” Thundina asked.</p><p></p><p>Cyron indicated that it was coming from the next room over. That suited Thundina fine as she was eager to investigate the next room anyway. The next door had a sturdier lock than the previous, but it opened just as quickly to Thundina’s gentle ministrations. As the door opened, the singing Cyron had mentioned swelled for all to hear – a sweet song of a young lady singing about love in the spring. Several wardrobes stood around the room, overflowing with fancy dresses. On the far side of the room two heavy red curtains covered the entrance to the back half of the room. Thundina padded over to the curtains. Romann and Cyron moved to follow and were quieter than Thundina would have expected out of a fighter and a cleric, but still she waved them to be still and quiet. She then peeked through the curtain and spotted the young lady who was singing. The lady had blonde hair, to Thundina’s surprise, and was completely nude sitting in a large, ornate, iron bathtub.</p><p></p><p>Thundina moved to slip through the curtain, but Cyron grabbed her arm. “What do you see? Should we be entering as well?”</p><p>“Stay here, I’ll scream if I need any assistance,” Thundina slipped through the heavy curtain and next to the tub. “Who are you and what are you doing in this castle?” Thundina said putting her hand on the girl’s shoulder.</p><p>“Eeep!”</p><p>Thundina looked into the now terrified girl’s eyes, “Wait, are you Gertruda?”</p><p>The girl nodded and Thundina kneeled down beside the tub, “Your mother has been distraught. Her child has gone missing, and she doesn’t know you’re up here in the castle.”</p><p>“I hate my mother,” Gertruda declared. “Besides, Strahd is so romantic. I’m happy here.”</p><p>“You do know that he considers Ireena his wife.”</p><p>“What? No, no, he loves me. That’s why he is so romantic. He gave me all those pretty dresses, and he treats me to such wonderful banquets.”</p><p>“He is a vampire, a monster. I’m sorry, but Strahd is evil and has already chosen his love of eternity.”</p><p></p><p>“Hey, Thundina, is there a problem?” Romann called from the other side of the curtain and began to pull on the curtain.</p><p>“No! I didn’t scream, you don’t need to come, so just stay there.” Thundina shouted back.</p><p>Gertruda wrapped her arms around herself and sank down into the tub slightly further, “Who’s out there?”</p><p></p><p>“Come child, you need to return to your mother. She’s been crying her eyes out, missing you.”</p><p>Gertruda splashed the bath, “I am not a child. I will be twenty in less than two months.”</p><p></p><p>Thundina counted quickly on her fingers to count out the months and came to a startling realization, “You’re older than I am. Very well, you’re old enough to make choices on your own. But, as someone who hasn’t seen her mother in three years because she thought she hated her mother, I really think you should go home to your mother. Now, what’s on the other side of that door?”</p><p></p><p>Gertruda considered Thundina’s experience and said, “I guess you’re right.”</p><p>Thundina looked around the room, “Do you have a dress in here?”</p><p></p><p>When Gertruda shook her head, Thundina went back to the red curtains, and asked the duo from Cyre, “Is there a red dress in that near wardrobe? Hand one through please and see if you can pack up a few other dresses.”</p><p></p><p>Once Gertruda had toweled off and dressed, she and Thundina returned through the curtain to meet the others. As soon as Romann saw Gertruda, he began gushing, “Fair lady, your beauty amazes me. Never have I seen something so fair as yourself. Let me introduce myself. I am Romann Ardell, and, not to be too immodest, I am something of a hero. I have fought my way through this castle to rescue you. I have stared down Strahd to come to your aid.” Romann took Gertruda’s hand to give it a kiss.</p><p></p><p>Thundina tapped her foot and rolled her eyes, “Are you done here yet? Let’s get going back down to the village.”</p><p></p><p>Romann transferred Gertruda’s hand such her hand rested on his arm and he escorted her out on to the walkway. As they walked, Gertruda giggled and whispered into Romann’s ear, “I thought Strahd was romantic, the way he’d come through a secret passageway behind the fireplace in my sitting room, but you’re so much more romantic. I hope you accomplish your goal of killing him.”</p><p></p><p>Back in the village, at Gertruda’s house, Romann knocked on the door. Gertruda’s sobbing mother came to the door and spotted her daughter. “Oh, my precious Gertruda, you’ve returned!”</p><p></p><p>Romann, with Gertruda still on his arm, said, “Ma’am, I would like to take Gertruda out tonight for dinner.”</p><p>“My precious baby Gertruda? No, she must be kept safe!”