Curse of Strahdanya | Ep. 10 | Widows Watch: Part 1
02:30:18 Share

You are back in the Blue Water Inn and listening to Curse of Stradania, a Legends of Aventress podcast. Last time, the Azran expedition finally locked away the saber-toothed tiger they unleashed upon Volaki. But not without a comedy of errors.

Then, there were more mystery hijinks as they crept around the Martikov's Inn to investigate the mysterious man with the monkey known as Riktavio. In the end, they finally met the man himself, although he was not who he seemed, just like everyone here in Borovia. He introduced himself as Rudolf van Richten, and he seems to have quite a problem with me. I wonder why.

As always, the audio quality reflects our humble beginnings, but does improve over time. With that out of the way, let us proceed with the first part of Chapter 5, Widow's Watch. Shepard, you come to consciousness. Great. As your eyes slowly open up,

You let out a small yawn as you turn to the side. Staring directly into your eyes is Morbid Molly. Holding a blade in her hands, she looks at you, one of her eyes dangling loosely from the thread.

resting gently against the tufts of the bed. As she raises a finger to her mouth, her stitched mouth and strange lopsided grin, she takes the blade, aims it towards her face before quickly flipping it, jabbing it into her stomach as she begins to laugh and slowly cut down the middle of her body

The burlap splits and cracks as you see small childlike teeth begin to tumble out of her insides and spill out on the bed around you. What do you want to do? I'm going to center myself. I will see this happening.

scream, basically jump up and try to like grab the doll and take the knife away from it. The moment you touch the doll, her entire body falls limp and you hold her there for a second. The knife clatters to the ground.

As she looks up at you, a small smile graces her face and her head falls forward completely like this. What is the matter, Shepard? You're still asleep. Oh, you screamed. Oh, yeah, that's what I... I didn't realize that you screamed. I just didn't do it because I was... I can do it. Oh, Jesus! Oh, God! Shepard, what is the matter? What is happening? Oh, I pinched myself and like... I'm...

Don't be dying! No, everyone, everyone, calm down. Everyone. I'm holding the knife and I'm holding the, like, I'm looking, are the teeth there? Like, are the teeth all over the bed? They're all over the bed. As you hold the doll, you notice a few more teeth fall out. And as you shake it around, lastly, a green gem roughly the size of pine cones

tumbles out of the inside of the doll, a faint glowing light pulsing on the inside of it. Um, if they're like bedposts on the bed, like anything made of wood, I'm going to sit the knife into the wood on the bed and pick up the gem and, and, um, shaking and I'll brush the teeth off. And I, I'm, I'm, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Uh,

I know that these are just toys, but I woke up and this one was brandishing a knife at me. And I thought, Sarnax, take care of this godforsaken piece of shit. And I throw him the doll.

And I'm holding the gem, and it's just God's damn teeth everywhere, and there's this. And I hand it to the professor, and I give him the gem. Don't destroy that thing. Sarnax. Don't? I see you. Fine. Don't destroy it. Fine. Sarnax, we'll get the water bottle out. Sarnax.

So this toy is an abomination, Professor. What purpose do we have to continue holding on to it? Just the girl. Just the teenage girl who could still be in the castle. Yes. We gave her mother our word. It was embarrassing. I shouldn't have responded like that. I've centered myself. I immediately go over to the desk and strap my holstered weapons on and put my hat on. And basically, I'm just like... I'm very shaken.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to start everyone like that. I know that our new friend said that these things are not malicious and that they're just toys. And I just, I was startled. That's all.

This is just me curious. I would like to take ten minutes to cast Detect Magic. On? On. And look at the gem. The gem. Okay. You take the time to cast it on the gem, and I'm honestly not quite sure what school of magic it would be, but you essentially sense a... It's almost... There's...

roll an arcana and I'll see what you get very good 17 or 27 sorry

That's quite a bit different from 17. Yeah, no, of course it is. You look down at the gem, and you can't quite discern where the magic itself comes from. It seems to be a benevolent druidic magic, a magic that promotes growth. This gem promotes fertility in the soil.

Well, Professor, I would like very much. Wait, wait, you don't think? There's no way. The odds of that would be... But one of these dolls traveled all the way, even if they do reproduce and they are able to pilfer such things, how far is that kind of a journey, round trip, a full day? Well, it's been missing for some time now. Perhaps it was stolen by Vinsky or...

Maybe they were keeping it at the graveyard or the church or... The cemetery. The cemetery, perhaps? So you're saying that maybe this thing stole it from whoever originally stole it from. Nothing really makes sense here. Only perception check. Eleven.

Yeah, no, nothing makes sense. Can I walk over to the teeth and kneel down and pick up one of them and inspect it just to see if it looks like real children's teeth or if it's more like adult teeth or if it's fake? Roll an investigation.

We all be on the same room. Yeah. Oh, is there a different room? Oh, did we only get two rooms? Oh, never mind. All right. We would have gone and gotten you two. Or you would have heard me scream. If the closer it's been enough, you would have easily heard us. I was very loud. My bad. As I demonstrated. I just wanted to make sure. I was almost in actual 20. 10. They look like teeth. You're not...

familiar with teeth. You're not a dentist of any kind, so trying to determine whether they're adult, etc. It's not. It's really pretty dull. I just quietly try to clean up as much of the spilled teeth in a little neat pile while they're talking. Professor. Yes. I would very much like to inspect that gem. As long as you don't destroy it. Why would I destroy it? Or burn it at least a little bit. Why would I burn it? I don't know. You like to burn things. Did you roll the perception check, do you? Me? Me? Ma'am. Oh, sorry.

Perception, oh nice, that's better, 22. So though you can't discern the age, you do get a faint whiff of dirt and you notice throughout the trees there's soil.

And as you look through them, you begin to notice small etchings, the same similar rune markings that you saw on the stone circle outside of the windmill. Oh, no. Yeah. Remember there? You went to that stone circle and you saw that pile of... Yeah, but these are like...

These teeth. And I immediately run over to the professor and I try to point out the rooms. These are from the stones that we saw outside of the three hags house. What? They should be dead. The hags are tormenting us from beyond the grave. Roll an intelligence check. Richie, you're a professor. Oh.

Oh, if it's me, uh... I would say that you remember that the dolls have gotten out of your case. Right. And we know that they've done grave robbing before. Yes. So...

Yes, as I was saying, it's possible that in our journey, they've escaped and collected this. I just don't know where they would have got this from. Sarnax, if you think for a second that there's any chance that these hags have some sort of power after we put them down for good, we need to get to the church and make sure the kids are okay. And Irina...

I do not know the magic of the Night Hag, but I have heard tales of dark forces, even after being slain, tormenting those that slain them. I will say, Rich, with that roll, you'd easily be able to tell that the doll probably climbed out of your pack when you were there at the stones, dug up a bunch of stuff, and basically stole teeth of a potential agent. Now that I think about it,

Perhaps it stole the teeth while we were there on our journey, as I was saying. From that pile? But perhaps the reason they're together is that they... That's basically what I was saying. Perhaps they collected this when they collected the teeth. Maybe.

Meaning the hag stole this gem. Didn't we burn the pile, though, of bones before we left? Well, we investigated the pile, so she probably escaped while we were looking around. Perhaps the doll was actually a savior. That we would have burned this gem had it not been for her kleptomancy. Well, we can be sure that she got the gem from the same place. Regardless, at the very least, we might be able to take this to the innkeepers, and that gentleman down there might just be able to identify that as one of the missing gems.

Could have saved us a lot of problems if we weren't heading to the winery anyway. Yes, indeed.

From the bar. I mean, the way I feel about it is that they basically said that if we don't get, they don't get their wine, there's going to be a riot on our hands. And these folks seem like they're at least a neutral party and very generous. So I don't see why they would cause trouble here in Milwaukee when there's potentially a riot to start. I would hope so. But they said that they're crawling with his father.

Regardless, he also asked us to go check it out at the, uh, to check out what was going on there at the winery. So if we identify the gem and we're heading there anyway, we can just deliver it. Perhaps I'm being paranoid over this. I would very much like to go to the winery. But Sarnax, you don't drink, Sarnax. I'm less interested in the fruits of this winery and more in the soil. I see. The fact that standard crop

can be grown at all in this place, not just the seeds I am planting, is of a great curiosity to me, and I wonder, perhaps utilizing similar gems for my own purposes, what could be gained? Wine is also very flammable, Sarnax. We must keep that in mind to not cause that entire place to go up in flames. My interest is even further piqued. Oh,

Oh, gosh. Could you please give the gem to Mr. Morgan? I think that's a great idea. Why don't you take it downstairs? The gem is on my person, safe and sound. No, please give it to Shepard. He will confirm with the innkeep that that is one of the gems. I will say, I know it's been a week, but you didn't hear from the innkeep about the gems. Right. For Rudolph Van Richten. Right. We know that him and his father had a falling out because his father believed that he stole it.

Oh. Wait, who's father? So the innkeeper's father is the Wizard of Wine. We haven't actually talked to him about the raven. We talked to him about... He asked Sarnax to say basically we could go check it out. That's how we knew there was some sort of... Okay. So he asked to check us out, but he doesn't know that we know about the gems. Correct. Okay, thank you. Appreciate that. Correct.

Which is why, Professor... So you don't want to just... You should not alarm them. You don't want to just... All right, all right, look, you're in charge. That's a good point, now that I remember it. I just thought if they could identify it, it would make our lives a lot easier. Everybody could get the wine they need when we deliver the gem. Yes, we should leave... You will deliver it to us. But first, Victoria, you said you didn't sleep well.

It's nothing. It was a terrible dream. See, it's curious that we've heard so much about bad dreams, but I've been sleeping fine. I haven't had any dreams. Perhaps the dream pastry lasts more than one night. Connor, how have your dreams been?

I miss the dreams of my dog from the garden.

You have no pastries. None. I will never sample such a fiendish delight. I have many regrets. I am certain you do. Let's just please be mindful of it. If any of our sleeps get unusually terrible, please just speak up. All right. Some tea and then we'll leave.

We'll head downstairs. I'll order some tea and drink it. You make your way downstairs and the entirety of the tavern area of the inn is completely devoid of people, including the two drunks that you remember seeing the day before, as well as Danica, the lady of the inn. It seems like this early in the morning everyone is fast asleep. Remind me of Danica's husband's name.

Irwin. Irwin. You humans have very similar sounding names. It all gets confusing. I believe that if we cannot speak with Irwin, if we make post haste to the winery, we may be able to solve their problems and arrive back and perhaps be rewarded. So let us continue.

of our journey, and you will not dredge up any bad blood with Irwin. Fair enough. Is there a hoff in this room, in the bottom room? It's burning embers at this point, but you could probably...

utilize your resources. I'm going to light the fire again and I'm just going to make a quick pot of tea. I'm going to use about ten minutes to just review my notes and drink my tea. Perhaps I should do the same. I'll prepare my spells and my divination business. Well, they always roll low, but that helps. So we wake up from a long rest? Mm-hmm.

So take the time that you need to get yourself set up for the day. There's nobody downstairs. Okay. No, you, you remember when you left early the day before and it only been three people, it was Danica who was still cleaning up and she seemed to be, I would say you're, um, you were perceptive enough that she seemed to still be spending time there because of the two drunks who were, um, passed out on the table, basically not willing to leave until they had vacated the building. Um,

And then, because there's no one there now, she's retired. I've joined the professor by the hearth and I've kneeled down, sitting back on my legs, on my heels, and I'm enjoying some green tea with him while he's preparing his notes and just staring into the hearth.

