Curse of Strahdanya | Ep. 11 | Widows Watch: Part 2
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You are back in Voktor House and listening to Curse of Stradania, a Legends of Aventris podcast. Last time, the expedition learned more about their fated ally and my sworn enemy, Rudolf van Richten. After pledging to help the Martokof family and their ruined vineyard, they met Lady Fionna Voktor at her mansion.

They suffered through an incredibly awkward lunch, then made their way to explore the basement of the manor. It was there they were beset upon by living skeletons and hooded figures. What dark cult magic is at work here, I wonder? 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.

They all rise and look to themselves.

I immediately cast my cage just flies open and I am casting sleep. So my cage will open and I'm not even going to do it. Just from the cage you see a pinch of fine sand erupt and I say, and I went to cast sleep. All right, roll for it.

Ooh. Some big fucking rolls right there. Wow. Almost, Max. Holy shit. 34 HP. You see as the young boy with the face of an angel slowly crumples and falls asleep. All of the others seem to be unaffected. Oh, Jesus. Who are you?

As you say this in unison, the three that are awake, or yeah, the three that are standing awake begin to chant. It's this moment that you notice the fifth chair, a woman in all black, a large train bustle dress billowing out around the chair as she's bent over deep in chant. As she looks up,

and meets eyes with you, not fully raising her head. A slight smile graces her face, but she does not stop chanting. So the professor struck his head through the wall. That didn't disrupt the illusion for us, so we still can't see what's happening. I'll stick my head back there, and I point through the wall. I want to immediately withdraw my weapons and basically tumble forward into the wall and see if I can fire off a few shots. ♪

roll we'll do a dexterity uh contest to see if you're faster otherwise it'll be initiative oh boy just just dex that's gonna be a 24 for me you're faster you roll through the wall both justice judgment and redemption held high

as you... You'll get one surprise round and then I need the two of you to roll for initiative. Out of all of the circles, whoever's closest to me in that arrangement of the pentagram is the person that I will target.

If that matters. And I'll be charging in right after, right after that. Oh my gosh. I'm probably still by the stairs waiting for... You must purge the wickedness! And then it'll be... 28 and a 20? So yes, that hits. 13 points of damage. I will say, well, I guess you don't know, you just do what you do. 13 points of damage. You fire into the chest of the...

The balding hulk of a man. As it blasts and you see blood splatter out from the cultist robes, it seems to do a significant amount of damage. All right, and I need you all to roll, or I need the two of you to roll for initiative. Do we use these tokens for the people? No, I'm getting... If I'm rushing after Shepard, would I roll initiative as well? Yes, if you're rushing after Shepard. I got a 21. 21.

Can I say my professor came back through the illusory wall and shouted at us? Can I cast a new drone on myself? Yes.

As you tumble in, you're able to let loose two of your bolts into the chest of the large balding man, doing a significant amount of damage. The three of them, however, continue to look towards you. They seem to be completely uninterested by the sleeping cultist on the floor. Number two is going to turn towards you and is going to cast inflict wounds.

and he's going to miss. Number one's asleep. Number three is going to look towards you and also attempt to cast a quick runes. Fifteen? No, you're sixteen. And then number four is going to turn towards you, Clayton, and he's going to attempt to cast hold person. So I need you to make a wisdom saving throw. Seven. I fail. You see as it reaches its hand down, it casts hold person on you.

and you find that you are unable to move or do anything. Your body clenches up because you find yourself paralyzed. All right, I'm going to fire two more shots into the guy I already shot. Okay. Nice. A 27 and a 28. I'm rolling like hot. Both of those hit.

That'll be 16 points of damage. You let loose both of your blasts again as it hits him in the chest on the right side and then the left. You can see a huge gaping hole in his ribcage. He is bleeding profusely everywhere, but he is continuing to focus on the champ that he's yelling out. He looks like he's barely hanging on. All right, and I'm going to say where I'm at.

I'm held. So what can I do? You can repeat your saves, I believe, yeah, at the end of each of your turns. I got a 20 initiative. Do you also get a 20? Oh, you're moving in to fight? Oh, yeah, I was rushing in to fight as well. I think I'm the only one that's not in the initiative game.

I passed. So that's the end of my turn. That's the end of your turn. So you're able to shrug off the paralyzation as you're staring in at the scene. And Starnax, it is your turn. I am going to step. If I can just step into the room just so we skip right next to Shepard. Here or here? Just a little bit, yeah.

