The story so far
Emerging from the woods, the party is confronted by the death house, a cursed residence where they overcome evil and first meet [[Strahd]] on the way out. He welcomes them to the land and [[Flikk]] swears his oath.
The party is hired by [[Ismark]] on a quest to escort his half-sister, [[Ireena]] to safety in [[Vallaki]]. She has been targeted by [[Strahd]] to become his next wife. Ismark believes Vallaki to be the safest place for her. Before leaving they first burry her father and attend the funeral (where they encounter and slay their first vampire. Doru, son of the priest).
The party first stops at the Tsar pool to visit the old and wise [[Madam Eva]] for a fated [[B. Fortune Reading]] where they are foretold the prophecy of [[Strahd]]’s downfall at the hand of a group of adventurers who would go around and collect key artifacts to help them in their vendetta.
The party meets Strahd’s first wife, [[Ludmilla]] and right hand, [[Rahadin]], here for the first time. Strahd acknowledges them as his “champions” here for the first time. He also reveals his current agenda, to find and kill [[Rudolph]] Van Richten. Strahd offers his carriage, driven by [[Escher]], for the party’s travel.
Enroute to the windmill, in Strahd’s carriage, the party jumps and kills Escher in broad daylight.
Arriving at the windmill the party first encounters [[Morgantha]]’s and her two sisters. The sisters are killed, but Morgantha escapes to the ephereal plane.[[Lucian]] is briefly trapped with her, but saved by Strahd’s intervention (Strahd uses the opportunity to sow chaos). Upon reappearring from the ephereal plane, [[The party]] mistakes Lucian for a werewolf demon, and downs him. During this fight [[Elik Moon]] is also infected with lycanthropy. The party learns abouts Lucian curse here for the first time.
Finally, the party also finds Franz (son of [[Lady Fiona Wacther]]) and the scrying mirror.
Outside the doors of Vallaki, the party set up camp against the shore of [[Lake Barovia]] and first encounter [[Vasilli Van Holtz]] who appears to just be a silly nobleman.
Upon entering and seeking out the church, the party learns that the sacred bones of Saint Markovia were stolen from the crypt and the hallow spell ruined with it. The party steels it back from the coffin maker, meeting and fighting [[Ana]] for the first time. The party also restores the hallow spell protecting the church and decide against leaving [[Ireena]] here, believing it to not be safe enough. Here they learned of the walled off [[Krezk]] and ultimate safehaven, the [[Abby of Saint Markovia]].
The party does think it a good idea to leave [[Ireena]] with [[Vasilli Van Holtz]] while they explore around.
The party find [[Rudolph]] disguised as Rictavio, at the Inn. [[Lamb]] sneaks above and destroys the offspring of the [[Martikovs]] causing them to flee [[Vallaki]]. The party builds [[The Wagon]] here for the first time, after ditching Strahd’s carriage. After meeting [[Barron Vargas Valikovic]] the party learns of plans for the festivial of the sun, as well as the coo to resurrect [[Lady Fiona Wacther]] and overthrow the Barron.
Rictavio leads the party to their first meeting with [[Luvash]] who asks them to find and return his lost daughter, [[Arabelle]]. The party ventures to [[Lake Barovia]] and find her held captive by a fishermen. Here the party is surprised by the lake monster who almost kills them, before the mad wizard intervenes and dissappears into the woods again.
The party also stops by the headquarters of the order of the silver dragon, explaining the ghostly revenants they met on theyre journey. Here they meet [[Sir Godfry]] who tasks them with stealing back the skull of Argonvostholt to relight the beacon.
The party uses the festival of the sun as an opportunity to fake poisoning the baron (who was [[Lamb]] in disguise) capturing him and giving him over to Strahd. Lady Fiona is also killed (by [[Izek]]) in this chaos as well as [[Ana]], but first she kills the [[Monk]] (allowing him to break his oath of silence after death). This leaves Vallaki without any leader and chaos ensues. This is the last time the party would see [[Izek]] and [[Baronnet Victor]] (until Strahd’s wedding) who fleas fearing the cultists would kill them.
After the chaos of the festival of the sun, the cultists start burning the barron’s house and Vallaki’s walls. The party also looses [[Elik Moon]] who has now succumbed to his lycanthropy. They tried locking him up in the jail cells to keep him safe but he shapeshifted under the full moon and escaped, killing all the guards in the process
The party de-escelates the situation instating Vasilli, [[Father Odu]], and the blacksmith [[Lazlo Groza]] as joint leaders and leave to return [[Arabelle]] to the carnival.
The party learns of [[Luvash]]’s evil elegance with Strahd and starts a doomed fight amidst many Vistani, here Rudolph and his tiger fight to the death taking Luvash with them, whilst the party flees with Anabelle and a tied up [[Arrigal]]. Rudolph disclosed the location of his stash at the [[Wizard Tower]]’s tower.
The party find Khazan’s wizard tower and for the first time see [[Ez]]’s wagon outside. Here they also find the Tomb of Strahd and learn about [[Sergei]]’s death at the hand of Strahd’s pact with Vampyr. They decide to trust Arrigal and leave him here to protect Arabelle.