I'm just going to kind of sit by right now. Just sit quietly. You sit quietly by yourself and you watch as the town wakes up for the day. And there is definitely more of a jubilation to this place than there had been to Barovia proper. But there's also a weariness and you see as more and more people walk

are running around putting up the signs for the newest festival, the Festival of the Blazing Sun. And you notice how the townsfolk themselves almost turn and head the opposite direction when they notice these signs coming up, as if they don't want to be accused of unlawful unhappiness. I'm ready to go. As am I. Remember, everyone, if we see the Vestani from camp outside of town, make sure we do not engage with them.

Agreed. It was pretty shocking to find out that there are what our new friend called evil Vasani. Well, I'm...

All of them might not be evil. I think you're right. That's the reason for Chad. Better safe than sorry. Yes, yes. I agree. Let's not engage with any of them. We never know. We never know which ones are evil. I trusted them probably a little bit more than we should have. Yes. We all did, Shepard. There was...

I think a cold comfort in that some individuals were not in league with the Countess, but now it seems as if they were no better than individuals baiting souls. Well, I hope that Hataroka card reading was indeed genuine. I believe it is.

Those things are coming true. They're coming true. I just hope it's not some foul trick. Garrix. Garrix told me specifically that the readings in Madame Ava herself were trustworthy. And I believe that fervently, even if every single other Vistani is not to be trusted. Right. Well, onward? Onward. Do we know how long, roughly, this journey is?

Several hours by foot. So we can make the round trip in a day. No. Alright. You are here and you're traveling here.

Oh, shit. Wow. Holy shit. That's like as far as Brody's midlife was on. Probably a little bit further. Or about as far, but you remember that you stopped and stayed the night at the Stani camp. For what it's worth, then, we may not make it back to our... It was actually two nights, because you stayed the night at the Stani camp, and then you stayed the night at the windmill, and then you left in the morning.

Yes. Do we feel like we can get there, spend time there, and get back in time for the appointment? No way in hell. Out of character. Not a chance. Professor, do you want to maybe think of another course of action? I hate to waste a day just sitting around here, but it's probably, as much as I hate to say it, in our best interest to meet with the Wachters. We don't want to miss that again.

Well, you don't know...

I mean, if you were able to travel, if you were able to just get in your Ford Fiesta and drive there without any issue, then there's definitely a chance. But you don't know what you're going to come across. You don't know what you're going to have to do with the binary. Where do you even gas up? Yeah, you don't know where you're going to put your electric car. And we only have 36 hours until there. You're so worried for Rovio with all the cloud cover. We're less than two days.

But then we wouldn't be able to just get wine to the festival, right? Because the festival is the next day. Yes. So your options are essentially see if she's available for lunch or brunch or something in the midday.

and then go towards the evenings, but then you're doing night travel, or to just say you'll deal with her when you come back. Professor, if I may make a suggestion, I'm quite skilled at calligraphy. Perhaps we can send a note to...

Miss walked her and let her ask for a later appointment for dinner. I mean, we've already done it once. I don't hate trying it again. She just might... We just might lose our chance. That's all. And if this is a big lead, I don't know if we want to do that. I thought she found that rude. Perhaps this may be considered rude, but perhaps we call on her now for breakfast. Unannounced? It will give us an air of...

Miss Tooney, perhaps. We can send a note ahead of our arrival and maybe that would be sufficient. And plus, we're dealing with somebody who could potentially be very dangerous towards us. Yes. I'm not really concerned about being very rude or polite. Well, perhaps we send a note. Connor, if you'd like to draft something up.

As flowery as you can. So I will pull out my calligrapher's supplies and I will very elegantly to help match kind of the ongoing theme of the font that they use in Barovia draft up a letter to... How do I address it? Madam Wachter? Lady. Lady Wachter? Lady Wachter. Unfortunately, we have some plans that...

Perhaps something came up unexpectedly. I have no whiteout. That came up unexpectedly. And we will not be able to join you for dinner tonight. Would you like to meet for a late breakfast this morning? Signed,

Professor Azrin, the Azran Expedition, Miss Halloway University. Post-fit.

You may take it to the... Oh, no one's here, though. How are we going to get it to them? Are there any ravens? You look up and you see that the rafters are completely empty. The ravens that were roosting in the evening have retired to wherever they go during the day. I hope everybody's all right after learning what we learned. Here's what I suggest. We give this to Mr. Morgan here, and he will hand deliver it to their door

Just keep an eye out for any... With us in tow. I suppose we could all go, but that's a bit of a walk. I would not suggest Mr. Morgan. I would suggest Kana. Then yes. Okay. Mr. Morgan and I will tell you and observe...

Would you like me to go with great taste? Yes, yes. I believe that was it. I suggested Mr. Morgan simply because if anyone, if he runs into any trouble, he can just, like, shoot them in the face from far away. But I believe if we don't expect any danger, you two tail them.

I think we should always be expecting danger at this point, Professor. I mean, Professor, I don't think he should be shooting anyone in the face. Well, I agree, but if the need arises, having the ability to just go, you know, do one of those things that he does, you know. That would bring a quick end to our expedition, yes. I feel certain we'd have to leave town at once. Should we bring any gifts ahead of our arrival? I think that's a wonderful idea. Is that a custom that you people do?

Some people. I don't know what the custom is to drink here, but we normally bring our favorite tea or a bottle of rice. They are...

Okay.

Let us knock on the door and present ourselves. I'm so ungentlemanly. How about I go ahead? All right, Shepard and I will then be the ungentlemanly ones. I will go ahead and I will knock on their door, and if there are any issues, I can report back. If we're doing that, we might as well all just go. Let's just drop in on what's the worst that could happen.

They tell us to go away? All right. We know they're in there. They don't really go anywhere. It seems like they're kind of shut-ins, unless they're tailing us. Do I see from out the window if any shops appear to be opening up, or is it still too early? Most of the shops appear to be opening up, or have at least opened within the last 30 minutes or so. I agree with Mr. Morgan on this. There is no need for the pretense of gentlemanliness anymore.

when life and death are on the line, Professor. Feel free to keep up that facade, if you will. Not that I don't think that your intentions are genuine, but as Sarnak said, I'm kind of past the point of being polite.

How about this? We all go, but we let Kama go first, and we just act as if we're shopping. And to make it look like we are just being polite, delivering a letter, but if she calls us right away, Kama can wait for a response. We can join her as quickly as possible. I think that's fine. There are some things I'd like to pick up on the thoroughfare anyway. All right. Let's go.

I would like to just try to find a place that might be selling dried meat. I will say it's really easy for you to find what appears to be a general store. The door is wide open. People are milling about, going in and out with sacks of dried meat, cured meat, and some just raw meats ready to be cooked. Wow.

it would cost to buy several days' worth of dried wolf meat like rations is what I'd like to purchase. Okay. I will say it would...

there are a couple of things that, um, you look through the list. The, the shopkeep, um, is busy here and there, but he essentially passes you a parchment with what's available. Um, for, for 500 gold pieces, you could buy a bag of colding to store fresh meats. Fresh, fresh meat, um, is going to run you, uh,

three silver pieces per pound of fresh meat. The dried meat is actually more expensive because of the drying process and that's going to run you five silver pieces. Like per ration? Yeah. I want to buy nine rations of it. So nine times three is 27 silver? Yep.

I'm going to buy at least three meals a day's worth of this dried meat. My goal, basically, just in case anybody's curious, I'm not eating any of the food that anyone is giving us anywhere. And I'd rather just try to eat freshly butchered wolf meat to avoid any kind of impurities. And there are also water skins where you can purchase water skins for drinking, etc.,

Oh, that would be lovely. How much for that? I'll say I don't know, but I'm going to say it's like a one silver water skin. Done. I'll buy one refillable water skin. That'll be 28 silver pieces. Thank you very much. I would like to keep an eye out for a blacksmith. Okay.

I'll let you see one. I would like to look for any kind of store that might just have like, I guess not like jewelry, but like fine, you know, like a really classy gift shop. I assume they don't have flowers here, right? No, not really. I mean, you can find a place that sells like metals or maybe, um,

Yeah, maybe you could find some flowers, but it's not going to be what you would imagine where you can go in and find these beautiful bouquets. It's more like local vegetation that you can bring into your house just to try and spice it up a little bit. It's also a little drab and a little dreary. Okay. I will say you're not necessarily able to find a gift shop, but you're able to find a small, almost antique shop where it seems like it's a small elderly woman who is selling off...

It's almost like a large estate sale. People die, people sell their things to her and then she resells them. Professor Mayer, sorry go ahead. Alex, can I ask if you mind if I jump into the shot? Please do. Yes.

And so while we're doing that, I'll say a comment. You may deliver, yes. So I will take off at a full sprint towards where I believe Lady Wachter's residence is. With a note. It takes you about 15 minutes to get there from where the inn was. You head straight there and you see this...

gigantic, looming mansion in front of you. The door firmly shut. There's a small letterbox on the front that you can slip the letter through, or there are large knockers that you can... that you would be able to utilize if you wanted to attempt to get someone's attention. I will approach the large knockers, and I will just...

Distritely knock twice, not like a full on bang, but just in case there's somebody near the door to not wake the whole residence. I just knock twice and then I take like five, 10 feet step back and then I'm holding the note in my hand, just waiting patiently.

You wait for a moment as the knocking, you can almost hear it echoing down the hallway behind the door. And you're actually able to hear the skittering of footsteps, the thudding as someone's walking through the hallway. But no one comes to the door to open it. You see, or no one opens the door. You see that there's a small plate on the front that slides open and you see one person

malformed eyeball look through the door at you and it slams shut quickly and you hear the skittering again as you move down the hall. No one opens the door.

I step forward and just listen. I don't put my head up against it completely. I just listen to hear if the skittering is coming back at all. It doesn't sound. It sounds quiet, completely behind the door. I will take two feet back, do a 90-degree bow, and I will carefully slip the note through the slot.

Bow down. As you open the letter hatch, the creaking noise of the rusted hinges almost screams out at you. You hesitantly push the letter through and you can hear as it flaps and floats and lands gently on the floor. Dust bursts up. You can faintly see it, though it's really dark inside this hallway.

And as you close the letterbox and walk away, once again, you hear that same skittering setting of footsteps. It stops at the door for a moment and you listen. You hear almost a faint muttering or babbling as, once again, these skittering footsteps make their way further down the hallway. And it's nothing but silence. ♪

I wait five minutes to see if anybody comes back with an answer. And I'm like, I'm a respectable, like 10 feet away from the door now. Okay. Um, we will head to Victoria. So you make your way into the shop and you see there is a hunched older woman standing behind the counter. She's appears to be reading a book and she, uh, giggles and, uh,

one of the tendrils of hair away from her face as she looks into it. She looks up and her cheeks alight with rosiness. She slams the book shut and puts it down. Oh, hello! Can I read the title of the book over here? Love and Bones. Yeah! I'll give her a coy knowing smile. How can I help you? Well, aren't you a sweet little thing? Oh, thank you. I

She looks down and sees that the cover's still visible and she flips it over on the other side. On the back, you see what looks to be a skeletal man, a pirate, his outfit hanging away. Somehow, he still looks muscular with his skeletal form as he's holding this, um,

lithe woman. She's bent over backwards in this beautiful black dress, full bustled skirts, her hair ringleted falling down her back. It appears to be carved into the leather and realizing that you can see the back, she just knocks it off of the counter on the floor with a loud thud. It

Yes, I'm so sorry, dear. I'm so sorry to interrupt your reading time. I'm looking for a hostess gift for someone of a well-off nature. Do you have anything? Well, we have many things, necklaces and bracelets. There's tapestry. Oh, that might be much. We have a vintage bottle of champagne from the Wizard of Wands.