Just enough to see through the wall. Yeah, just enough to see this. And I will say, this unholy abomination will be purged in fire. Professor, Shepard, Duck! And I'm going to cast Fireball right here so it hits all of them.

And so everyone needs to make a dexterity saving throw. 26 for those that pass or that failed. Number two, unites into flame his flesh sizzling the smell of burnt hair and sizzling flesh assaults your nostrils nearly immediately. The

All in the other three, the sleeping boy immediately upon taking damage, you see his eyes open up as he looks around. He is severely wounded, but he is still conscious. Lady Watcher takes the damage and you see she rears back. She looks towards the opposite corner of the room and smiles for a faint second. You hear a snapping sound as she disappears from view. So

Fuck. Oh, no. Oh, no. Fuck. So I'm going to move forward. And what does it seem like they are? What's their reaction? What are they doing? They're dusting themselves off. They look around. They see as she disappears. And they all look shaken aback.

they look between each other and they just continue to chant. They look nervous and uncomfortable. You see hesitation in their faces. Is the chanting in common? Can we hear it? You can hear it, but it's not in common. It's almost like tongues. So it wouldn't be any language we know? No, it's not a language. It's more just tongues gurgling. I'm going to shout it out. Stop chanting. Stop it now.

Any reaction? Roll a persuasion check.

Uh, 23. The boy, wounded and on the floor, immediately stops chanting and he looks up at you. The woman to his side kicks him and he looks up at her and he points at his body and you can see a bit of sadness on her face as she too stops chanting. And seeing that the other one, the female, is outnumbered, both young women look around and they stop chanting.

What is this? What are you doing? Both the women look back and forth at all of you, and they don't see anything. But the younger boy looks up at you and says, We are just... We are working with Lady Voktor. What do you want? What are you here for? What have we done to you? Tell us now. What are you working with, girl? What are you doing? You know...

And you see a strange smile, a light in his face. So has combat sort of stopped? Because anyone attacked you or something?

Are you all intending to wait? Are you holding your actions while she communicates? Or are you just going gun plays and then they're... I have not stopped anything. I'm waiting. I'm just patiently waiting for my turn. I'm not in combat. I was just waiting by the doors to see if anyone was coming down them to knock them out. So...

I don't know what's going on in there, but would I see Lady Wachter or anybody walking past me, running past me? I will let you know if you see anything I haven't seen in there. That's all I'm doing. I'm just waiting. What's going on? So that was Victoria's turn. That was Victoria's turn. Kana is doing that.

and it is the fanatic's turn, he looks up at you and he extends his hand to the ladies, and we are simply here to learn from Lady Voktor. She is wise, and she controls very powerful entities. We are just simply learning from her. We mean you no harm. Okay.

And they've all stopped chanting? Are we keeping in... Okay, so then I guess... And so it is now Shepard's turn.

The one that just spoke, which one was she? It was the boy on the ground directly in front of Victoria. The one that had been asleep and then was awoken with fireball. He is the most wounded, and so he was the one that gave up the chanting first. I'll just reach down then, basically, if he's still laying down on the ground, grab him by the scruff of his... whatever he's wearing. He looks to be about 17. I'm going to basically...

Pull him up a little bit, stick my weapon directly in his face and say, y'all better start talking real quick. Roll a intimidation check. Damn my charisma. It's only a four. We could twist it.

What's Twisted? You just got a nice one. I can't. My charisma is zero. That's the problem, right? It's not something I'm good at, right? Unfortunately, even though I'm this horrified devil-looking creature, it's charisma, which I don't have any.

He looks at you and he doesn't cower. That is what I am doing. There is no need for you to get in my face with your blade. I could have attacked you. I chose not to. I am talking to you. What more do you want? Don't scream at me again. And you see for a moment there's a little bit of confidence returning to him. Tell us where the lady went. Probably upstairs.

Professor, make a call right now. Can I see stuff? That's my chair. Would you like to live? That would be my preference, yes. We will leave now. We will never come back. Can I incite this fucker? Incite the fucker is my sexual mood. Ten. He seems to be honest with me.

What about the rest of you? Will you leave? They look at each other for a moment. They look nervous. Yes, you will leave. Yes, we will go. We will not come back. No, no, tie them up. Please, please, get them restrained and we will free you once we are done here. Do not restrain us. Let us leave. I'm going to cast Thaumaturgy. My eyes are going to blaze. You will not resist unless you want me to do that again.