</p><p>Thundina put a hand on the mother’s shoulder, “Gertruda’s older than I am, have you ever considered letting her train with weapons? I’ve been wielding a sword since I was about six. Gertruda isn’t a baby anymore. You might want to repaint her room while you’re at it.”</p><p>[OOC: "Interior design, how do you role-play that?"]</p><p></p><p>Jessuf asked Talor, “Do you think Gertruda is now going to start dying her hair like Thundina?”</p><p>“I don’t dye my hair.” Thundina protested to Jessuf.</p><p></p><p>“Ma’am, you have nothing to fear,” Romann said again. “We will only be having dinner over at the inn, I can protect your daughter. I am, after all, a hero.” Romann gave his best, brightest smile striking up a heroic pose.</p><p></p><p>“Mother, look at all the nice dresses Romann carried for me.” Gertruda begged her mother. Cyron began pulling out the various dresses he had packed up back in the castle. Romann took one and held it in front of Gertruda’s mother, “Yes, I can see why Gertruda looks so pretty in these dresses. It definitely comes from her mother.”</p><p></p><p>Gertruda’s mother blushed a moment before snatching the dress away from Romann, “Fine, but I expect her back by nine.”</p><p></p><p>Romann bowed to Gertruda, “My dear, until tonight then.”</p><p></p><p>As the party departed the village on the road up to the castle once more, Romann turned to Cyron, “Cyron, that is how you get the girl, eh. Sometimes, to win the girl, you need to woo the mother as well. Stick with me and I will teach you all the ways of romance.”</p><p>Cyron sighed, “Of course, sir. That all makes sense now.”</p><p></p><p>The room beyond Gertruda’s bath chamber was immediately obvious as her bedroom in the castle. Heavy red drapes hung over stained glass windows. A large canopy bed with silk and a head board carved with a “Z” stood dominating the room. Thundina resisted the urge to jump on the bed and proceeded to far set of doors. Those opened into a sitting room. The rolling wave of amber light from a blazing fire gave a cheery glow to the sitting room. The blazing fire popped and crackled from its heat as dark plumes of smoke funneled up the chimney. A polished poker stood gleaming by the fireplace while a large gilded painting of Ireena hung over the hearth. Two heavy plush chairs were placed in front of the fire. Ancient tomes sat on polished bookshelves lining the walls.</p><p></p><p>Jessuf walked over to near the fire while Thundina investigated the bookshelves. “Romann, you said something about Strahd coming through the fireplace. We’ll never get through it with this fire going, we’ll need to <em>Make Water</em> to put it out.” A rushing stream of water flowed from Jessuf’s hands quenching the fire. Jessuf began investigating the fireplace looking for the latch to open the secret passage. Thundina, satisfied that none of the books were of interest, had come to stand by the fireplace. Jessuf unable to find any entrance took a step back to announce his findings. Thundina grabbed the poker and gave it a tug which caused a large section of the back of the fireplace to slide away soundlessly.</p><p></p><p>“You only grabbed the poker because it’s shiny.” Jessuf told Thundina.</p><p>“I do not only grab things because they’re shi...,” Thundina began a retort before exclaiming, “Ooh, look, money!”</p><p></p><p>Behind the fireplace, a small chamber was now visible. At the back of the chamber stood a squat wooden chest surrounded by around 150 coins in silver and gold. Two sconces on the wall above the chest perked everyone’s interest as well – one sconce with an unlit torch while the other torch was clutched by a corpse laying beside the chest. Thundina rushed forward to the chest and began looking over it. She found evidence of Ungol dust on the chest and stopped the distribution mechanism of it. However, after opening the chest, Thundina was disappointed to find that the chest was empty. She gathered up the coins, and put the torch into the sconce to trigger another secret door.</p><p></p><p>The corridor beyond the secret door was filled with cobwebs again, but Romann quickly burned it away and the party proceeded further down the corridor. From there the party entered a large chamber with a rope hanging down from above. Thundina looked up along the rope up into the dark hole it descended from, but could not see the end.</p><p></p><p>“So, do we pull or do we climb, or what?” Thundina asked with a hand on the rope.</p><p>Jessuf said, “We could tie another rope to this one and then pull it from back behind those doors.”