You can't get it anymore, you know. Oh, my. Well, that would be wonderful, but I'm sure that would cost a pretty good amount. Oh, yes. But, you know, you get what you pay for. Um, might I ask how much that would go for? Oh, please, ten gold pieces. Ten gold, I don't know.

Hello? I suppose that would do. Well, thank you. In that case, if another girl repeats, I'll throw in a red velvet bag. Um...

I think I'll just do the champagne. Oh, that is... And she makes her way towards the back and she bustles around on this large wooden shelf and you see as she knocks over bookends and trinkets, a few porcelain or ceramic figurines and she finds this...

She comes to this large bottle that's completely covered in dust, but you can see firmly on it the label for the Wizard of Wines and the sign of the type of wine that it is. I'll tell you in a minute. Champagne de l'Estonne.

It's Champagne, B-U-L-E-S-T-O-M-P. Great. Thank you so much.

Fifty year vintage. Oh my. It is quite the treasure. Well, it will be turned over then. Thank you. She passes it back to you. I appreciate it. Thank you. You make many friends with a gift like this. That is my hope.

Good day to you too. And you see as she you can see that she's like her foot's rummaging around. So I'll go back out and join the professor in their thoroughfare. You do this.

So I've gotten a gift that I think would be suitable for our hostess. I agree with you that we should keep our demeanor civil. Get more flies with honey than vinaigrettes. So what gift did you get them? I've actually found a bottle of vintage champagne from the Wizard of Oz. How do they say that to me?

Have they just not sold it yet? She said that it's a 15-year vintage. That's curious. Well, clearly bottles still exist, despite the crystal being stolen. Well, either way... Do you recall when the champagne field dried up? About ten years ago. Ten years ago? So, it seems very unlikely that...

This would go unsold for that long. Well, it seems to be in a state store. Perhaps it just came onto the market some time ago. Perhaps. Well, by the way, if we are invited, we can bring it. We'll wait for Connor. I have found to catch more flies, it is best to use the large carnivorous plant, not honey.

Are you looking to catch flies, Victoria? More of an expression, but that is good to know, should we find ourselves in need of flies. Oh. Well, if you need to catch flies, we will talk. Thank you, Mr. Solace. My lizard tongue will like you. About five minutes or so pass. And...

You once again hear these same skittering footsteps as the letterbox opens and the letter slowly drops to the ground in front of the door. I wait for the skittering to go away, or I guess I pause for a second to listen to see if the person goes away.

you don't hear any movement from the door. And as you get closer, you hear a... ... ... ...

I quietly, I just slowly start reaching for the letter. I peel it open just a little bit to see if it's addressed to me or if it's addressed to the professor. Professor Asher. Okay. So I just keep it completely sealed. And... Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

I just step backwards and then I make haste and haul ass back to the professor. You're easily able to make your way back to the town square where everyone's finishing up their shopping. You see Professor and Victoria outside of a small, what appears to be an antique shop.

As they're having a conversation, you're able to walk straight up to them and join up with them right as Shepard is making his way back over with a few satchels full of dried meats and a water scan. I quickly but calmly approach the professor with a note in the hand and, uh, Professor, please. Oh, are we invited? It's addressed to you. I have not read it yet. I'm opening up the read. Professor Asrin.

I'm sorry to hear that you will not be joining me for dinner tonight. I have rearranged some plans. Lunch at noon. Kind regards, Lady Fiona Wachter. We have lunch plans. Afternoon. It was great news. Were you able to see with anyone at the house? It was only a letter exchange. It was only a letter exchange? No one answered the door?

and there was a very deep breathing on the other side. Well... So a single eyeball? I assume that the lady has a hatchet. Oh. Well, that seems to be the standard ramp here for the nobles, so maybe that's just how they do things. All right, well, is it approaching noon?

I would say it's probably around 8, almost 9 in the morning. We should get there a few minutes early. Yes, of course. Why would we get there a few minutes early? They requested us new. Functional. Functional. Late situation. Is on time. A true gentleman is never late, Sean asks.

So you arrive early so that just in case you're held up, you arrive precisely on time, even if you're late. Yeah, the doc always, good doctor always told me it's better to be 15 minutes early than five minutes late.

I'm going to go to Blinz games. We don't want you going alone, Sarnax. I'm coming with you. I will be fine, but you may join if you wish. I am checking on my commission. Oh, that's right. It's probably best we sit together. He told you it was going to be like a week. I know. The rest of us, come with me. Let's meet back here in an hour. Is it all right if I go? Yes, please go. All right.

I want to actually seek out the blacksmith shop. So yes, you look around and I'll say it takes a while. You don't find what looks to be necessarily a blacksmith, but it is an old building that has an attached blacksmith.

not garage but almost like a studio area an outside area with a forge where you do see um a soot covered um older gentleman um hammering into something um you don't see looking around it appears that the house attached seems to be a home you don't see anywhere where it looks like it's a um

a building, like a store of any kind. But he does seem to be working on something. I'll approach. Uh, excuse me, my good man. Hello? Um, do you offer services for paying customers? That depends on what you're looking for. Do you have any silver weapons? I've had that request here and there. I don't have much for silver, so you will have to provide it yourself. Oh, all right, well...

We need to silver this, and I gesture to be Naginata, the connoisseur. I'm She-Man, and I present it to him. It is a very nice weapon that you have here. I could silver it if you have the silver for it. Once we get you the silver and you start, how long will it take?

Well, I don't really have much on my plate currently. Probably by the end of the first night or the second. All right. Well, we will keep an eye out for Sybil and we will return. All right. I will be here. Do we know how much?

How much? Well, for a weapon like that, if you bring the silver yourself, I've got 200 gold pieces. All right, that sounds... How much silver do you have? Well, probably 50 silver coins would probably be sufficient enough to cover the entire tip of that weapon. Oh, we can just give you silver coins? Well, they melt to silver, yes.

Oh, why didn't I think of that? I probably have 50 silver coins, right? I would say. Well, you will also need your weapon, so... I have my hunker as well. My shotgun, if needed. And a short sword. Do you have any loner weapons available? I have my guitar. It's not as strong as my nagi, but I should be able to do it.

Well, then, perhaps we should have this done. I feel like we should get it done as soon as possible. I have some gold, too, to spare. No, no, don't worry. Truly, I insist. This is a grand gesture on your part. I appreciate it. This

Do you mind if I continue to hammer away before he skips gold? Yes, please. He turns around looking a bit confused as he begins to hammer away. Well, we'll just leave this here and I'll put... Oh, if you're ready to make the decision, I will take it from you. Best not to just leave it sitting about to weaponize. I have 149 gold.

Well, let me pay for at least 150 of them. That's why he has all the money. Okay, I know, but I insist... I don't want to, like, offend you, though, or anything. No, no, I insist, Professor. I would love to be able to contribute. Okay, then 50 gold, I will pay for the rest. Thank you, Professor. And I'll place the silver separately. So you're doing 50 silver and 150 gold, and then you're doing 50 gold, and I'm putting my naginata on the counter.

and just taking out my Kitana and just inspecting it for any sort of impurities. And then I sheath that and take out my Haku and make sure that it's bing, bing, bing. And then I put that on my back. Seems to be working just fine.

It's a beautiful bing, bing, bing sound. Wow. Great. So I'll return to where we're going to be though. The two of you are heading to Blinsky's. You make your way to the front of the shop. The door is closed as you slowly open it. The creaking sound of the rusting hinges, um,

scream out and the little ding of the bell almost feels louder even though you were expecting it this time as you make your way in. The room is completely illuminated by candlelight here and there and you see Blinsky hunched over tinkering with a toy as it opened on the tabletop and

Piccolo the monkey is perched on his back, digging through his hair. He looks over for a second, but doesn't say anything. And he continues to work. Blinz? He's not ready. I told you, one week. One week? How long would it take to get an additional purchase? Well, that depends. What are you looking for, friend? Shepard.

Yes? Can you please check out that corner over there? I believe I saw something. What? In the corner in the toy shop over there, I believe I saw something for the young child, Thomas, that you care for. Do you want me to go away? Yes, Shepard, I would. You know, Sarnax, you can just say that if you need privacy.

I didn't need to come. I just wanted to make sure you were there. There also may be a toy for Thomas, the child that you care fondly for.

Goddamn, Sarnax, I'll be outside. And I just go outside the toy shop and I'm just waiting outside the door. All right, you do that. You wait outside the door. I would also like to add an additional commission. Could you create the exact same dragon but make it silver in color and have it breathe the same destructive fire? Do you want it to breathe actual fire or do you want it to breathe ice? Ice.

No, this will be fire. Well, if that is what you would like, I could easily do that. How much would that cost? Well, you know, you're adding a lot of work onto what I'm already doing. Five gold pieces. I can do that. That is 10% of my gold. Ha ha ha!

Jesus. I'll reach into my pack. It's just like a little small thing. One. Two. And I count out all of the coins and I will say... I will not add on additional times. I will be able to use... I will be able to do much of the work at the same time. But...

Don't come back. Not until it's done. I will come back in one week. That is one whole week. Seven days. Seven days. From today or yesterday? Yesterday, Fred. Six days. I shall return then. And you will not let your...

creature get any primate oils over the toys, will you? Piccolo does what Piccolo wants to do. But I don't think he has oil. I do not know what you mammals do. Otherwise, farewell. I'll join Shepard.

For the record, for future purposes, if you've got to do something in private, you can just tell me to go away. You don't have to try to trick me. I just wanted to make sure you were safe coming here because I don't trust that slimy son of a bitch.

Well, thank you very much. I said he was slimy due to the oils of his primate. That's thank you for probably weirdly accurate. I believe it is. I don't think he probably... He's so ingrained in the oils of that filthy beast, he does not notice it.

Regardless, I'm sorry if I crashed your party. I just wanted to make sure. It is as you say this that you see that Blinsky is standing behind you. That is not a nice thing to say. I was coming out there. You gave me one extra silver, one extra gold piece. You may keep it as a tip.

Thank you. I'm assuming you don't want it now that it's covered in the filthy oils of my primates. And he slams the toy shop as you walk back into the toy shop. Well, that was not real. I'll lean in and I'll say, yes, that is exactly why. LAUGHTER

All right, Sarnax. Are you good? Should we get back to the professors? Yes. All right. Let's get a move on. We will assemble in five minutes before noon. We will go to the front door and knock. That was fucking gold. Yes, that is exactly why.

Okay, so you are... Where are you meeting? What are you doing? We're meeting in the Taylor Square, and then five minutes before noon, we will approach the house at Nocturne. All right, you make your way back down the lane towards Walksher House. And you...

For the sake of it having been a week, I'll read the description of the house to you again. You make your way up to it. This house seems disgusted with itself. A slouching roof hangs heavy over furrowed gables, and moss-covered walls sag and bulge under the weight of the vegetation. As you study the house's sullen countenance, you hear the edifice actually groan. Only then do you realize the extent to which the house hates what it has become. So it's like definitely a spooky house. Yeah.

He's staring up at it. Is it loose? Do you want me to knock on his door? Yes, please do. I will keep an ear out from heavy breathing. I will approach and I will...

Tap the knockers a little bit more loudly this time now that I feel like most people are probably awake. Give it two knocks and tap a couple of steps back and wait. Can I say while we were walking that I cleaned the bottle with my skirts or something? Yeah, you had more than enough time from when you bought it. It's pristine. Professor helped you with some Prestigio and helped you to clean it off. And it looks...

It looks like a beautiful bottle of champagne. Yes. You knock on the door. The sound reverberating through the cavity behind it, behind the door. And you wait. It takes a minute.

before you begin to hear latches and tumblers moving behind the door. As it slowly swings in, the front door opens into a narrow vestibule. Three stained glass doors and wooden frames bleed out from it.

