Session recap

Session 4 D&D Session: Arrival at Vallaki and Alliance ###### Foraging and Travel to Vallaki - The party successfully foraged 12 rations from bat swarms they defeated - Group now has 7 rations each after consumption - Jables composed and performed a song about bats during rest, earning the party inspiration - Approached the town of Vallaki, which appeared as a sullen mountain settlement surrounded by wooden palisade and fog - Wolf heads on pikes flank the road outside the iron gates ###### Entering Vallaki - Initial Observations - Party discussed whether to stop in town with Ismark and Ivan - Ismark shared gossip about Vallaki: purple flashes of light from Burgomaster's mansion attic , Lady Fiona potentially trying to usurp the Burgomaster - Town square features stocks with people wearing plaster donkey heads as punishment - Proclamations posted about mandatory "Wolf's Head Jamboree" attendance - Discovered Rictavio's carnival wagon at Aesek Stockyard - Found Blinsky's toy shop with sign "Is No Fun, Is No Blinsky" - connected to the malformed doll from Gertrude ###### The Blue Water Inn - Entered the Blue Water Inn, notable for wolf head decorations and ravens perched outside - Party attempted to communicate with ravens using Speak with Animals, but the ravens flew north without responding - Met innkeepers Erwin Mardukov and his wife - Ordered Red Dragon Crush wine (2 silver per pitcher) - Secured two rooms for 2 silver total - Jables performed music for the inn, impressing the owners ###### Meeting the Wolf Hunters - Met Yevgeny and Zoldar, wolf hunters who frequent the inn - Jables competed in a drinking contest with them and won decisively - Learned wolves are under Strahd's control - Wolf hunters expressed frustration with Burgomaster's weekly mandatory festivals - Anyone who speaks against festivals is placed in stocks ###### Rictavio's True Identity Revealed - Gray approached a half-elf in the corner who stood out as the only other non-human - Man introduced himself as Rictavio, carnival ringmaster trapped in Barovia for 10 years - Told tale of vampire hunter who killed Nosferatu but became a vampire in the process - Iridel noticed Gray discussing them and confronted the conversation - Rictavio questioned if Iridel was a vampire - Iridel responded "not technically" - After party moved to private room, Rictavio revealed his true form: Blade, a dhampir vampire hunter ###### Alliance with Blade - Blade's mission: slay Strahd - Blade gathering information on wereravens who oppose Strahd - Suspects innkeeper Erwin Mardukov is a weraven - Blade knows Vistani in the inn serve as Strahd's spies - Party shared "Nest of Ravens" card reading with Blade - Blade suggested talking to Erwin about the card - Blade proposed mutual assistance: help innkeeper find missing wine shipments, and Blade will help party defeat hags at the windmill - Wine comes from Wizard of the Wines vineyard near Krezk - Party agreed to alliance ###### Plans and Next Steps - Intended route: Krezk (to deliver Ismark and Ivan) → Wizard of the Wines → return wine to inn → defeat hags at windmill with Blade - Party leveled up to level 4 after forming alliance with Blade - Limited shopping opportunities in Vallaki due to scarcity ###### Action Items - [ ] Talk to Erwin Mardukov about wereravens and the "Nest of Ravens" card reading - [ ] Travel to Krezk to safely deliver Ismark and Ivan - [ ] Investigate Wizard of the Wines vineyard to find missing wine shipments - [ ] Return wine barrels to Blue Water Inn - [ ] Help Blade defeat hags at the bone grinder (windmill) - [ ] Explore potential to use windmill as forward base against Strahd ###### Important NPCs and Locations - Erwin Mardukov: Innkeeper at Blue Water Inn, likely a weraven - Blade (Rictavio): Dhampir vampire hunter seeking to kill Strahd - Yevgeny and Zoldar: Wolf hunters, critical of Burgomaster - Burgomaster of Vallaki: Holds mandatory weekly festivals, punishes dissenters - Lady Fiona: Powerful figure potentially plotting to usurp Burgomaster - Wizard of the Wines: Vineyard that supplies all wine to Barovia ###### Party Resources - Current rations: 7 per person - Currency: 60 silver, 11 gold - Equipment to sell: heavy crossbow, chain shirt - Deed to windmill in possession nosfaratu - killed another vampire lord. ...gained the session waking up after the death house, yes? I think so. So y'all had successfully made it out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. After the death house. Yeah. God, so much has happened in Sophie's house. So y'all successful, leveled to three, passed out and woke up in a camp of some gypsies