</p><p>“Sounds good,” Thundina said. “Then, if nothing drops on us, we can try climbing.” She spliced her rope to the one hanging and ushered the party back. </p><p></p><p>The party pulled Thundina’s rope tight and then gave a yank to pull the original rope. A loud, deep, mournful bell tolled several times after the yank on the rope. The melancholy tolling attempted to seep into Thundina’s soul, but neither she, nor any of her friends were affected. Looking back into the chamber, Thundina saw a pair of human-sized spiders with strange tuning fork-like antennae on their heads. The spiders spit strands of webbing at each of Talor and Thundina, entangling both, however the webbing was quickly cut away by Jessuf and Romann. Thundina advanced on one of the spiders.</p><p></p><p>One of the spiders skittered forward and grabbed Thundina while the other skittered and latched onto Talor. The spider grappling with Thundina was an expert at such close quarter fighting. It wrestled her down and began injecting a venom. Thundina attempted a trick she had recently realized which would have broken the spider’s grasp, but it wasn’t fooled. Thundina struggled to push the spider away and only just managed to hold the spider at bay, but she could not break free. Suddenly, the spider’s head went flying by Thundina and she was able to free herself. Romann was standing over the combat, ichor dripping from his sword. He offered Thundina a hand and pulled her to her feet.</p><p></p><p>“Thanks. What about the other spider?” Thundina said.</p><p>“You should have seen it. The spider had Talor in its grasp when Jessuf delivered a near perfect strike dealing massive damage to the spider. I have no clue how it survived,” Romann said. “On the whole, it didn’t I suppose, he finished it off with a second strike.”</p><p></p><p>“Is this a dead end, do you think?” Jessuf asked while cleaning his halberd’s blade.</p><p>“Seems like it, but I’ll take a quick look around,” Thundina said and walked around the edge of the room, lightly running her fingers along the wall. A quarter of the way around, she stopped, “Huh, that’s odd.” Digging at the recess which had caught her attention, Thundina found and threw a switch which opened another secret door.</p><p></p><p>Thundina gasped at what she saw. It was one of the most wonderful sights she had ever seen. Strahd’s plundered riches filled the room – weapons and armor, statues and tapestries and more buried in piles of gold, silver, and platinum. Then her heart nearly skipped a beat when she spotted a central object of her quest, a large book, black as night, sitting a little to a side on a pile of gold.</p><p></p><p>The party set to scooping up all the various pieces of loot ultimately culminating with the black book, the Tome of Strahd. Holding the Tome, Thundina said, “We should take this out into the sunlight and read this. I don’t think we want Strahd being able to drop in.”</p><p></p><p>For the second time that day, the party returned down from the castle to the village below. They took over Halas’s old shack since no one else was using it. Thundina set the book on the ground between herself and Cyron and they looked at each other.</p><p></p><p>“I heard what happened the last time you read a book,” Cyron said, “I’ll understand if you don’t want to read this one.”</p><p>“I’m not scared,” Thundina said. “I want to know how to take Strahd’s defenses away from him.”</p><p>“Let me look through it,” Cyron insisted. “I think that my greater religious knowledge means I might spot something of importance, plus clerics are trained for dealing with dark books.”</p><p>Thundina sighed, “Fine, just give us a full report. I’ll be counting the treasure. Hmm, yeah, this’ll work out just fine.”</p><p></p><p>Thundina had just finished sorting the treasure and counting the coins when Cyron announced that he had finished reading the book. Cyron said, “Basically, there are three fanes we need to visit: the Ivlich Swamp fane, the Svalich Forest fane, and the Lysaga Mountain fane. In addition each fane has a saint and a fane-servant. Madam Eva is called the all-knowing and is one of these servants. The other two are Zelenna the green disciple and Anya the drowned. Strahd became a vampire after Tatyana rejected him in favor of his younger, handsomer brother Sergei so Strahd killed his brother. There doesn’t seem to be anything else too horrific in here.”</p><p></p><p>Cyron finished speaking and then jumped as a vestani had whispered in his ear, “Madam Eva asks everyone to come to the Tser Pool tonight.”</p><p>Cyron responded, “I thought she had left the area.”</p><p>“She has returned. You must come tonight.”</p><p>Romann protested, “But what about my date with Gertruda tonight?”</p><p></p><p>As evening fell, Romann went to Gertruda’s house to pick her up for their date. They walked to the inn, arm in arm, chatting idly. Romann told of the great treasure he was receiving as his share from the castle’s loot and Gertruda was quite impressed. They entered the inn and Romann pulled out a chair for Gertruda to sit. Cyron quietly sat in a corner watching Romann.