You'll notice that there is the gardens on one side facing towards me, and the doors facing towards Victoria and Kling. There doesn't appear to be anyone standing at the door. It's just open. Hello?

You slowly see a man, and you immediately recognize him as the hunched-over older man that's been trailing you. As he steps out of the shadows, and he waves his hand at you, and he begins to make his way out of the vestibule area. I beckoned you to follow me, not the rest of the walk-in hall.

Hello, my good man. How are you today? He opens another one of the doors and you see what appears to be a stairwell going up as he walks in through, closes the door behind himself and you're left in a small foyer, the door in front of you leading towards a stairwell where he had left from. Two doors, one to your right and one to your left.

Yes, I'm here. Should we just... Well, we have an invitation. Just don't do anything quite yet. Excuse me. Hello, we're here. We accepted your invitation. Please, if anyone is home, we'd like to meet you.

Your voice echoes throughout this small area. It almost makes the doors themselves shake with the tonality of it. Looking around, you see that this is an incredibly ornate house. The wealth of this family is immense. Everything is pristine and perfectly clean. Even the doorknobs themselves have filigree designs on them, and they are fantastic.

a near-perfect shine. You wait for one more moment as the door that the man had left in slowly opens, and he turns towards you, and he points directly towards the door to your left. As he slowly closes the door again, and you hear him skittering up the stairs. All right, well, at least that's direction. Connor,

Let's you and I head in first. Sarnax, you watch our backs. Professor and Victoria, stay in the middle. Stay safe, all right? Mr. Shepard, I implore you to go with Grace into this room. We've been invited. You should be acting as though we are guests and so on. Understood. Until it comes up otherwise. Would you like me to go first? Yes, I do come. Very well. I'll knock on the door.

wait for any sort of invitation. If I hear nothing, then I'll try again. You knock and you hear nothing but silence greet you. Slowly turn the handle and you've become used to the sound of the rusty hinges, but there is no sound here as the lock slowly tumbles open and the door swings open almost noiselessly as you walk in to an ornate dining room.

A dining table stretches the length of this room, crystal chandelier hanging above it imperiously. The silverware isn't tarnished at all. The dishes chipped. They're all quite elegant. H-chairs, their backs adorned with sculpted elk horns surround the table. Arched windows made of a latticework of iron and glass look out onto the small fog-swept estate. Then off towards the back of the room.

Three elegant couches surround an oval table made of black glass. All are set in front of a blazing hearth, above which hangs the portrait of a smirking noble, sporting a broken nose and a tangle of hair graying at the temples. Several smaller portraits hang on the north wall. It is here that you see a woman in all black, sitting cross-legged on one of these couches, her hands tapping along the wooden

the wooden arm of the couch as she looks at all of you. Well, welcome to my home. Before, so they go in first. Just before I cross the threshold, I'm going to say, Curio, my case will open up. I'm going to take out a little piece of leather. A dull stash of this. Actually? No. How much damage do I do? No. You have to do it. I would like to say, I'm also in cast major. Okay.

I bow. Yeah, my hat is off. I'm holding it to my chest. I do a little nod and say, I'm sorry to interrupt. We were let in, and the professor's right behind us. I believe your letter was addressed to him. Yes, yes. Hello there, madam. Hello. I am Professor Clayton. Please take a seat. We will enjoy drinks before we have our lunch, please. I'll wait for everyone to sit down, and if there's no room, I'll just kneel on the ground.

There's enough room for everybody to sit at the CTs. Thank you for your hospitality. And the invitation. I had to move a few things around to be able to accommodate you here, but...

"I was interested in meeting the new folks in town, you see." "Well, you're certainly gracious." "Absolutely. We've brought you a gift for having us." "Well, you did not have to, but she immediately grabs for it." "I see. How did you come across this?" "Oh, a huge shop in town. I can't recall the name of it." "Well, the dead always have the best trinkets," she puts it away.

And you see as she opens up the table in front of you, it has a little latch. She pulls out, you see five bottles of champagne, the exact same Wizard of Wine champagne. She pulls out a newer bottle and puts it down. We will let that one age. These are 150 years old. I see. Now, you would all like a drink, glass? Yes. I set them out for you.

It's a little too early for me. It is never too early to have champagne. Ah, well. You wouldn't want to be rude in my mind. Oh, no, no, of course not. Of course not. I slowly reach forward and take one glass and give the professor a knowing look. Pour the wine for the ladies. Oh, it's not poured yet. Do you mind?

I asked you to. Did I not? Monom. And I will have my mage hand, grab it. Oh, yes. A man of the arcane. And I will have it for... Oh. Six glasses. I'm going to put my hand over the glass.

You will forgive me. I do not partake. No, I would not. Please, have a drink. You are in my home. My religion forbids it. You must understand. Well, my home encourages it. So please, have a drink. He is a holy man, and I have ensured him that I would not require him to do, as part of his exposition, require him to do anything against his religion. And that is lovely for you, but I have not promised anything, and I miss him. But we all have a drink in my home.

Starnax, is this really going to be a problem? This is quite rude to bring a reptile into someone's home. Now, now. And allow them to be so rude to their hostess. But, buddy, and I just lean a little closer. Are you going to be all right with this? I'm not trying to push you here. I will be fine. Please proceed, Professor. I do not want to be rude to our host. Yes. You see she gives you a fake smile.

Yes. Well, thank you. To Barovia. Can I whip it, really? To Vaktor House. I have a quick question. Is there any kind of

Damn it. So, if you use an arcane focus to cast a spell, it removes the verbal and semantic components of the spell. If I wanted to try to use a spell called detect fine traps, would I be able to do that undetected, or would I need to do some sort of roll? You'd have to roll a sleight of hand.

So it removes the material. It removes material, not verbal or somatic. Yeah. Okay. That's all that I wanted. Thank you. And it's only material components that don't have a cost. Right. So if it says like a pearl worth 50 gold stops by the fall. Got it. Got it. Could I, before, while they're like speaking, could I quickly like whiff the wine just to see if I'm able to pick up any traces of poison? Sure. Roll a nature check. Okay.

Six. Sounds like wine. It's really potent. You can tell that this has definitely been aged for years. Okay. I'll take... As soon as they finish it, I'll take the first one. And you can roll a sleight of hand to make it look like you. I'm going to be doing that. I figured, but I figured I'd let you know. I'm going to just take it and do a... Touch your lips. And I will attempt to do that.

It could be worse. Sleight of hand. 16. You can tell she's keeping her eye on you a little bit, but she notices as Kana goes in to smell the wine. Oh, it is a great vintage. She does not notice as you don't drink. Very different from the rice wines that we create back home. Why would anyone make wine out of rice? It is a tradition back in the day. You see, it's for poor people.

It can be consumed by many. I think the aging process definitely appeals to those of grander stature. Yes, I'm sure. So what brings you to Barovia? Well, this is my expedition to Barovia. I am working, I'm the archaeology professor from Iskallari University, and it's been my life's work to research archaeology

the unknown places, hidden places, uncovering relics. And Barovia was at the top of my list. What inspired you to delve into Barovia? The allure, the romantic...

You see their demeanor begin to change a little bit as you talk about your passion for Barovia. Oh, I see. I heard tales. I've read stories of people encountering Vistani along the road or in their camps and mentioning this land called Barovia.

And I dug into it and no one believed it existed. They didn't. And you have proven them wrong. That's right. So I set out to prove that it did exist. There was too much evidence for it not to. And so here we are. I'm learning everything I can while we're here. And this is my expedition to do so. That is just charming. How do you like Barovia?

Well, I love it a lot. I'm not a fan of... Vel. The Bergogaster, you see. Oh, why's that? Because he just...

You've met him, haven't you? Of course you have. You cannot have been in this town for a mere day and have not met him. No, I don't. Have we met him? He's so full of himself. We have not. No. He's so, so full of himself. They believe he knows what is best for the town of Volaki. Which is not really the case. He angers the Countess. Why would you ever want to do something like that?

Something quite like that. Can I insight check her on that statement? She is the best thing that could have happened to our land. Ah, yes. Now, of course, if I had my way, he would not be the Bergomaster very much longer.

Oh, how does it work? I'm not sure how succession for Virgo mastery works. Well...

His son will obviously take up as Bergomaster once he's passed. I don't think that will happen for a while, unless something were to happen to him. But even then, his son would take up the mantle once he was of age. I did try to set his eyes on my sweet daughter, Fiona, or Stella. My name is Fiona. My sweet daughter, Stella. But he is a strange boy.

And he did not seem interested in my sweet girl. That's quite rude. Well, hopefully his festivals are at least a pleasure. Have you been to one? No, no. We arrived in town right after... What would you know about his festivals? They are dreary. I've just seen the masks and the paper mache. You see him cutting people in the stalks.

All because they did not have fun when he was carting around an entire wagon full of bleeding wolf sets. How is that supposed to bring joy to the people of Barovia? You know, if he would stop irritating our dear Stradania...

then I believe the village would be in much better straights. Of course, of course. You know, as they say, the ones in power, you know, meet the new boss same as the old boss, as they say, right? No. Well, just, you know, what is that old saying? Whole power corrupts wholly? Absolute power corrupts absolutely? No. No.

Well, I'm sorry about your... If I were to be the Bergomaster, I would make sure that we were always on the right side of the countess, and she would favor our small village. And because... Sorry. My insight check for all this has been 20. And because of that, I know that Malachi would prosper. But, well, I don't see eye to eye. I don't see eye to eye.

So, here we are. Here we are, yes. She seems to be completely honest. So she's not, like, trying to lie? Okay. So, I'm curious. What made you seek us out and invite us to dinner? How did you hear of us? Well, you know, if you are to retain power anywhere, you need to make sure that you always know the goings-on of your little village. And we may not be the very good master, but...

I am the richest woman in town. So, that comes power of its own. Oh, yes. That's very wise. And, might I inquire, what would you do if you were to keep this town happy and the context? Well, I, of course, wouldn't put people in stocks for being obsessed. Such. Absolutely. He's so full of himself. I would...

I would let Danya know that she had an ally in me. And in doing so, I would communicate with her and I would do the bidding that she would like me to do. And in that, I would ask for her protection and her grace. And it kind of allowed me, of course. And she's very powerful in that.

So if we were not constantly trying to make her angry, I don't see why she wouldn't do this for us. It's so necessary that we have a wife. At expense. Do all that of the life for darkness. It's not the pleasure of seeing her to counsel you.

Oh, but have you been invited to dinner? Yes, yes, we have. And she seems very lovely. Then you are lucky indeed. Not everyone has tried, but I have not been so lucky to have an invitation myself. But should I be someday the Burgomaster, then I believe she would invite me to dinner. I see. So is that your hope? If you could become the Burgomaster, then maybe Shudanya would...

She seems to be honest.

She's a type of personality you haven't really met before. She's looking her nose down at all. The only person she's even sort of giving respect to is Clayton. And that all turned after he started talking about his interest in Barovia. She seemed to have a connection there, but it's really hard to read her.

So, shall we have lunch? Of course. The table is all set. So, if you are done with your wine and champagne... I'll finish mine and I'll put it on the table. And I guess die horribly. She tips hers back and she slowly gulps down every last drop of the champagne. I would not want to waste a drop. Well, to the dining table, then.