who I thought was Italian. Not Italian. Closer to gypsies. With a robot. They had said, you know, that they had found you guys passed out on the street and had taken you and kind of like put you in some bedrolls and were having a merry old time. Upon waking up, you began talking with one of them in particular, Izzik, who was, you know, telling you a bit about the Vistani and like where you were and a little bit about Strahd. And then y'all were like, all right, we're going to go into town. I think Iredel was the one to see a church in the distance, which compelled you guys to go visit that church. Actually, upon Jables detecting an undead inside of the church, you all made the decision to then go to the town and try to gather more information. You guys then found yourself in the tavern. Talking to a young man named... Ismark. Ismark, yes, thank you. Ismark contracted you guys to help him transport his brother... Ivan. Ivan, yes, to Kresk. that he was fearing for his brother's life. He was being targeted by Strahd, right? Yes, I did. Okay, yes. So he did tell you that. Yeah, I had that written down. He's being pursued by Strahd and he feels like Crest would be the safest place. So you guys agree and then agree to leave in the morning. I think he does give you a little bit of information as well about the church saying that The priest's son had been missing for about a year. Yeah, that's how we decided that we were going to go back in there. Upon talking to this absolutely broken man of a priest, you're able to determine that his son was turned into a vampire spawn, and then he locked him in the basement trying to pray to his god for some way to save him. He actually agrees after some pretty good role-playing and some checks from Iredell. He agrees to let you guys put him to rest, seeing as though there's no cure for vampirism. That we know of. That we know of. Short of, like, a wish spell or things that shape reality itself. So for this peasant boy, the chances of him being cured are zero. So you guys went down there. He did not go down without a fight. In fact, I think he latched on to... tables for a round of two got him low, but collectively y'all did a good job. By the way, I agree. Hookah, some kind of fruity-ish hookah, but I can't pin down like a specific thing. It's more like a memory of going to hookah bars in Denton. Yes. Is basically what it tastes like to me. Yes. What's that one we always got at, uh... There's like a blend. That one hookah place that I used to get to all the time. That was like grape. Yeah. Kind of grape-ish almost. They had that like special name and it was like three different fruit flavors. I know what you're talking about. That's what it tastes like. - See, I mean, and it's called dragon breath, which makes me think it's like a dragon fruit flavor, which I feel like there's definitely some sort of like tropical mix of hookah that's got like dragon fruit and passion fruit or something like that. That's what it tastes like to me. It's like a mix of that. Maybe peach as like a weird note. - Apple juice. - I thought it tasted like apple juice, okay? I stand by my statement. Anyway. I'm pretty sure... Oh, one thing I also did gloss over is that when y'all went with Ismark back to his mansion and were able to talk to both Ismark and Ivan, they asked you guys to help bury their father who had died. And that also compelled you to go back. Yeah, because we had got drunk at the bar with Ismark, is what I had written down. And then we... I specifically wrote down well-fed and I remember that we went to their house and we got food. Yes. Did that and talked to them and Iridel sat in evens flat. Should have went there. Crazy talk. To start with, I remember that starting off specifically and he was like, uh, what's happening? I'm pretty sure there was a performance check that happened later too. 21. You're able to dress a decent amount of these bats. You know, there were four overall swarms. Roll me four D10s. You're able to claim 12. I'll say they directly translate to 12 rations. How many total do we have now? So if you had, I mean, if we had all just eaten one with Iridel, when she ate one for her exhaustion, we'd all be at seven with these. Because we all had four, ate one to three, gained four. Cool. Cool. Okay, so we'd all be at seven now. All right. As y'all approach what you would know on your map to be the town of Hulaki, you'd see the old spotless road meandering into a valley watched over by dark brooding mountains to the north and south. The woods recede, revealing a sullen mountain bird surrounded by a wooden palisade. Thick fog presses