</p><p></p><p>Thundina huffed at seeing Romann actually go through with the cockeyed idea of taking Gertruda on a date and so stalked upstairs away from the common room. She stopped in front of Jessuf’s door and pounded on it and shouted, “Jessuf!”</p><p></p><p>Thundina could hear the sound of scrambling from the other side of the door. Jessuf flung open the door and asked worriedly, “Is something wrong? Is there an attack or is someone hurt?”</p><p></p><p>Thundina grabbed Jessuf’s hand, smiled sweetly, and said, “I’m starving. Let’s have dinner.”</p><p>Jessuf drew back a moment and stuttered, “Uh, uh, okay. Why do I have a really weird feeling about this?”</p><p></p><p>Thundina smiled broadly and held to Jessuf’s arm as they walked down the stairs to the dining area. They found a table and ordered dinner. Thundina asked Jessuf to talk about his background and history and fished for compliments, but Jessuf was so nervous and shocked that the story was stilted and Thundina didn’t receive nearly as many compliments as she was expecting. It was a relief to her when Romann and Gertruda left and she and Jessuf could end their dinner. She retreated to her room to grab her armor and check over her weapons in preparation for whatever would come up while meeting with Madam Eva.</p><p></p><p>The party traveled out to the Tser Pool and was met there by a single vestani. He led them into the woods to where they had previously encountered Eva in meditation, “Madam Eva wishes for the connection to be broken tonight. Needless to say, should you fail tonight, her life will be in dire peril.”</p><p></p><p>Around the clearing, the vestani were ready for a battle. Dozens held crossbows and they were joined by a hill giant and a pair of ogres. Sir Urik was directing them to cover behind rubble in preparation for a fight. Cyron walked over to the vestani who seemed to be in charge and said, “I am ready to begin the ceremony, where's Madam Eva?”</p><p></p><p>-----------------------</p><p>Chapter 14 and maybe Chapter 15 too has a high likelyhood of being delayed a week or two due to other deadlines.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ealli, post: 3465531, member: 804"] [b]Chapter 13: Let’s Make a Date[/b] Back in town, Thundina took pieces of the treasure pulled from the scarlet vampire to Bildreth. Sir Urik and Cyron came along as well. As soon as Urik entered, Bildreth perked up, “Ah, Urik, my old friend. What are you doing with these outsiders?” Sir Urik gruffly replied, “They’re good people. I’ve been working with them some, they genuinely oppose Strahd.” “Ah, well, then, perhaps I can extend them a modest discount.” Bildreth smiled slyly. Thundina and Bildreth bartered over exchanging some of the trinkets and jewelry from the scarlet vampire for diamond dust. Thundina consulted with Cyron to measure out enough doses to fix all the negative energy the party had suffered. While waiting for Bildreth to measure out all the little diamond dust doses, Thundina wandered the shop, running her hands over some of the various weapons. She stopped in front of a guisarme with an unusual blade. Urik came to stand beside Thundina, “See something you like?” “I think I like that guisarme.” Thundina replied. “Silver, good for fighting vampires if you can also infuse some magic into it.” After Restorations to fix the drained energy from the vampires, the party decided to take the rest of the day off. While Jessuf and Cyron were studying their holy texts, Romann once more bragged to any townsfolk who would listen about his latest exploits. For once quite a few townsfolk seemed genuinely interested in the destruction of the Dayheart, although a few muttered that the outsiders were likely to bring Strahd’s wrath down upon the village. After the crowd dissipated some, Romann walked over to Thundina, “Did you see all that? They all loved me.” “Most, yes,” Thundina nodded. “There were a few who were less than pleased. I was watching them.” “Going to knife them?” Romann winked at Thundina. “If you know what I mean.” “Yes. Not right away, but it might come to that.” Romann looked a little shocked, “You’re joking, right?” Thundina smiled, and laughed. “Of course.” Sir Urik found Romann and Thundina lounging in the inn. “I’m sorry I won’t be able to assist you tomorrow. I’ve heard from Madam Eva and she has asked me to come attend to her. You deserved to know.” The next morning, the party, sans Urik, set out to Castle Ravenloft. Thundina and Romann discussed the direction to try in the next approach. Thundina sketched out what they knew and recommended trying to find the secret door in the dining room. “Dining room?” Romann asked, “when were we ever in a dining room?” “Our first visit to the castle, when we were still on friendly terms with Strahd.” Thundina replied. “I was