And she steps up, the bustle behind her billowing out as she rises. She turns, she doesn't even look at you. She makes her way towards the head of the table. She waits for a moment and looks around. And you can see her foot is moving back and forth as if she's irritated as a side door opens up and that strange man walks in, pulls her chair out. She sits down, pushes her chair in. He lights a few of the candles.

looks between all of you and then shuffles off back into the same side door. I'll sit down but I will wait behind my chair for her to sit first and then I will sit down. She's sitting down. Have I seen any kind of like

I guess, would bathrooms or restrooms or washrooms be common in houses like these? Yes. Washrooms, yeah. If you don't mind, do you mind if I take just a brief trip to the washroom before lunch, before I sit down? Well, if you must. Could you point me in the right direction?

Well, there is a servant's quarter. Quarter of two. And she points over. So if you look at the map, you'll see that there's a door connecting the den off to a back area with some beds. These servants are there. So it would just be in there somewhere.

I believe that's what they do, their motion. All right, thank you. I would like to go back there and find the... As I'm going through, I want to just sort of look around and see if I can get any sense of thinking of on the card...

And I believe the Taroka card reading had something about... Oh, you have it up? It's kind of Victoria. She keeps the treasure under lock and key with bones of an ancient enemy. So anything that seems locked or that seems...

hidden or anything like that as I walk into the servants quarters. I'm going wherever she directed me, yes. I'm not going to like step out anywhere. This podcast is brought to you by our Patreon. Become a patron today at patreon.com slash legends of Avantris and gain access to tons of exclusive perks including a monthly movie night and a weekly Patreon exclusive campaign set on the high seas. Shroud over saltwater.

You can also go to the crooked moon.com to pick up your own copy of our first published supplement, the crooked moon, a folk horror tome for dungeons and dragons. And don't forget to snag all the extra goodies like dice, miniatures, plushies, a tarot deck and more. Thank you.

You make your way into the servants quarters and you see that it is in very similar fashion to everything else, but significantly more drab. There are four beds that line the wall, a small wash basin that does house a small amount of water, a cloth off to the side.

It is devoid of most things. There are a few chests which you quickly rummage through and it has bed linen and change of outfits, etc. And there is another door off to the side leading in a direction of the house that you have no idea where it would connect you. I will, if I can, and it wouldn't be too unreasonable, take ten minutes in the washroom

Would that be, like, would that seem unreasonable? I don't know. You would have to decide that, not me. I will take ten minutes, and hopefully with no one watching, I would like to cast as a ritual to detect magic. And then once I'm done... And what's the radius of detect magic? 30 feet. Yeah, you do not sense magic. So, as we... I guess if you guys want to do anything while I'm in there, because

Not unless she leaves the table. She sits down and she looks between all of you. As you walk away, you see her as she begins to butter the bread that's on the table. And she looks between all of you and smiles. Lady Walter, you've got to...

Beautiful. Just stunning. Well, thank you. How long have you been here, my darling? Your accent is very, very easy for me to fall into, so I have to try and be... Sorry. It's really hard. It's really hard to be an asshole with Victoria. That hurts. That hurts. Well, thank you. I do appreciate it. This has been in my family for as long as I can remember.

It's just stunning, really. And I saw that portrait above the mantel. I saw the portrait. Why did I ask? Is that a relative of yours? It's mine. This is my late husband. Oh, I'm sorry. Darling. No, it's fine. We love you so much. It'll even do me safe.

When did you lose sleep? Far too long ago. I sleep little way. How did he meet his end? Yes, just like I said, very polite. Lady's not the kind of question that you ask a lady during lunch. You're going to have to please be patient with our friend Sarnax here. He's not from around here. He's not used to our customs. He came down with an illness.

He wears them, as though I tried to nurse him back to health. I was unfortunately unable to do so. It's awful that must have been so difficult for you. It was. And for the boys. Your children? Yes, my two lovely, my two lovely, striving young boys. Oh.

Can we take a sense of how old she is? Probably late 40s, early 50s. She said she had two sons. Oh, no, I can't show you this picture. Didn't she say Stella was her daughter? Mm-hmm. Oh, she has more than two kids. Indeed. I'm still in the future. Let me know when I'm back. Do you do much gardening? No.

I, no, I do not. Is, who is then tending to the garden outside your home? Obviously my servants tend to my garden. Again, please, we appreciate your hospitality and patience with our friend here. He has quite literally a green thumb. He's interested in that kind of a thing.

Oh, this was a joke because he is a green lizard. Well, I mean, it turns out that it's humorous, but no, I'm being serious. He has a great interest in gardening. What other color would my thumb be? Well, I motion to myself and then I motion to the ladies and I show you my red skin and I'm like, I don't know. Sorry.

Our deepest condolences for the loss of your late husband, Lady Wachter. Your children, will they be joining us for lunch? Oh no, they will not be. My sweet darling Stella was not. She's been having such a time since the Burgomaster's sons burned her. And my two sons do not spend time here since their father's death.

Yet I know, in the time of conversation, you would get into inviting me to lunch, I think I might have escaped. Again, we're sorry, we can just move on. Sarnax? Yes, gardening. Do you know what they plant in the garden? Honestly, I think that would be even worse of a conversation than you prying into my own life.

Sarnax, maybe we just, for the rest of the lunch, just enjoy what we have here and maybe don't talk anymore. But you are telling me that you are all part of this expedition. Yes, that's correct. So you must all be interested in Grovia. And in so much, the Countess Redania. Yeah.

Very much so. I suppose so. And your thoughts on the Countess? We have seen her once on our passage to Milwaukee, and she's very beautiful. We have seen her twice. Oh, did we see her last time? Yes, we did. Sorry. We have seen her twice on our journeys. She took my breath away. She's quite beautiful.

It was very coarse. And you see, as you say this, that her countenance shifts once again, as she looks, well, in that case. And you see as the same shambling man comes out, and this time the porridge and the salads and the soups that is on the table, he is now bringing out trays and trays of delicious pastries and roast meats.

and filling up your glasses with sparkling waters and different beverages. Let us... Please, then, let us have lunch together. Where is the professor? He's taking quite a while in these servants' quarters. Would you like me to go find him? No. I apologize for the wait. No, I'm just concerned...

Does he have bowel issues? Yes, he does, Star Max. Well, when you come to a certain age, men have a tendency of having weak bowels. Indeed, Star Max. It's quite appropriate for us, Star Max, to agree with our hostess. I agree with what you say. Well... Anyway...

Let me know when I will be back. Yeah. It's been about 10 minutes. Come save them. Look at you. No, it's not you. You're the one who's snooping around in the background. We're all just twiddling our thumbs. So on our way back, first I want to open the door that I don't know where it goes. It's very subtly. I'm just going to peek in. Do you? I do. You open the small door to find a certain closet. Okay.

Coats and aprons hang from hooks in this room, and boots are neatly lined up against the wall. Can I have you make a perception check for me, please? Oh, it's almost a natty 20. Almost. So 12. You look around, and though you don't sense any magic, something about this closet appears off to you. As you run your hands along the wall, you find a latch hidden towards the back of you.

as you slowly pull it open. The door creaks, very faintly, not enough to alert anyone outside of this small room. As musty, dank, cold air laughs into your face as you notice, as you find a secret stairwell leading downstairs. Moss-covered stone stairs leading straight down into darkness.

I look down the stairs. I look back. I look down the stairs. I look back. Oh, it hasn't been that long. I just... Invisio. And I want to make myself invisible. And just very briefly... Yeah, very briefly. And then come back. You're just gonna peek in. I just want to peek in.

Iron torch sconces cling to the wall of the stone staircase that cuts its way through the heart of this old house. As you slowly make your way down, none of them illuminated, but you can see at the bottom a small oil well that looks like it could easily be lit and has the faint traces of soot having been lit sometime recently.

Wow. Wow.

Seated in four of the five chairs are men and women in black robes with hoods. A young man who has the face of an angel, a balding hulk of a man, a squashed middle-aged woman, and a taller, younger woman with an unsettling glare. None of them seem to notice you. What the fuck? I peek. I just quick. So if that's all I see, I'm going to fucking note all the way back. Okay.

So the professor's irritable bowel syndrome is the reason for his incredible delay. Sarnax. That's enough. When I come back up, I want to shut all the doors behind me and get back on the service course, make sure no one's there, drop invisibility, and then quickly hustle back while passing...

The champagne that we ate and then getting to the food, just seeing if anything blows as magically to me. Okay. So you were saying...

Because it's going to be longer now that you decided not to just come straight back. My apologies again, lady, for the tardiness of the professor. But while we are here, perhaps we can inquire on your favorite places to visit in Barovia, as we are very eager to learn more about these lands. I don't find much is nice to visit here.

They do go into town on occasion, but it is mainly for the festivals we're all required to be there. And they are drab and dreary. My favorite place to be is here, under the

Loving gaze, my sweet husband Nikolai. She glances over fondly to the portrait over the mantel. How sweet. I share her gaze onto the mantel. If I may inquire, what were your favorite moments with Sir Nikolai? All of the time we spent together.

and he understood me like nobody did. And though he did not always align with me, he was the best person to keep me in check. He did not feel the same way I do about the Countess Bredania or the Bergomaster necessarily, but he was a good, what is it they call it, a devil on your shoulder, right?

And he was a sweet man. And the world is a worse place for him not being good. But he's always with me. He watches over me while I sleep.

Can I discern what she might, if she meant that literally? Like, perception check. Watching over me always. Not bad. 22.

There was something very strange about the way that she said those last two statements, this idea of him always being with her and watching over her while she sleeps. There was a sense of, of truth to it. Um, and a sense of, um, what's the word I'm looking for? Um,

You know when something's not a metaphor? Literal. Literal, yes, thank you. It seemed like a very literal statement. Did she say before when he died? She didn't. A long time ago, that's all she said. She said too long ago. Too long ago. Too long ago. I have consulted with many who have experienced loss.

In an attempt to ease the suffering, what have you found helps you feel like he is watching over you? Well, I will retire to my room and take a nap. Find myself in the comfort of his loving embrace. Can I see if she meant that literally, too? Sure.

Not as great. Ten. It's hard to tell. If, and do you mean in his embrace with his memory? Of course. Of course. But aren't you happier?

The present. What are some of your favorite things about the Countess that you can tell us that bring you the most joy in your heart? I would have to say that she rewards those who serve her well and punishes those who

who go against her, which I think is a very strong trait for someone who plans to rule. You see, when you allow people to just run wild and they have no control, then they will destroy all that is good in this world. And those that work for her service are rewarded handsomely. And I think that that does a lot to...

incentivize people in, say, heavy amounts of wealth, you see. So you would say that she rules with an iron fist, exploiting her power and privilege over those beneath her.

I would never say anything of the gang, actually. I am saying it to you. That would be a way to anger the Countess, would it not, Sarnax? Is that not an admirable trait? Does that not keep the common folk in line? If they are not doing things to anger her, what do they have to fear? Indeed. A wonderful sentiment.

That is why those in Barovia village do not fear her. As someone as... No, I haven't been. Is it nice there? Under her watchful gaze. They are so lucky, you see, because they are the closest thing to her castle. She looms over them. It is unfortunate that we are not closer.

Would you consider moving there, Lady Locker? Oh, no. They do not have a house that is grand enough for me. Of course, this is the grandest home we have. I would not want to leave Locker House. And it is right about this time that the door opens and her attention turns. Well, I see that you are back. I'm so sorry. Yes, yes, I'm back. Unfortunately, Wolfmeat does not agree with me.

I've been eating quite a lot of wolf meat lately. I think that is enough, Professor. Oh, yes, yes, thank you. Lovely lunch, Brevin. Is there any wolf meat? There is boar here, if you'd like some boar. Oh, yes, boar would be lovely. A nice change, certainly. Please take a seat. I'll take a seat. Any magic business? Yep. Um...