up against this wall as though looking for a way inside, hoping to catch the town a slumber. The dirt road ends at a set of sturdy iron gates with a pair of shadowy figures standing behind them. Planted in the ground and flanking the road outside the gates are a half dozen pipes with wolves' heads impaled on them. That would be what you see as you approach the town. Well, in a band of our long rest, I do play the song about bats. 22. You regale them with the song of bats. And they get inspiration. I know they probably already had inspiration, but they get inspiration again. Do we want to at least stop in or maybe we should talk to two brothers about this town before we go in because they obviously live in this area so they kind of they should know something about Velaki. Yeah we were bringing the dude to Velaki because it's allegedly the most ...count against Strahd, like it's the place... Okay. So with that, With that. Ismark is going to be able to provide you guys with some gossip he's heard from people in the town of Verrovia. He would be able to tell you that people say sometimes that you can see purple flashes of light from the third floor of the Burgomaster's mansion. From the attic, actually. I also know that other than the burgomaster, there's a lady named Lady Fiona who is another powerful entity. Sometimes It's said that she's trying to usurp the Burden Master, but she would deny it if you asked her outright. We have 60 silver and 11 gold. We got a heavy crossbow, chain shirt. Ivory hairbrush. Yeah, we got some stuff disappeared. Periphery. Periphery, sorry, that word baffles me. ...and lies adjacent to a roomy warehouse. A wooden sign above the front gate reads, Arsek Stockyard. Parked at the south end of the stockyard is a sturdy carnival wagon... Its colorful painting peeled off, fading. Faded lettering on its sides spells out the words, "Rictavio's Carnival of Wonders." A heavy padlock secures the back door. As you're walking through the town, you would notice this carnival wagon and the stockyard. Town Square, which is this kind of little area right here. The shops and homes that enclose the town square are decorated with limp, tattered garlands and painted wooden boxes filled with tiny dead flowers. At the north end of the square stands a row of stocks, locked in which are several men, women, and children wearing crude, plastered donkey heads. In the center square, peasants in patchwork clothes eye you suspiciously as they use cups and vases to draw water from a crumbling stone fountain. Standing tall at the center of the fountain is a gray statue of an impressive man facing west. All around the square are posted proclamations. Come one, come all to the greatest celebration of the year, Wolf's Head Jamboree. Attendance and children required. Pikes will be provided. All will be well with the parents. What? Plaster donkey heads. And there are men, women, and children locked up in like... Like this plastered donkey heads. There are about five or six of them in total. As you continue on, you are going to notice another shot that catches y'all's eye. This cramped shop has a dark entrance portico, above which hangs a wooden sign shaped like a rocking horse, with a B engraved on both sides. Flanking the entrance are two arched lead-framed windows. Through the dirty glass you see jumbled displays of toys and hanging placards bearing the sign, IS NO FUN, IS NO BELINSKY. It's from Moaning Mary's kids. Yeah, her name's Gertruda, or doll, that we took from her. So as you guys continue down towards this larger building... You would then see gray smoke issuing from a chimney of this two or this large two-story wooden building with a stone foundation and a sagging tile roof upon which several ravens have perched. A painted wooden sign hanging above the main entrance depicts a blue waterfall which you would be standing in front of the blue water in. I'm going to use one of my non-spell slot versions. As you guys go to communicate with these ravens... It doesn't establish like a telepathic link. It just gives you the ability to speak in a manner that they understand. They are not going to say anything back to you guys. They are going to fly away. Damn. Why are you addressing them? They fly in the north. Pretty much, yes. So. You guys are going to go into this room. So, in here, The damp cloaks hang from pegs in the entrance portico. The tavern is packed with tables and chairs with narrow paths meandering between them. A bar stretches along one wall under a balcony that can be reached by a wooden staircase that hangs the north wall. Another balcony overhangs an entrance