kind of distracted I guess. Say, didn’t we search that exit at that time?” Thundina thought a moment, “Orning poked around, but we didn’t really search.” Thundina quickly located a secret door, poorly concealed. She flicked the switch and pushed open the door. The hidden chamber was stark and bare, illuminated by thin slashes of sunlight poking through the arrow slits all along the outer walls. A narrow corridor led out of the room first to a high domed room with more arrow slits, and then to a stairwell running up and down. Thundina led the way up the stairs and pried open the door on the first landing. Cobwebs and dust filled the hallway, tickling Thundina’s nose. She turned to her companions, “Anyone feel like plowing through all that?” After a rousing lack of responses, Thundina decided that since she was going to be in the lead and she didn’t feel like getting covered in cobwebs, the door would simply be closed again and the party would continue up to the next level. The stairs opened up to a wide walkway aside the keep, still damp from the previous day’s rain. The walkway atop the wall extended only 10 feet in one direction, but in the other ran towards the tall tower, but gave no entrance. Three sets of double doors led back into the castle from the open-air walkway. Thundina stopped at the first one and began working at the lock. Cyron cocked his head as if listening to something. “Does anyone else hear that song?” Cyron asked. “Hmm?” Thundina replied as the lock yielded to her nimble fingers. She swung the door open to reveal the room. The opening of the door caused a puff of dust to suspend in the air making the room look hazy. A large table filled the middle of the room, covered by an old rotting table cloth and dusty place settings. Also on the table was a moldy cake topped by a small figure of a woman in a dirty white dress. More important than the unoccupied table with its forgotten wedding cake was another figure in the far corner of the room. The ghostly figure wore ghostly court minstrel attire and held a ghostly lute. The creature struck up a horrendous screeching on its lute, dazing Thundina, Romann, and Talor. Jessuf dashed into the room brandishing his halberd, ready to attack if the creature moved forward. Meanwhile, Cyron, having recognized the incorporeal spirit as a crypt chanter, knew that he needed to silence the song quickly. He glanced towards the open door, sizing up the likelihood that closing it behind Jessuf would cut off the song. Instead, Cyron stepped into the doorway, called for Jessuf to get out of the room. Cyron raised his holy symbol before him and concentrated through it, sending holy energy flooding into room. The crypt chanter fled from the holy energy, straight through the wall and out of sight. Cyron sighed a breath of relief as the others snapped out of their reverie. “That could have been bad. The song of the crypt champion is very dangerous.” Romann shrugged, “I kind of liked it.” “Well, there’s no accounting for taste,” Thundina said. “There’s another song I’m hearing. Does anyone else hear it?” Cyron mentioned next. When everyone shook their heads, he continued, “A local folk tune, sounds like it’s being sung by someone not undead.” “So where is it?” Thundina asked. Cyron indicated that it was coming from the next room over. That suited Thundina fine as she was eager to investigate the next room anyway. The next door had a sturdier lock than the previous, but it opened just as quickly to Thundina’s gentle ministrations. As the door opened, the singing Cyron had mentioned swelled for all to hear – a sweet song of a young lady singing about love in the spring. Several wardrobes stood around the room, overflowing with fancy dresses. On the far side of the room two heavy red curtains covered the entrance to the back half of the room. Thundina padded over to the curtains. Romann and Cyron moved to follow and were quieter than Thundina would have expected out of a fighter and a cleric, but still she waved them to be still and quiet. She then peeked through the curtain and spotted the young lady who was singing. The lady had blonde hair, to Thundina’s surprise, and was completely nude sitting in a large, ornate, iron bathtub. Thundina moved to slip through the curtain, but Cyron grabbed her arm. “What do you see? Should we be entering as well?” “Stay here, I’ll scream if I need any assistance,” Thundina slipped through the heavy curtain and next to the tub. “Who are you and what are you doing in this castle?” Thundina said putting her hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Eeep!” Thundina looked into the now terrified girl’s eyes, “Wait, are you Gertruda?” The girl nodded and Thundina kneeled down beside the tub, “Your mother has been distraught. Her child has gone missing, and she doesn’t