Professor, we were just speaking with Lady Wachter in your absence on her late husband, Sir Nicolai. Oh. May he rest in peace. Yes, may he rest in peace. So sorry to hear about your husband. Thank you. He was a grand man. Sounds very lovely.

And I start eating. I wait for her to start eating. There's mere silence as you just hear the clink of the professor's fork and knife on the... as he slowly eats. The sound of his chewing unusually loud in the silence around me. Seeing that he's eating and not wanting to be completely awkward, I'll help myself to some more meat only. Okay.

and just begin slowly cutting it all up and moving it around my plate. She slowly slathers some preserves on the bread that she had at the side and takes a bite. She takes a little bit of the meat and builds herself a small tea sandwich, and she begins to consume alongside you. Do you have any fowl available? No.

I'm sorry. I just read Vox Monado. Wolfmeat doesn't agree with me. Is there any wolfmeat here? It's a Satan's friggin' breath. I would like to avoid the wolfmeat if at all possible. I'm sorry, what were you saying, Mike? Is there any fowl? Oh, yeah. I will say there is. I will stick to the alien flesh.

Excuse him. Have you already said to him? We have excused him. That's right. I'm a little less appetizing. We've tried, Professor. You won't shut up. Well, I wouldn't force him to shut up. This is a pleasant lunch conversation. Just if you could be understanding of his... I have been. Thank you. And understanding of your... small jokes about my home. Thank you.

There was no jaunting about your phone. Unless you mean jaunting to the washroom to use the bathroom. I'm all in deception, Jack. You'd be lying.

I try to distract her gaze really quickly and be like, Lady Wachter, these preserves are absolutely excellent. Wouldn't you agree, Victoria? Are these from your garden? I have no idea. They are made by my cook. As long as they are delicious, I don't care. Compliments to your chef. Thank you. Compliments to the hand that pays for them. I'm

Agreed, absolutely. And I bow my head. I'm just trying to pull her gaze away from him. Oh my god! What the fuck? Where's your divination, fucking shit? Oh, I can make it an eight. Oh! You could make her... Oh! Her insight roll is now a two. Thank you, Niddy! Thank you! I roll a natural 17, so... Oh my god! I'm gonna keep my

She looks at you for a second. Yes, well, I haven't been into the servants' quarters at all, I don't think. And I can imagine they must be very concerned.

confusing with all of the poor things that are in there. Oh, yes, it was very poor, I must say. But you found everything that you needed. Yes, I did. You were able to wash up. It was very comfortable, yes. And how is your stomach feeling? Still a little unsettled, but this delicious warmness. Would you like a tablet? A tablet? Yes. As if to chisel upon...

To settle your stomach. Like a thumbs, Professor. Oh. What is a thumbs? That is my favorite brand of... of Alkast. I think I'm... I'll be fine. Thank you. All right. Um... Speaking of your help, your... uh, servant that opened the door for us. A curious fellow. How long has he been working? For as long as I can remember. He is...

As close to a friend as a servant can be. Well, that's wonderful. Must be lonely in the house now. It's good to trust someone who can sleep with you. It is. Fuck that voice! God, it's so hard! God, it's so hard! Jerry! The fowl is delectable. As is this burger. It's very delicious.

So I am going to interrupt you. You, I offered dinner and I was hoping to know a little more about you before we had, we were able to come together, but this was probably last minute, you see. You seem so eager to still...

to see me so soon and I'm confused as to what it is you are looking for, homie. We have played this song and dance for a long time. For long enough, I think. Ah, yes. We should get down to brass tacks. Well, given that... Kana, are you feeling all right?

Yes, yes. Did you have the wolfmeat? No, I'm still... I told you to avoid the wolfmeat, Kanda. Well, I would never avoid anything that the hostess... Perhaps you should excuse yourself, Kanda. No, no, no, she's fine. She's fine. She doesn't have to excuse herself. I was simply enjoying this delectable preserve. Oh, yes. It is very delicious. And this tea, too.

What is your favorite tea, if I may ask? You said that we should get down to the brass tacks. Yes, yes. I'm sweating. Everything's getting moist. Getting to the brass tacks. Yes. You clearly know at least a little bit about us, two inviters here, and we are... The very smallest amount, yes. We are an expedition of great ability, and...

I would presume that we may be able to offer you something, our services, while we are in Barovia. And what services are you willing to offer? We are very capable. Our abilities are varied, and I think that...

If you have any need or any desire of a capable expedition in Morovia, perhaps... Not expedition, but, she looks to Shepard, someone who is strong, as all of you look to me. Yes, we are all capable. He is certainly dexterous, yes. I'm promising slightly. As long as this does not leave this room, I would like you to kill the bear-comaster sent from ancient Isik Strazlik.

Excuse me? Yes. If we are going to be honest with each other, I would like you to kill him. Why? Well, you obviously haven't met him, if you're asking. He is a foul creature with a strange extra arm that casts bolts of fire. He is the man that takes the children and the women and he puts them in the stocks for being unhappy.

And as far as I know, the ones he takes to the barricadomaster's mansion, he tortures. Who knows what else? Can I insight check her? Specifically, like, the torturing part? What's his name again? I... NETRAL!

I saw it and I feel myself and I still look at it. 25. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, yours. We got four mics now, y'all, so you get to hear it in 360 surround sound 5.5. What? Dolby. What? Huh? Huh?

in your chair a little

I can just imagine you looking at your face like... What were you even asking? Yeah, sorry. I was insight-checking her with a 25. She seems to be honest. That's what she believes. So she believes that the Burgomaster's henchman, not necessarily the Burgomaster, is the one that's taking the women and the children and torturing them in the stocks. In the stocks? Well, she... It's known that he takes people to the stocks for malicious unhappiness. You know that people are taken to the Burgomaster's mansion...

And she's saying that he probably tortures them. And people are very afraid of them. Blinsky even mentioned that he was horrifying and that he does, he creates him dolls just to not incur his wrath.

So it's just so that I recall from last session, since I wasn't here, do we, are we very well aware of the fact that the Virgo master is kind of an evil guy? We haven't even met him, but we know that he's putting people in stocks for being malicious unhappiness. That's all we know. We've met the guy and he's organizing these festivals. Not all of them are great. And,

that no one has really been able to approach him about this because no one encouraged Brad. Izek is the one that was, that has all the Irena dolls. Correct. Izek? Is that the Burgomaster's henchman? Yeah. Yeah.

Now, you want us to just murder this individual. Yes, I do. I would like for you to murder him. If he is taken out, that gets me one step closer to taking this down. And it is in the wrong hands. Please forgive me, but you don't think that maybe this...

henchman, right-hand man, is just acting on the Burgermaster's orders. He very well may be, but that was his choice, don't you think? To align himself with someone like the Burgermaster. I don't necessarily disagree, but what's stopping the Burgermaster then from just finding somebody else to continue to torture him, if that's what he does? Well, who is he going to find quite like Isaac? The reason that he has the power that he has is obviously because Isaac is horrifying.

That magical hand that he has. Without him, the Burgomaster would be at a severe disadvantage. If... If, uh... You have a little bit of sauce on your shirt. Thank you for that hand. That hand took it out. Mage hand, toss it off. If we murder this man, what can you do for us?

Well, you would be in the... Once I become the Virgo mistress, you would be in my good graces. And think of what you would be doing for the entire village of Milwaukee. Will there be payment? There could be. If I might take a step backwards, why, out of curiosity, would you not ask us to just outright kill the Virgos? Would you do that?

I can't say one way or another just yet, but... Shepard has much disdain on his face. Much disdain. Well, to be quite honest with you, I did not ask because I didn't think he would be willing to kill the Berico master. He is simply a puppeteer forcing someone else to do his dirty work. Weird how that works.

Unfortunately, I'm trying to do something for good. You can scowl at my table if you want, sir. Oh, no, I'm sorry. That's just kind of my face. It is his resting, Tifli. Exactly. We apologize. Exactly right. As I was saying, the Bergomaster is the worst thing for this town. So, if he were to be taken up, I think that you would find yourselves in a much better position. Well...

How much gold could you offer us? How much gold are you looking for? We are not interested in gold. That is precisely right. We are interested in secrets, knowledge, artifacts buried away. Like what? Treasures of a different kind. What can you offer us? What do you want?

A secret is only a secret if it's not spoken about. I shoot Sonax a glance. If I tell you every secret I know, then I don't have much to bargain with, do I? With enough gold, we can buy secrets, Sonax. 10,000 gold? Call for saving check. 2019. It is a little steep.

But it is worth it. 10,000 gold pieces. And this is for the henchman, Professor, who is suggesting what they're going to do. The henchman is extravagant. Yes, for the henchman. Yes. We have some business to take care of. Make sure that you are not seen. And if you are caught, we never spoke. Of course. And if you tell them that we did, no one will ever believe you. I am well aware.

Mr. Morgan, please stop looking at me like that. I don't know what you mean, Professor. I'm just looking across the table. There is a reason that we came to lunch, is there not? It's you asked me to have lunch with you. Yes. Well, that is certainly amenable. We won't ask for payment until the deed is done. Well, I will be out of town. Well, not out of town, but I will be out of my home for the next two nights.

But hopefully on the 7th night, the 4th night, the day after the festival, the day after the day after the festival, if dinner plans. But then we should meet.

If you happen to have any need to contact me, you may place a letter in my letterbox. I see. So you'll be able to tell me next two nights, you say? Three nights. Next three nights.

Because I believe it is tonight, the next night, and then the festival. Yes. Yes. Right? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. It can be now if you'd like it to be. I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure that's what it was. So she's out the next two nights and then the festival. Well, this brunch has been lovely. Have we, like, finished our lunch? Yeah. Perhaps when... If...

We are successful. We can join you for a meal again. If you so desire. Yes, we will plan to do this. Well... So we have an invitation back, so we do not barge onto your precious time at last moment's notice again. And she nods at you.

Well, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for your hospitality. We have other businesses to attend to, so we must get going. Shall we continue? I want to do a thing that I do, but I can't find. That secrets thing. Yes. So as we're...

As we're sitting, kind of finishing up this conversation, I'm going to have my hands clasped below the table and pray for the guidance of the leader to reveal secrets. And what's the radius? 38. Do I see her doing this, having seen her do this before?

I would say no because if her hands are under the table, you wouldn't see it. Unless your head were under the table and you were looking up her dress or something. You probably wouldn't notice. No, I'm mostly looking at her face to see if her eyes shut or if she mutters anything. 30 feet...

You faintly know that off to the direction directly behind the mantelpiece and the portrait that there is some kind of secret. Yeah. Thank you. Lady... Walk turn. Perhaps when you have more time on your hands, we would love a tour of your amazing home. Or perhaps now.

as a down payment for our services. No, I do not believe that I have time. You see, I did have engagements that I had to move around to fit you in for lunch. Yes, we should go. Now I believe it is time that I attend to my business. I cannot keep my friends waiting in the book. You see, I'm part of a book club and we have a meeting today. Where? What are you reading?

I enjoy reading also. You wouldn't know of the tale. It is a local Moravian author. Perhaps this would benefit the mission. I'm sure the professor would have to... I appreciate your hospitality. We will not pester you with any more questions. Right. Out of turn. Should you stay much longer in town, I will... Let me start a network if you are here. I will...

Send for me when you can join us, if you like. Good day. Maybe you want to... Thanks. Thank you for your time. I will let myself out. I will follow the professor. Have a lovely one. I will see you soon. And don't forget, our deal. Of course.

I'll give her a full 90 degree bow and walk out last. She continues to remain seated as she butters more toast and she has a, did you see that she has a notebook that she pulls out and flips through and jots down a couple of notes? Do I? Yeah.