to the east. All the windows are fitted with thick shutters and crossbars. Lanterns hanging above the bar and resting on the tables bathe the room in dull orange light and cast shadows upon the walls, most of which are adorned with wolf heads mounted on wooden plaques. You're gonna come in this pretty dimly lit, wolf head adorned... Ivan and Ismark are gonna, you know, order some drinks and go immediately sit down. You know, they kind of keep to themselves. They're looking around. They're seeing the Vistani. As you walk up to the bar, of course it is the human woman with dark skin attending you guys. She's just saying hello, hello. We have... We only have two wines. We have Purple Great Mash, which is our cheaper wine, and we have Red Dragon Fresh, which is our finer wine. So it is going to be one silver for the cheap stuff and two silvers for the... Oh, yeah, fuck yeah, I know. We'll go for the... So she would give you guys a pitcher. This one. How well do I play? I chuckle and pull out my lute. I just play like a quick little warm-up tune as I start tuning it. That's a 24. Nice. So your warm-up tune is going to blow our mind. - But he's gonna come out and he is going to address himself as, gosh, I don't know this by now. - Martico. - His name is Erwin. One silver neck for a room that can house all of you guys. Actually, it would be two silver because you have six people, actually five people with you. 21, alright, not bad. So, you know, you are very intoxicated, but you're not quite blacked out. Now, this dude, and it's funny that you guys don't know their names, because you didn't ask their names, you just said their names. This guy right here is barely able to, like, function. So drunk right now. This guy is definitely in a much better spot. He's definitely very drunk though. Extremely drunk. Yes. I think yes. Overall, they failed. How many times did you fail out of those four? One, I guess. Because you got very low for the first one. You got a 13. Yeah. And then it was a net 20, right? Yeah. 18. And then a 21. And then a 21? Mm-hmm. So you failed one and you passed three. They each failed three and they passed one. So they're very calm. When they're going to be at the table, they're like, ah! Are you slurring the chorus from your song that you're singing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, 100%. The one on the orange would introduce himself as Yevgeny, I think. And the other one, the one in more brown and green, is Zoldar. Yip Guinea is going to say to you guys, well, many a traveler has tried. It's no use, though. The wolves are all under Strahd's control. Damn beasts. Doesn't matter how many I kill. Damn burgomaster. Throws festivals every week. Tries to tell people everything's all right. No, no, those people were locked up in the stocks. Anyone who's locked up in the stocks is kept there for the Bergamast, until the Bergamast throws a board. Speak out against the festival. Brickmaster's not here now, so. So, I wouldn't exactly say something crazy, but you get a very good look at him. So, he's not really reacting too much, that's being said, but you're noticing that he's a very sharply dressed, dark-skinned half-elf. I pulled it through. A dark-skinned half-elf. Okay. He's got a very sharp, Uh, like a very sharp cut or sharply cut fade. Um, he looks to be about in his like late 40s, so he's looking a little older. Um. But he does stand out from the other patrons. So far, he's the only other individual that you've seen that isn't explicitly like a human. Yeah, that's right. And they were talking about... Yep, he's a dark-skinned half-elf. I'm a Carnival Ringmaster from a distant land. I've been trapped here for a moment. I've been staying at this inn. No, you're good. No, I haven't been here since its inception. I found myself here accidentally a number of years ago, probably close to ten odd years ago. So he's going to tell you guys a brief tale of a legendary vampire hunter that came and slayed another very notable vampire lord. He's going to refer to him as Nosferatu. He'll tell of the epic battle where, you know, Hunter barely survived, yet he did. And was then afterwards stricken thereafter with vampirism. But then continued on. So it's like a brief tale of a legendary vampire hunter's conquests and ultimate downfall into vampirism himself. It's like you locked eye contact with me as I was talking about. Maybe a little bit of a flicker of anger in my eye that you're talking about me like that when I'm trying to pretend to be a human. Or at least like an ASMR. You know that she's half, I would have looked over and then been like, whatever. And