know you’re up here in the castle.” “I hate my mother,” Gertruda declared. “Besides, Strahd is so romantic. I’m happy here.” “You do know that he considers Ireena his wife.” “What? No, no, he loves me. That’s why he is so romantic. He gave me all those pretty dresses, and he treats me to such wonderful banquets.” “He is a vampire, a monster. I’m sorry, but Strahd is evil and has already chosen his love of eternity.” “Hey, Thundina, is there a problem?” Romann called from the other side of the curtain and began to pull on the curtain. “No! I didn’t scream, you don’t need to come, so just stay there.” Thundina shouted back. Gertruda wrapped her arms around herself and sank down into the tub slightly further, “Who’s out there?” “Come child, you need to return to your mother. She’s been crying her eyes out, missing you.” Gertruda splashed the bath, “I am not a child. I will be twenty in less than two months.” Thundina counted quickly on her fingers to count out the months and came to a startling realization, “You’re older than I am. Very well, you’re old enough to make choices on your own. But, as someone who hasn’t seen her mother in three years because she thought she hated her mother, I really think you should go home to your mother. Now, what’s on the other side of that door?” Gertruda considered Thundina’s experience and said, “I guess you’re right.” Thundina looked around the room, “Do you have a dress in here?” When Gertruda shook her head, Thundina went back to the red curtains, and asked the duo from Cyre, “Is there a red dress in that near wardrobe? Hand one through please and see if you can pack up a few other dresses.” Once Gertruda had toweled off and dressed, she and Thundina returned through the curtain to meet the others. As soon as Romann saw Gertruda, he began gushing, “Fair lady, your beauty amazes me. Never have I seen something so fair as yourself. Let me introduce myself. I am Romann Ardell, and, not to be too immodest, I am something of a hero. I have fought my way through this castle to rescue you. I have stared down Strahd to come to your aid.” Romann took Gertruda’s hand to give it a kiss. Thundina tapped her foot and rolled her eyes, “Are you done here yet? Let’s get going back down to the village.” Romann transferred Gertruda’s hand such her hand rested on his arm and he escorted her out on to the walkway. As they walked, Gertruda giggled and whispered into Romann’s ear, “I thought Strahd was romantic, the way he’d come through a secret passageway behind the fireplace in my sitting room, but you’re so much more romantic. I hope you accomplish your goal of killing him.” Back in the village, at Gertruda’s house, Romann knocked on the door. Gertruda’s sobbing mother came to the door and spotted her daughter. “Oh, my precious Gertruda, you’ve returned!” Romann, with Gertruda still on his arm, said, “Ma’am, I would like to take Gertruda out tonight for dinner.” “My precious baby Gertruda? No, she must be kept safe!” Thundina put a hand on the mother’s shoulder, “Gertruda’s older than I am, have you ever considered letting her train with weapons? I’ve been wielding a sword since I was about six. Gertruda isn’t a baby anymore. You might want to repaint her room while you’re at it.” [OOC: "Interior design, how do you role-play that?"] Jessuf asked Talor, “Do you think Gertruda is now going to start dying her hair like Thundina?” “I don’t dye my hair.” Thundina protested to Jessuf. “Ma’am, you have nothing to fear,” Romann said again. “We will only be having dinner over at the inn, I can protect your daughter. I am, after all, a hero.” Romann gave his best, brightest smile striking up a heroic pose. “Mother, look at all the nice dresses Romann carried for me.” Gertruda begged her mother. Cyron began pulling out the various dresses he had packed up back in the castle. Romann took one and held it in front of Gertruda’s mother, “Yes, I can see why Gertruda looks so pretty in these dresses. It definitely comes from her mother.” Gertruda’s mother blushed a moment before snatching the dress away from Romann, “Fine, but I expect her back by nine.” Romann bowed to Gertruda, “My dear, until tonight then.” As the party departed the village on the road up to the castle once more, Romann turned to Cyron, “Cyron, that is how you get the girl, eh. Sometimes, to win the girl, you need to woo the mother as well. Stick with me and I will teach you all the ways of romance.” Cyron sighed, “Of course, sir. That all makes sense now.” The room beyond Gertruda’s bath chamber was immediately obvious as her bedroom in the castle. Heavy red drapes hung over stained glass windows. A large canopy bed with silk and a head board carved with a “Z” stood dominating the room. Thundina resisted the urge to jump on the bed and proceeded to far set of doors. Those