Do I glance the notebook leaving at all, or does she do it just as after we leave? Like, as you're leaving the actual room, so you wouldn't be able to see it from where you're from. Um, if we are out in the thoroughfare, um, far enough away from the, uh,

The mansion. I mean, like, far enough away from the mansion, I'm going to turn. I'd say you'd probably want to wait about the 15 minutes until you get the crossroads head towards the end. So once we're back towards the main thoroughfare, closer to the inn, I want to see if I can find, like, just a small offshooting, like an alley or whatever, and, like, Professor? Right here. Not so we let us get back to the inn, Professor! All right.

I just like, I just like, to a side street. You gotta be kidding me, Professor. You can't be serious about this. We're now assassins and hitmen? Why else would she have invited us in? I'm not saying that you would accept something like that. You can't be serious. Surely you have another plan. Why would I have any other plan? I believe we should get back to the inn. Fine.

If I may, we've been on the road for quite some time. Yes. And I've seen you eat wolf meat without issue plenty of times before. So what were you doing? I was using the bathroom, like I said. I believe we should probably get back to the inn, don't you think? We have business to attend to. Fine.

I glance at his case to make sure it's closed. It's closed. Let us go. I also have you know. Um... I... Would you please accompany me?

What else will I do, Professor? Perhaps the wolf meat or the boar meat is now disagreeing with the professor. He rushes back to use. We'll get back to the room. Please collect your things. We are going to the vineyard at once. I need to write a note. We're leaving right now. Yes, right now. Would you like me to write it for you again? No, I need to write this for you. Very well. I would like to...

Sit down at the desk. You rush back to the end. Yeah, as long as we don't get a costume. You're not a costume. Or die from poison weed. While we do that, I'm going to check. While he does this, I'm going to check for the doll. You look... Where are you keeping it? I was keeping it in my robe. She is hanging limply out of a pocket in your robe. Okay.

I would like to take out some parchment, take out a quill and an inkwell, and I would like to take ten minutes to write out an illusory script. A note. I will say...

I have uncovered dark magic in the basement of, uh, of Wachter House and, uh, uh,

How fitting, or I believe it is quite fitting to betray the one mentioned in the traitor card. Of course, we won't assassinate the man, but we don't know if she has eyes or ears anywhere. We could still very well betray him. Please just play along. And she has referenced that she's going out of town in the next two nights.

Once we arrive back from the vineyard, we will go under the stealth at night, under the cloak of darkness and collect the bones of the ancient enemy.

I saw fire and then I sort of kind of take some time to describe in detail the room that I found. I'll say for the sake of the situation, you can RP it as if you were telling them this so that way you can communicate and you're not just writing it all in a note, but it will fall under the illusory script. So you use the spell or whatever resources you need, but then you can actually talk amongst yourselves.

Okay, so... So that prevents the whole, like, you're just telling them all of this and they don't really have a say because you're just writing in a note that they can't respond to. Well, I want to pass that around and I'll cast the tech magic as well to make sure that I don't see any scrying business or alone. And I will say, read this. I believe we can discuss it, but let's try not to discuss it in too much detail just in case we're still being watched.

All right. We gather our things, we head for the winery, we discuss further when we're on the road outside of Milwaukee. Yes. I just... While we're in town, I would like to just get out of town if we can. All right. Is that amenable to everyone? Understood. Yes. So I will say...

She's gone the next two nights. That's the two nights and then the festival, which means that you'll be returning the day of the festival. You'll also need to be at the festival. And will she be back that night?

She's back the night after the festival, right? Yes. So she is not out the night after the festival. Is she gone this night? She's gone tonight, tomorrow night, and the festival. Even though we were going to do dinner with her, she's leaving. She rearranged. So instead of being busy during lunch, she became busy during the evening since you canceled and she basically swamped.

But she is required to attend the festival. Yes, everyone is required to attend the festival. And she will be gone tonight. Tonight, tomorrow night, and then she will be at the festival. Ideally with us. I believe that our assassination plan takes precedence over the vineyard. We should murder this man in cold blood. Tonight. And I'll give a no-end look to everyone. Deep and dark, where there are many secrets. We'll put an end to this. Do we know...

much more about him that we can uncover before we do this. Perhaps some places we should investigate before we leave. I'm not sure where we would investigate beyond waiting until tonight, but if you have any ideas, please do let me know. Do we... We have yet to meet the Burgomaster, correct?

Perhaps we say that we have just arrived in Vallaki and we wanted to meet him and introduce ourselves and talk about the expedition. Well, I believe that we should rest up before what we do tonight. Would we have time to, like, get a... What time is it now? Your dinner or your lunch was at noon. I would say the whole thing took about two hours. It's probably around two, maybe three.

It's a very awkward dinner. Or awkward lunch. Probably took around two to three hours. Perhaps we should discuss our plans with our new entertaining friend.

Yes, yes. Then we could probably speak more openly with him if he's in. He doesn't usually show up until later. I don't know if we have a way to contact him or find him before then, but if we wait around here, I'm sure he'll show up eventually. Let us try his room. Just a lot of waiting. Sure. All right. So we'll go. We'll see if he's in. You knock on the door and you're easily able to discern that he is not in residence among them.

And he did say that he is out during the day. So I suggest either we try to get some sleep until nightfall, given that we will be waiting in the... We'll be doing this in the dead of night after she's left. Or we can continue to investigate it.

Which exactly did you see? And that would have been in the letter. You explained everything. That's what I'm saying. You can utilize the fact that you're doing the letter to actually talk to each other. So, yes, I saw cloaked figures, a pentagram, and dark, dark magic. And I have no doubt that it's protecting those boats that's referenced in the first part. I guess...

I don't claim to understand any of this, quite frankly. I'm surprised there's more than one set of bones we're concerned about. It seems off to me. Well, but the bones referenced in this card are not the bones of St. Andrew. Clearly. No, that's not true.

An ancient enemy. But of whom? Perhaps they have war bones of St. Amidal? That could be true. We won't know until we look. But remember, there was also another man with a monkey. It will not surprise me if what we first assume is not what it seems. That seems to be the theme of this land. Fair enough. I believe we should rest up until tonight.

I believe that to be the wisest decision as well. And I would like to caution everyone. The man with the deformed arm could also perhaps be one of these individuals that are not what they seem. Anyone who is against the countess would be far more trustworthy than anyone that is

who maybe walked through, would it presume we trust? Yes. All right. There's one more thing that really calls for a lock and key. Where do we suppose the key might be? Well, if it's any kind of physical key, we know the professor can bypass that pretty easily. And I think... Hopefully it's not trapped in some magical way. We just don't have the information. We won't get it until...

We get in there. I'm hoping that we'll have our night. So if you need to, leave and come back in. If the house is sufficiently empty, or at least she isn't there,

We may have to deal with those servants. Well, let's not worry too much about traps. I've got that kind of taken care of. I'm used to all sorts of trappings and stuff out in the wild. I'm not so much worried about traps as those servants have made strange show-tos in. As long as they don't mean us harm, we don't mean them harm. I suppose, but I don't think they'll take kindly to us breaking and entering. We'll have to knock them unconscious, surely. Ah.

Are you prepared to do so? Karma may be best suited for that. What am I suited for? For knocking the servants unconscious. We won't kill them. There's no magical means. You can't just...

I suppose I could... Suppose you cause them physical harm. I could attempt to. Depending on the... I'd prefer to than to kill them. Well, we won't kill them. I suppose if we get a chance to rest, I could adjust some things to take care of the servants. Well, eight hours from now puts us at about 11. If it's three now, I mean, that's, you know, hardly the dead of night.

We have plenty of time to do what you want to do under the, uh, what did you say, cloak of darkness? Oh, yes. Is this a safe place to talk?

Yes, I don't sense any magic. I believe we can speak openly. I essentially, as a DM, said that because he's using the spell, I would rather you actually talk about this and not just get a letter. So I'm allowing it. There are no scrying. I see. So it's safe. I do want to bring up during the conversation, Professor, we've got Bear Force, but it appears that her husband, Sir Nikolai, is under her... She's under his...

warm, watchful gaze. I think she meant that a little literally, whether it was maybe perhaps his remains. This is St. Andrews, the bones of St. Andrews, I believe. St. Andrews, or Andal. Andal, sorry, yeah. She did mention that although she was very much in favor of David Cerdanya, that he was not

He may have been part of the uprising that broke his bones. I fear that either his remains are either kept somewhere hidden in her room, or she is in fact laying there. I don't know how literally she meant it, but I sense that she's still there. She can still feel it. Either way, I believe we will find out tonight when we investigate. So let's get some rest, and we will...

I'm just suggesting because I don't know if it would be in the basement that you have.

Well, I believe we should just investigate both upstairs and down. Well, yeah, if there's any kind of unspeakable evil that you're referencing, then yeah, we need to deal with that. We should purge it. Agree. Holy fire. Why don't we not burn her place down, Sonax? That would be a blast resort. We'll purge the evil inside. As agreed upon, we will make any word, and hopefully by the time she gets back, this will all be over.

Didn't the card suggest that she was a...

So, we were presuming, or making some assumptions, that perhaps she may be able to be turned against the Countess, but...

It doesn't seem to be that apparent yet. I don't even intend to try to do so. She seems very staunch in her praise. I agree. If we can just get to the knowledge that this card is referring to with these bones, perhaps we take the bones as well, create more hallowed ground. But until then, I don't think we can come to any further conclusions until we investigate ourselves. All right.

We'll try to get some rest. So you're going to say good-bye to the evening. We would like two long rests. So just reading, napping. Clever. Clever ducks. Yes. Because it's technically a long rest. You don't have to sleep for six hours. You don't have to convince

me of that. You just need to do light rest. Oh, really? You don't have to sleep? As long as you're sleeping, reading, just doing light activity. That still doesn't prevent you from getting exhaustion if you don't sleep for multiple nights, but for the sake of regaining your spell slots back and anything you'd get back at a long rest,

I'm going to try to actually shut my eyes and get some sleep. Yeah, and I'll turn the nap as well and read the end of it and just kind of prepare. I'll say you're easily able to do that. You all slowly come back to consciousness well into the evening. The din of the

festivities downstairs of the tavern area full of people laughing and drinking. You can tell that Rick Tavio has definitely made his appearance at this point, his loud voice booming downstairs. It can be heard through the floorboards up to your rooms as you all slowly wake up or collect yourselves. Good evening. Good evening.

Perhaps, Professor, you can leave him one of your magical notes of where we are and slip it into his pocket. That's a brilliant idea.

Yes, I will do so in case we go missing. I will write out a note in a loose-read script that he can read and the rest of us can read that basically is letting him know, hey, we're doing this tonight. We're investigating the Walter house. If we go missing, that's where we are. We'll be there throughout the evening. Okay. Okay.

So I will say that you're easily able to collect yourselves everything that you need. You make your way down the stairs and into the tavern area where, uh,

Ruchavu easily greets you happily, still in the facade of the carnival man. As you clasp hands, you slowly pass him a note and you see a quick look of recognition as he smiles at you and pockets the small note as all of you make your way out into the dark streets of...

a Barovian night. Barlachy is quiet around you as you slowly make your way through the streets. And it takes a similar amount of time, about 15 minutes, before you find yourselves outside of Wachter House. It looks darker, even more slumped over, more desolate than it had during the day. The vines are

looking like they're climbing up the sides of this building and trying to drag it beneath the ground, and it's barely resisting. Victoria, do you have that power to make us blend into the shadows of the night? I do. I'll basically set my lantern to hooded mode. Um...

to quench the light. And I'll say, do we proceed with Victoria's shadow magic? Did you say, did we see any, like, candles? It seems to be completely, completely dark. Well, we don't want to just waltz right in the front door here. I was going to suggest we lock the building out. We've got to see if there's another entrance. It's not the time of the post, which is just that it comes with some...

