RECAP
We left off in our last session where our heroes had just finished killing a demon that was possessing the poor Felix at St. Andral’s Orphanage. Now that the demon is free, and the orphanage is safe, we find our party having just left and on their way out they meet a stranger on the road…
THE STRANGER
The stranger comes up to our heroes and introduces himself,
“Hello. My name is Ernst Larnak and I work for one of the most influential houses in this city. Lady Fiona Watcher would like to extend a warm welcome into our city and invite you to come to dinner tonight at 5:00 pm. She is quite impressed with the kindness you have shown to the children and would like to meet you.”
The party chats with him a little bit and accepts the invitation. They are told that he will be waiting for them at the Blue Water Inn around quarter to 5.
CURIOUS THALDIR
As the group starts walking, Thaldir can’t quite shake the thoughts of the locket from his mind. He tells the rest of the group something just doesn’t seem right. Why would Heinrich, the coffin maker, give a locket with a demon in it to Milivoj. This gets his blood boiling as he thinks of all the children inside and he tells them they should investigate more.
So straight to the coffin maker’s shop they go.
THE COFFIN MAKER’S SHOP
When they arrive at the shop, they can see the door is closed. They go up to the door and knock and they hear Heinrich yell that he is closed. Aydin tries to open the door to go in, but the door is locked. Term decides that he wants to see if there is another way in, so he sneak off to the backyard, finds the back door and tries to open it, but it is also locked.
Next he moves to the side of the house to see if he can look into the window….
The window is bared and shut tight. He glass is covered in wax or something so he isn’t able to see into the shop at all, so he heads back to the front to tell the rest of the group this information.
They try banging on the door some more and Heinrich tells them to come back tomorrow. He is working and it is rude to interupt him. Thaldir asks why he gave the locket to Milly and Heinrich again says come back tomorrow. The group tries to threaten him and tells him that they will just come back with the town guard and then he can explain the locket to them.
This doesn’t even seem to work as he laughs at them and tells them the guard are his friends and they better watch out or he will have THEM arrested. He then yells back maybe they should go check the church out and to leave him be. Aydin is getting pretty worked up at this point and is ready to bust down the door. Thalir tells him it isn’t worth it and they will just go and see what is at the church and see if they can get any information about a locket there.
So the group turns around and leaves the shop feeling frustrated and wanting answers.
ST. ANDRAL’S CHURCH
The group then walks back across town and heads to the church. They go inside and see that the place has several people in it. Mostly commoners just praying in the benches and at the front of the church, they see a priest talking to a finely dressed nobleman.
Ireena whispers to no one in particular how handsome that man is. She seems infatuated with him. The group patiently waits for the man to finish speaking to the priest and he walks over to them and smiles.
“My, my, I have never seen such a beautiful lady such as you m ‘Lady. My name is Vasili Von Holtz and I am at your service. Who might you all be if I may ask?
Ireena blurts out that she is Ireena Kolyanovich and this seems to take Visili off guard.
“I am quite sorry M’ Lady about your father. He was a good man. I’ve done business with him in the past. I am saddened by his recent death.”
This gets Thaldir in the questioning mood, so he asks how Vasili knew about her father’s death. Vasili says that he is a noble and he knows all the Burgomaster’s in Barovia. He then glances at the entire group as if noticing them for the first time, he was so intent on Ireena that he now seems to be assessing them.
VASILI ASKS FOR HELP
He looks at Thaldir and smiles.
“My good man. You all look like a very capable group of adventurers. I’m wondering if you could help me with something?”
Aydin who is feeling like this guy is stepping on his toes, is feeling very protective of Ireena. He looks down at Vasili and asks him what he wants.
Vasili smiles and says that one of his clients, a Vallakian merchant named Zhenya Romanov, recently vanished along the Old Svalich Road on her way towards Krezk. This merchant possessed a ledger detailing her transactions and accounts that Vasili badly needs for his records.
He asks for confirmation if the caravan has been destroyed or if it looks salvageable, rescuing Romanov (if alive), and retrieving the ledger from the rusted lockbox in which it is kept.
He adds that Romanov also carried a purse containing money for making purchases and change, and that one of her guards, a man named Elya, wore an enchanted suit of armor that is said to be able to fire bolts of arcane energy. Should the caravan have been destroyed, Vasili invites the party to recover both items for your own use.
Thaldir tells him that they will think about it. Ireena tells Vasili that they are staying at the Blue Water Inn and he smiles and tells them he will swing by there later in the evening and asks if they might give him an answer then. Aydin waves him off and he leaves the church.
The group quietly talk to Ireena and tell her to calm down. They don’t know who that man was and he seems suspicious to them. She tells them that she can handle herself and that he can’t be that bad if he was standing inside a church talking to a priest.
MEETING FATHER LUCIAN PETROVICH
The group then head to the front of the church and introduce themselves to Father Lucian Petrovich. He tells them he is a priest of the Morninglord. The group then asks who that man was and Father Petrovich tell them he is a really giving nobleman, Vasili is known for his generousity and he was just there giving a nice donation to the church to help feed the needy. He then asks the group what he can do for them.
The group asks him if he knows why the coffin maker would give a locket to Milovoj. Father Lucian says that Milovoj and Heinrich are friends and since Milovoj digs graves and Heinrich makes coffin’s maybe it was just a gift between friends. Thaldir explains what happened with the orphanage and what the locket contained. Father Petrovich seems troubled by this and says that he can’t possibly understand why Heinrich would purposly give a locket like that to Milovoj. He tells them maybe someone else gave Heinrich that locket trying to do him in for something and instead Milovoj ended up with it instead.