opened into a sitting room. The rolling wave of amber light from a blazing fire gave a cheery glow to the sitting room. The blazing fire popped and crackled from its heat as dark plumes of smoke funneled up the chimney. A polished poker stood gleaming by the fireplace while a large gilded painting of Ireena hung over the hearth. Two heavy plush chairs were placed in front of the fire. Ancient tomes sat on polished bookshelves lining the walls. Jessuf walked over to near the fire while Thundina investigated the bookshelves. “Romann, you said something about Strahd coming through the fireplace. We’ll never get through it with this fire going, we’ll need to [i]Make Water[/i] to put it out.” A rushing stream of water flowed from Jessuf’s hands quenching the fire. Jessuf began investigating the fireplace looking for the latch to open the secret passage. Thundina, satisfied that none of the books were of interest, had come to stand by the fireplace. Jessuf unable to find any entrance took a step back to announce his findings. Thundina grabbed the poker and gave it a tug which caused a large section of the back of the fireplace to slide away soundlessly. “You only grabbed the poker because it’s shiny.” Jessuf told Thundina. “I do not only grab things because they’re shi...,” Thundina began a retort before exclaiming, “Ooh, look, money!” Behind the fireplace, a small chamber was now visible. At the back of the chamber stood a squat wooden chest surrounded by around 150 coins in silver and gold. Two sconces on the wall above the chest perked everyone’s interest as well – one sconce with an unlit torch while the other torch was clutched by a corpse laying beside the chest. Thundina rushed forward to the chest and began looking over it. She found evidence of Ungol dust on the chest and stopped the distribution mechanism of it. However, after opening the chest, Thundina was disappointed to find that the chest was empty. She gathered up the coins, and put the torch into the sconce to trigger another secret door. The corridor beyond the secret door was filled with cobwebs again, but Romann quickly burned it away and the party proceeded further down the corridor. From there the party entered a large chamber with a rope hanging down from above. Thundina looked up along the rope up into the dark hole it descended from, but could not see the end. “So, do we pull or do we climb, or what?” Thundina asked with a hand on the rope. Jessuf said, “We could tie another rope to this one and then pull it from back behind those doors.” “Sounds good,” Thundina said. “Then, if nothing drops on us, we can try climbing.” She spliced her rope to the one hanging and ushered the party back. The party pulled Thundina’s rope tight and then gave a yank to pull the original rope. A loud, deep, mournful bell tolled several times after the yank on the rope. The melancholy tolling attempted to seep into Thundina’s soul, but neither she, nor any of her friends were affected. Looking back into the chamber, Thundina saw a pair of human-sized spiders with strange tuning fork-like antennae on their heads. The spiders spit strands of webbing at each of Talor and Thundina, entangling both, however the webbing was quickly cut away by Jessuf and Romann. Thundina advanced on one of the spiders. One of the spiders skittered forward and grabbed Thundina while the other skittered and latched onto Talor. The spider grappling with Thundina was an expert at such close quarter fighting. It wrestled her down and began injecting a venom. Thundina attempted a trick she had recently realized which would have broken the spider’s grasp, but it wasn’t fooled. Thundina struggled to push the spider away and only just managed to hold the spider at bay, but she could not break free. Suddenly, the spider’s head went flying by Thundina and she was able to free herself. Romann was standing over the combat, ichor dripping from his sword. He offered Thundina a hand and pulled her to her feet. “Thanks. What about the other spider?” Thundina said. “You should have seen it. The spider had Talor in its grasp when Jessuf delivered a near perfect strike dealing massive damage to the spider. I have no clue how it survived,” Romann said. “On the whole, it didn’t I suppose, he finished it off with a second strike.” “Is this a dead end, do you think?” Jessuf asked while cleaning his halberd’s blade. “Seems like it, but I’ll take a quick look around,” Thundina said and walked around the edge of the room, lightly running her fingers along the wall. A quarter of the way around, she stopped, “Huh, that’s odd.” Digging at the recess which had caught her attention, Thundina found and threw a switch which opened another secret door. Thundina gasped at what she saw. It was one of the most wonderful sights she had ever seen. Strahd’s