It's all just to ask for such a thing as my goal. Unless we show that we need it, I prefer... I believe... I believe we... I believe it would be risky to not use it, given that we don't know who's there. So I will clasp my hands and pray to Elimator for shadows of wickedness.

Sorry, just a typo. It's wickedness. Okay. So, plus five to stealth checks. Okay.

And I would say you would remember that when you were in, you've got the map there. So you were in the storage, you were in the storage room. There was that connecting door. Then there seemed to be a door that headed outside before you opened the door into the closet and the secret stairwell. So that moved that door to the back. Okay.

Yes. It's the back vestibule. It's similar to what you walked into. It's essentially a...

So I rolled a 13.

Or I got a 13 total. 11. 20 for me. 18. 22. Thank you. Alright. Um... Oh, new long breast. New portents. Oh, you clever fuck. Ha ha ha!

I didn't even think about any more. He means more importance. I know we're at the mansion and this won't change anything, but from what I recall of my Naginata getting sober, do I feel like it would have been done tonight or did he mean tomorrow night? He said it could have either been done tonight or tomorrow night. But you would have had to have checked. So I will say roll...

You know what? For the sake of brevity of it, yeah, you were able to pick it up. Oh, awesome. Thank you. My intention was that it would have been done tonight. It was just whether you had checked on it or not. And if you guys are going to be doing whatever tomorrow, we'll just... During the long rest, maybe she can just go and collect it. We have plenty of time. Thank you for another one, DM. So, yes, I believe that there is an entrance around the back.

That's a seal. Thank you. So we are going to sneak around the... You slowly make your way towards the back of the house, and the back is much like the front, looming over you, this large...

mansion, two stories tall, wrought iron railings around the balconies that protrude from the second level. As you make your way to the door, this one is not nearly as ornate as the one on the front. It is a servant's entrance, but as you look towards it, you don't even need to touch it to realize that it does appear to be locked.

Let me just take care of this, and I would like to take out the thieves' tools and pick it. I'm looking around to see if anyone's watching. 16.

I'll say it's with your passive perception, it's easily enough for you to be able to see that you behind you, there are rows of forestation. The house backs out to an area for privacy for the family itself. And back here, you feel like you are not being watched. You are able to pick the lock. And here as it clicks and the door itself is slowly able to be pulled outward and opens in to the back vestibule.

Do you recognize this, Professor? Yes, yes, I believe it's the entrance to the basement. That's right, through this door. Is that where we're headed first? Professor, I should note, when you were in here for lunch, I prayed to my god and I sent some secrets, which I'm sure is not surprising to you, but they surrounded the mantelpiece in the portrait of our late husband.

Where would we like to go first? Well, we got a lot of ground to cover. Let's just take some. Let us go to the basement first and ensure that no one is there. I saw five figures while I was down there. I would like to confirm that they are not there currently. And if they are and they resist? We kill them all.

I just want to make sure we're on the same page. Can I listen at the door here and hear, like, just listen to see if I hear anybody moving around in the servant's quarters? Roll a perception check. Yeah, roll a perception check. Eleven. Eleven. You listen and it sounds completely silent in the servant's quarters.

I'm keeping an ear out for the shuffling and the low breathing of the, we never got his name, but the henchman. Are we on the same page? I don't want to know his name. I believe they're going into the secret passage. Now, in case there is other movements in the house, we can at least stay hidden for longer if we go down now. Now, I understand, based on my appearance.

You may think one thing or another, but all I can tell you is a pentagram or no joke. All right? I understand. And let's just be as quiet as we can and be prepared for anything.

Try not to kill anyone, not that you can, but if we need to, we must. Perhaps we should just check, Professor, and see what's going on, leave it undisturbed. If we fidget too much with her things in the home, living or not, she will notice when she returns.

Yes, but that is the goal we must... We plan to steal from her. We plan to literally take whatever it is that she's holding. But these people, if we knock them out, they will know, right? No, no. If there are five people down there sitting around some pentagram, we kill them. I am hoping in the nine hells we are not dealing with demons. Okay. All right, well,

I will lock the door behind us, and I will open the latch towards the downstairs. You enter in through the servant's storage room. Yeah, the servant's closet. And you feel around until you find the latch. You slowly slide it to the side, clicking the door open as you push it inward. The candlelight, now in the darkness of evening, is undulating.

in the passageway downstairs you slowly make your way down being careful to muffle your sounds lowering your footfall slowly toe to heel so you make your way in and you notice that you seem to come out into a place that looks like a large room cellar there's a dirt floor

Two ascending flights of stone steps enclosed by wooden railings stand across from one another. Tracks in the earth lead from one staircase to the other, and other trails go from both staircases to the center of the bare west wall.

Four neatly made cots are set in a row against the south wall. So is the pentagram not there anymore? Not that you can see. This is... a ride? But you do see tracks on the earth lead from one staircase to the other, and other trails go from both staircases to the center of the bare west wall. What do you mean this is a ride? Like, the room is different?

Yes. I don't see anyone around, right? No one in the clots? The clots are completely empty. It was in this room. I looked up to him. It was in the middle of the room, I think. I don't know.

Perhaps it is behind that wall there? All right, so the pentagram is gone, but I'm saying, is the room different? I mean, does the room look the same? Is it smaller? Were there cots there before? Yes, there were cots there before. I just didn't describe them to you. So, perhaps this is some illusory wall or wall that keeps the pentagram hidden. I will say that the room does look smaller. Yes, the room's smaller. Perhaps that's exactly what it is.

Let's look for some kind of way to open it. I'll send my mage hand over and tap on the wall to make sure that it's a solid wall. You send the mage hand over to tap on the wall as the mage hand slowly floats through the wall and disappears from view. I bring it back immediately. I believe this is a luxury wall.

Are we seeing the cards through the illusory wall? Oh, sorry, never mind. That would be stupid. Please ignore me. Sorry. Professor, I'm not familiar. If any of us were to properly touch this wall...

Go down. I am willing to be destructive. Let us both go. Maybe without your lantern. In case there's someone on the other side. I will stick my head out. And I'll peer through. I'll stick my head through the wall. You're gonna walk? You guys are on the stairwell right now. Oh, well let's walk into the... We'll walk into the room. As your feet touch the ground, you begin to feel a shaking beneath your feet. Fuck.

You slowly see as the dirt moves and bones begin to peek out from the ground around you. First, the tips of phalanges, and then soon hands and arms as eight skeletons reanimated dig themselves up from the dirt and begin to shamble towards you. I need you all to roll for initiative. All of them begin to... They're about halfway, I would say, out of the earth. Um,

as it is Sarnax, your turn. I will raise my lantern and I'll turn it from hooded and I'll look at them and my eyes will blaze and I'll say, this is truly an evil place. Now return to dust. And then I'm going to, they all need to make a wisdom saving throw if you see sex. Okay, so one, two, and five pass. What's the CR of a skeleton? One four. Anyone that fails instantly scores. Damn!

So one, three, and five. Three, four, six, seven, and eight all die.

For you, the holy power of the chariots! All right, RP this shit, motherfucker. What happens? So my lantern erupts in the holy dragon fire, and any... I guess maybe the ones that failed were more out of the soil. Yeah, they hadn't... The one, two, and five hadn't fully been able to climb their way out of the earth as...

Wow, five of these skeletons fully find their form. A blast of radiant light illuminates. Go for it, Mike. Submit to the soil of the earth.

to ashes, and then the fire bursts out. You see as all of these skeletons ignite into fire, the fire so hot with holy radiance that their bones immediately begin to burn and crackle and pop as they turn to ash.

and dust the floor around you. Hell yeah. Connor. How loud are we at this point? He was just screaming like... Yeah, yeah, he laughed. We're not being quiet. I'm going to start firing rounds off here. Good work, Stronus. I tried to keep my voice down, but it's not going to work. I'm going to...

Make an attack on number one with my Naginata. 14. 14 hits. Ooh, great weapon master, right? Probably. Great weapon fighting. This is a one, so it's a one.

That's a 10! Oh my gosh! 13 slashing. No, I mean, I can't see it either way because I've got all of the tech in front of me. So it's 13 slashing for my first attack to number one. You take your blade in and you said slashing? It is slashing damage. Okay. You have

bring your Naginata down and strike through, shattering the bones in its path as the skeleton crumbles to the ground. Woo! Which number was that? Number one? And then I'll move up next to...

Victoria, I'm going to five feet next to her, give her a knowing nod, and I will strike through the number five. Ooh, that'll definitely hit. 16? Yep. That hits you. Seven slashing.

All right. You slide in. You're able to rend one of the arms completely off of this skeleton as it shambles towards you. Its jaw hanging loosely. It's attempting to chomp down as the bones clatter as it moves, but it is still standing.

well for now Shepard um I'm going to uh unholster my weapons and shoot the uh two rounds into the guy in front of me and yell uh let's go uh those are both gonna hit I got a 27 and a 25 poor woman

That's gonna be 16 points of damage to the skeleton right in front of me. Alright, you blast into it and the bones fly this way and that as it crumbles to the ground, Deb. Oh, yeah.

I use my movement to back up to the corner and turn around to get a better shot at the one remaining, and that's my turn. All right. The one remaining is feeling quite damaged as it is going to move towards Kana, get directly in towards your face. Its hollow eyes are going to... It's going to get...

nose hole directly to your face as you feel it rub its bones against your skin as it stabs its blade into your stomach. Hopefully. Twelve!

Damn it! As it rubs into my face, I go, ha! Nope! And you're easily able to move out of the way as it misses and stumbles forward. Victoria, I'm going to clasp my hands and then stretch one out and like a black flame will come out from my hand and I'll cast Firebolt. Yeah, you just have to disadvantage. Two within five feet of me. Okay.

Oh, damn. And a nine. So that is a 15 to hit. That hits? Okay.

It'll probably die either way. Three damage. Okay. Oh, no, no, no. Two. Sorry. No, it's 2d10. So that was a three and a six. So six damage. Okay. Yes, with a three, you would not have killed it. With a six, you hurl the firebolt at it, and you watch as it bursts into flames, and it slowly crumbles to the ground. Just...

Inverse crackling inside the marrow of the body. I immediately run, stick my head into the illusory wall. I'm going to holster my weapons and slap Starnak on the back and be like, nice job, buddy. Does the ground look normal and settled? It seems to be settled at least for now. I'm going to run to the stairwell. I just kind of put my back against the wall and peek up and see if anyone, or listen to see if anyone's coming down the stairs. Probably hear whatever just happened. Okay.

Now that you're all here, I'll read it again. Flickering candles and iron holders fill this room with light and shadows. This room has a 10-foot high ceiling and a large black pentagram inscribed on the stone floor. At each point of the pentagram rests a wooden chair. Seated in four of the five chairs are men and women in black robes with hoods. A young man who has the face of an angel, a balding hulk of a man, a squashed middle-aged woman, and a taller, younger woman with an unsettling glare.

They all rise and look to you. There are dark machinations afoot in Voktor House. What sort of necromantic magic is Lady Fiona practicing, I wonder? The dead walk in Barovia. And the expedition must get used to facing the creatures of the night at every turn.

I did say that I have servants and allies all across this dark domain, did I not? Will our five lost souls uncover the mysteries of the Widow Voktor? Find out in the conclusion of Chapter 5 of Curse of Stradania: Widow's Watch. In the meantime, if you wish to watch Legends of Aventress tell similar stories of Dungeons & Dragons every week, you can follow us on Twitch and join our community on Discord.

All links are in the show notes. We welcome you to our adventurous family.