then I said, oh, you mean half? And then that's all I would have said. But that's around the time that we would have made eye contact. And he asked, that's when he pressed the issue about what Iridell was. But, uh... Are you not a vampire? Not technically. He just dropped his form to reveal his true garb, his true face. And the fact that he's also a damp ear. I figured it was the best way to get to the point quickly with your crew. I saw you guys and I suspected as much. My name is not Rick Tavio. It is actually Blade, and he will introduce himself as Blade. I have come here to slay the vampire scrub. I am a vampire hunter myself, which you could probably have deduced from the garb and the sharp fucking haircut. Look at this. Currently, I'm trying to figure out the identities of some were-ratons I know are in this town. Were-ratons? I also know some Vistani, like the ones in particular that you were sitting with, Serves, Strahd, and Arge's spies. Her. The were-ravens are also opposing Strahd, actually. I don't know much. People are usually very secretive around here, and if you gain too much attention, Strahd usually strikes you down, so... I'm quietly collecting information. I do know that the Barkey's Irwin Markov is a trick. That's why I accosted your group, because it seems as though you are also wishing to not die by this vampire's hand, trapped in his realm, cursed forever to reincarnate. I would assume, but maybe I'm wrong. Me being gray, I'm once again going to out loud just mention our history card again. And knowledge of the ancient will help better understand. I may almost say think about everything about our history card. The Nest of Ravens. Master of Coin. Have you brought that up to the owner of this establishment? I think you should. He seems like a good person to ask about that. Poorly. Would you be down for some... If you help us clear out some HAGs, we might be able to establish a small little forward base for an actual attack. I produced the deed. We have rights to it and we could use it as a forward base. It's a safe house for those of us that want to. Yeah. I would be willing to assist you guys if you help me help the owner of this establishment. Wine? I mean, wine is the only alcohol these people have and it is actually the lifeblood of Barovia. Some people's reasons for living in this hell. - This one's like, "I like it so much." - Recently, well, Barovia gets all of its wine from just one place, the Wizard of the Wines, which is right down the road, not far from Crest, which is also where you're going. The owner of this establishment doesn't say anything, but he's getting very low and the last several shipments haven't arrived. If you would help him out and accept his or talk to him and extend your help to him to find the one, and I will accompany you to help fell those hags and the bone grabbers. So, like, what's the order of operations here? Go to Chris. Go to Chris. Talk to the store. Get a little info from him. Yeah, get a little info. And then go to the Wizard of the Wines, which I think is close to Chris. You'll be able to drop your compatriots off. Yeah, I figured drop them off at Chris. And then look into what's happening there at the wine vineyard. Mm-hmm. If you're able to procure some barrels and bring it back. Because then, yeah, we hit the wine, come back, we'll have completed that, and then we can take Blade to kill the hags. And then we'll have a good little foundation to see what our next step could be. See what he's learned from any of the were-ravens. And that'll be, yeah. So, uh... I mean, kind of accept. Yeah. That's general acceptance. He's gonna hold out his hand to Irdil, so... Makes it satellite, yes? One of the worst parts about Barovia is the lack of proper stocking. The people are used to making everything that they have here, all the clothes, the food, the wares, the furniture, everything is made by another Barovian. Anyone ever do anything about postage? There might be somewhere... Those even are extremely rare, given our lack of ingredients. Not really. Not really anyone who gained even a moniker of power was usually killed by Strahd pretty quickly. So it's kind of hard to get like a... It's kind of... It's hard for the people of Barovia to get a foothold here ever. They usually live and die in squalor and fear. Yeah, for the last like 600 years or so. That's why we're here. That's why I'm here. Y'all are here for other reasons. We could. You are all going to level up once after forging an alliance with Glead. Nice.

Review before next table

• Confirm open clues, NPC promises, loot, and next-scene intent.