plundered riches filled the room – weapons and armor, statues and tapestries and more buried in piles of gold, silver, and platinum. Then her heart nearly skipped a beat when she spotted a central object of her quest, a large book, black as night, sitting a little to a side on a pile of gold. The party set to scooping up all the various pieces of loot ultimately culminating with the black book, the Tome of Strahd. Holding the Tome, Thundina said, “We should take this out into the sunlight and read this. I don’t think we want Strahd being able to drop in.” For the second time that day, the party returned down from the castle to the village below. They took over Halas’s old shack since no one else was using it. Thundina set the book on the ground between herself and Cyron and they looked at each other. “I heard what happened the last time you read a book,” Cyron said, “I’ll understand if you don’t want to read this one.” “I’m not scared,” Thundina said. “I want to know how to take Strahd’s defenses away from him.” “Let me look through it,” Cyron insisted. “I think that my greater religious knowledge means I might spot something of importance, plus clerics are trained for dealing with dark books.” Thundina sighed, “Fine, just give us a full report. I’ll be counting the treasure. Hmm, yeah, this’ll work out just fine.” Thundina had just finished sorting the treasure and counting the coins when Cyron announced that he had finished reading the book. Cyron said, “Basically, there are three fanes we need to visit: the Ivlich Swamp fane, the Svalich Forest fane, and the Lysaga Mountain fane. In addition each fane has a saint and a fane-servant. Madam Eva is called the all-knowing and is one of these servants. The other two are Zelenna the green disciple and Anya the drowned. Strahd became a vampire after Tatyana rejected him in favor of his younger, handsomer brother Sergei so Strahd killed his brother. There doesn’t seem to be anything else too horrific in here.” Cyron finished speaking and then jumped as a vestani had whispered in his ear, “Madam Eva asks everyone to come to the Tser Pool tonight.” Cyron responded, “I thought she had left the area.” “She has returned. You must come tonight.” Romann protested, “But what about my date with Gertruda tonight?” As evening fell, Romann went to Gertruda’s house to pick her up for their date. They walked to the inn, arm in arm, chatting idly. Romann told of the great treasure he was receiving as his share from the castle’s loot and Gertruda was quite impressed. They entered the inn and Romann pulled out a chair for Gertruda to sit. Cyron quietly sat in a corner watching Romann. Thundina huffed at seeing Romann actually go through with the cockeyed idea of taking Gertruda on a date and so stalked upstairs away from the common room. She stopped in front of Jessuf’s door and pounded on it and shouted, “Jessuf!” Thundina could hear the sound of scrambling from the other side of the door. Jessuf flung open the door and asked worriedly, “Is something wrong? Is there an attack or is someone hurt?” Thundina grabbed Jessuf’s hand, smiled sweetly, and said, “I’m starving. Let’s have dinner.” Jessuf drew back a moment and stuttered, “Uh, uh, okay. Why do I have a really weird feeling about this?” Thundina smiled broadly and held to Jessuf’s arm as they walked down the stairs to the dining area. They found a table and ordered dinner. Thundina asked Jessuf to talk about his background and history and fished for compliments, but Jessuf was so nervous and shocked that the story was stilted and Thundina didn’t receive nearly as many compliments as she was expecting. It was a relief to her when Romann and Gertruda left and she and Jessuf could end their dinner. She retreated to her room to grab her armor and check over her weapons in preparation for whatever would come up while meeting with Madam Eva. The party traveled out to the Tser Pool and was met there by a single vestani. He led them into the woods to where they had previously encountered Eva in meditation, “Madam Eva wishes for the connection to be broken tonight. Needless to say, should you fail tonight, her life will be in dire peril.” Around the clearing, the vestani were ready for a battle. Dozens held crossbows and they were joined by a hill giant and a pair of ogres. Sir Urik was directing them to cover behind rubble in preparation for a fight. Cyron walked over to the vestani who seemed to be in charge and said, “I am ready to begin the ceremony, where's Madam Eva?” ----------------------- Chapter 14 and maybe Chapter 15 too has a high likelyhood of being delayed a week or two due to other deadlines. [/QUOTE]
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The New Adventures of Thundina Seong! Completed May 4
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