Outside, they are met by Ludmilla, Rahadin, and some of Strahd’s barbarian mountain folk (including a giant) who escort present the dinner invitation and an escort to the castle.
Strahd unveils to the party his plans to recruit them as his battle commanders for when he breaks his lock to Barovia and ventures out into the overworld to overthrow all other corrupted leaders and bring undeniable “peace” and dominance to all. After learning about the death of Rudolph, Strahd’s next objective is to wed [[Ireena]]. He tasks the party with safely escorting her to [[Krezk]] and invites them to stay the night.
The party also learned that Strahd has the werewolf leader, [[Emil]], locked in his cells. And that Strahd has killed and feasted on [[Barron Vargas Valikovic]].
The party explores a bit. If not for [[Lamb]], [[Monk]] would have fallen to death but is anyways killed minutes later exploring the crypts where he is revived by an unknown entity and granted magical darkvision. Strahd quests the party to deliver [[Ireena]] to Krezk where the [[Abbot]] shall wed them.
[[Tuush]] steals the icon of Ravenloft with some slight of hand and runs into [[Ez]] for the first time. Se give him a magical messanger to use and contact her again before drinking an invisibilty poition and leaving.
The party leaves [[Lucian]] in the hands of [[Ludmilla]] who promises to take care of him and cure his lycanthropy.
Whilst travelling past the windmill, the party notices a light coming from it and decide to put Morgantha to rest, once and for all. Here they also load the scrying mirror into the wagon for future use.
Enroute, the party is jumped by a group of werewolves, narrowly escaping…(unknowingly, this would be their first encounter with [[kiril]]). Arrival in [[Krezk]] is met with a gloomy atmosphere. Rahadin and Ludmilla unloading the brides extravagant jewelry and clothes and preparing her resting place with black roses.
Later that night, the party helps [[Ireena]] flee to an unknown location (which they would later scry and find to be [[The woods]]). The werewolves would save her and bring her back safely in time for the wedding.
Searching for help, the party travels to the Church atop Krezk in search for the holy man sent by the morning lord, the [[Abbot]]. They learn of the eventual corruption of the Abbot at the hands of Strahd’s and decides to kill his mortal body and offer his soul refuge within the icon of Ravenloft for Tuush to carry with him.
[!note] At this point, a twist of fate commences. The following has been retconned but will forever be known by Strahd and Lamb:
Outside Krezk in large tents:
- The party attends the bachelours where they gambled their life essence and face [[kiril]] in a duel to the death.
- At the wedding of Strahd, Izek would die in objection to the wedding, Ismark give up on his life, and Lamb free his daughters from by Baba
- The party would realise Lucian is now a vampire, see [[Elik Moon]] with a werewolf looking woman, as well as meet [[keshgar]] the druid.
- Ez attempts to kill Ireena to prevent Strahd from turning her, knowing of the prophecy. Strahd would emerge from his disguised [[Vasilli Van Holtz]], and stop time to ensure his ability to wed Ireena, but during fate’s kiss, would burn to ash together with Ireena by the curse of Vampyr.
However, since Lamb invoked the twist of fate, the following
Travelling to [[The Winery]]; the party hopes to find the last bit of goodness in Barovia. The keepers of the feather. Here the martikovs would allow them to join their ranks against evil in return for finding their lost gems.
The first gem is retrieved at [[Yester Hill]] where the party kills [[keshgar]] and prevents the massive wintersplinter golem from seiging the winery.
Before persuing the second gem, the party learns of the magical portal between [[Ana’s haversack]] and her crypt in the castle and uses this to sneak in at night. Here they loot more crypts and finally rob the skull of Argonvostholt back. While escaping, [[Volenta]] appears in her giant spider form and narrowly attempts to kill the party before being killed herself.
Enroute to the Ruins of Berez, the party first stops at Vallaki where Flikk summons Strahd from the deck of many things who downs him and reminds him of his dominance over him. Next, they pass by the [[Argonvostholt Manor]] again to relight the beacon and accept the family heirloom sword of [[Flikk]], Flame Tongue.
The second gem is retreived (pryed form the living hut) together with Lamb’s children in the [[Ruins of Berez]] after slaying [[Baba Lysaga]]. At this point in time, [[Tuush]] almost TPK’d the party after throwing [[Baba Lysaga]] guilded chest with a glyph of warding at the ground…
They party returns the second and last gem to plant in the ground and recucitate the life force of the vineyards. Here they barter with Damian Martikov to buy the Winery and establish a hollow spell over it to protect their dearest allies. They also send aid to the nearby villages in the form of money.
After realising those with the power of resurrection have all been slayn, the party now hires [[Kasimir]] to guide them to the [[Amber Temple]] and start their long journey to ascend Mount Ghakis.
The first big step would be crossing the firewall of Tsolenka Pass. The party unintentionally, awakens the outposts’ defenses when they try climb over the wall and finally summon the giant monstrosity, the Rocc, who they slay in battle. Flikk narrowly avoids death in this altercation.
The party hikes up the frozen waterfall and takes refuge in a nearby owlbear cave before they head into the temple
TBDs