This seems to calm Thaldir down a little bit and it makes more sense. They decide that this doesn’t seem to be going any further for now and they can always go back to question Heinrich tomorrow. So they thank Father Lucian for his time and leave the church.
WHERE IS OUR FRIEND ARABELLE?
As they are out in the street and walking by the orphanage, little Tessa comes out and asks them if they could help her find her friend, Arabelle.
Thaldir recognizes the name and asks her how she knows Arabelle. He explains to Tessa that they have heard that Arabelle is missing but they will look into it. Tessa tells them that Arabelle is one of her best friends and she misses her so much. She said she hasn’t seen her in a few days.
Thaldir asks if she noticed anything unusal the last time she saw Arabelle. Tessa nodded and told them that there was some grimy-looking man wearing a straw hat and carrying a bottle of wine watching them play. She said he looked like a fisherman. She said that he kept staring at them so the girls went into the orphanage and Arabelle said that that man was so pervy and she could handle herself and she needed to get home. So she left and they haven’t seen her since.
Thaldir and the group then decide to check back at the Blue Water Inn to see if anyone there might know who this guy might of been.
BACK AT THE BLUE WATER INN
The group goes back to the Inn and begin asking Danica if she knows any fisherman. Danica laughs and said she knows plenty. The group sigh and aren’t quite sure where to even begin when they overhear a couple of locals talking about Ol Bluto saying something about finding his lucky charm.
This gets Aydin curious and they tell him that Bluto has been having a really bad time fishing of late and is nothing but a washed up old drunk and that’s probably why he isn’t catching anything. They tell him they remember him talking a few days ago about figuring out how to appease the spirits of the lake and that he found the perfect good luck charm to help.
Thaldir asks if they know where he lives and they tell the group that it’s a house just north towards the lake and point it out on their map.
BLUTO’S HOUSE
When they arrive they notice that the house is very small and in disrepair. Thaldir begins to go in when he hears a voice calling over to them. They meet who appears to be a neighbor named, Camilla Veredov. She asks what they are doing as she knows this isn’t their home.
Thaldir says he is a friend of Bluto’s and they are just coming over to check on him. Camilla smiles and says that is awfully nice of them. She knows he has been having such a hard time catching fish lately. She then informs them that she hasn’t seen him in at least a day. The last she heard he had said something about the right “good luck charm” and told her that he thought it would solve his bad luck.
Thaldir then tosses her a gold coin and asks her if they might go in and just double check to make sure he isn’t inside. She shrugs and says to go ahead, but if she hears about anything being stolen she will tell the town guard all about them. Thaldir smiles and they agree.
They go inside the house and inside they find it is a mess. They begin searching through the house and find rope in the corner along with some small blinsky dolls. Thaldir mentions that he has a bad feeling about this and they all head back out and leave out the northern gate to get to Lake Zarovich.
THE GOOD LUCK CHARM AT LAKE ZAROVICH
Once the group gets out of the city and look out across the lake they see a lone boat out in the middle. They can make out the man struggling with a small child sized sack and it looks like he is getting ready to toss the sack into the lake.
SKILL CHALLENGE
At this point the group is presented with a skill challenge. This challenge is seperated into 3 parts. Sprint, Recovery, and Revival.
The first skill challenge the heroes must reach Bluto’s boat before the struggling sack sinks into the water. The group split up into two boats and row out to the lake. Aydin uses his brute strength to row out quickly with his Athletics check.
The second challenge the group must now try and retrieve the sack before it sinks and whatever is inside drowns. Syrren transforms into an alligator and manages to swim down and grab the sack and bring it back up. They pull the sack up out of the water and open it up.
Inside the sack they find an unconscious, unmoving and unresponsive young girl. Thaldir uses his medicine check to pump the water from the girls lungs. She begins to spit up water and thanks them. They learn her name is Arabelle.
In the meantime, they notice Bluto start to try and row quickly away. Syrren sees this and casts hold person on Bluto who is now frozen in place. The group grab Bluto and tie him up and they row back to shore. Arabelle looks at Bluto and points at him and shouts, “May all wine turn to water in your mouth, you wretched drunken piece of shit!”
ARABELLE IS A SASSY ONE!
Once back on shore the group discover that Arabelle is a sassy one. She tells them that Bluto is so pervy. Aydin asks her how she would know what that even means and Arabelle tells him she knows all about sex as her uncle told her all about the birds and the bees. She says not to worry though, She just knows that she’s “not allowed to do it until I’m thirty and married, according to Uncle Arrigal.”
Arabelle then looked at Aydin and said, “Wow! You’re really brave!”
Aydin replied, “I know thanks”
Arabelle then said, “Oh, no. That wasn’t a compliment, what I meant to say is that you’re definitely gonna die soon.”
This catches everyone off guard and she just laughs saying they are so easy to mess with. They also learn she is a bit of a potty mouth.
They then try to figure out what to do next. Thaldir doesn’t think it would be a good idea to have a Vistani girl and a tied up fisherman go through town. Arabelle informs them that she can take them to the Vistani camp where her father is and she knows a way through the forest aroud the town.
As they start to leave, Arabelle suddenly goes quiet and says “Wow!” and the group looks at her and sees her looking out across the lake. They follow her gaze to a huge elk. She claims it must be the Mad Mage. She sure doesn’t know for sure but it must be.. After a few moments of watching, the elk turns and walks back into the treeline and out of sight.
That’s where we ended that session. What will happen next? Stay tuned!