Sarnia, it's your turn. As I will approach, and I will do that, and then I will attempt to restrain number three. She will resist. What? She will resist. Okay. You will not tie me up. Why not? We will have to kill you if you will not be tied up. You attacked first. I did not attack you. None of us did. We were simply listening to the reading of a manifesto when all of you barged in here with guns a-blazing, attempting to hurt us.

What have I done to you? I defended myself. You will not tie me up and she's going to resist you. Hold person. Okay. DC 16. Stop. Yeah, she fails. So she's paralyzed and then I will just start to restrain her. Victoria, what manifesto, what book are you reading? None of them speak to you.

Damage, boys. So is the men. Um, Kana, you still hear, you can, you can hear the conversation. Um, you're listening upstairs and you do hear that there's movement upstairs, but none of it seems to be coming near the door. Um, you heard, I would say you heard creaking of stairs going up.

a higher floor, so the second floor. And after that, it's basically been all but quiet as you keep your ears out just listening for anything that might trigger additional movement. I'll just move here and just kind of like fidgeting around the corner. What is going on? What corner was she looking at when she like... She made like a little smirk towards the corner. The corner where you see the stairs over there. Oh, that corner, yeah.

So Kana's turn ended. It is their turn. The boy is going to look directly at you and cast Hold Person. At me? No. At Shepard. Because Shepard's got his hand on his neck. What kind of... Is it a save? It is a wisdom save. Ooh, I failed.

feel as your body seizes up and you're still holding on to the scruff of his neck but you can no longer move. Number four is going to turn towards Sarnax and cast command. 23. She's

She's going to look at you. We simply want to leave. Do not get in over your heads. We are already in where we are in. It is too late now. You will not resist or we will kill you. We are looking out for your safety. You are not leaving us in this cellar with no way to escape. It is not safe. And it is not up to you to choose what is right for me.

You have our word that we will come untied. It is your turn.

When I'm held person, can I speak or I can do nothing? You are paralyzed. Save at the end of your turn, so you can save. 16. Wisdom? Fail. No, continue to hold on. Is he going to be able to get out of my grasp? He didn't try to. How beat up do they all look? Um, the boy in Shepard's draft looks pretty beat up. The other two are okay. I

I would like to cast Suggestion on the boy. Okay. And it's a what? It's a win-save DC 16. He fails. So I insist, young man, please, you must release my friend here and tell me exactly what you are doing and if you're up to no good, please.

he looks at you and he says, We are simply poor. And the Lady Wachter is able to summon coin from the depths of the abyss. If we stay here and we listen to her manifesto, she gives us coin, free coin. We listen.

And we chant with her. That is all that we do. And you must leave now. I would just like to leave and go home. Let them pass. Let them leave. Professor, are you sure?

He was magically compelled to tell me that. He could not lie. I'll release whole person if she did not already break out of it. Not on me person that I have held. No, because it hasn't been her turn yet. You did it on your turn. I'll release her. Can I just insight feel like... Can I just... Do I... Because I feel like suggestion, he has to do it to the best of his ability, but... So my insight is... 23.

He seems like he's being honest. He seems scared. He woke up to a fireball and I will say, setting the scene, you walked across the ground. You don't know what triggered the skeletons. You just know that they came out of the ground to attack you. He popped your head in and never spoke to any of them before he started firing in on them. They battled back. Lady walked or left. You killed one of them. And then they're simply just asking to leave.

So I would say based on the situation, they haven't been overly aggressive. They look more scared than anything else. Just leave and never come back.

You will never come back. And I will step away. Then I will end my turn. I will, like, step back, giving the passage. Victoria. Oh, it is my turn. I will... I was not finished tying her up, so I will cast it and just... I will echo what the professor said. Leave, and if we see you in this household ever again, I will make good on my promise.

Can you do anything else? I'm just going to step aside.

Kana, you once again hear at some point the shutting of a door upstairs and the scampering of feet, but it all seems to be relegated to the second floor of the home. Just as you listen in, you see three people emerge from the illusory door. And you've heard the conversation. I'd say you know what's happening. They did not expect to see you there. They both jumped back and let out a shriek.

But their eyes start back and forth between each other as they take the robe that they're wearing and they throw them off into the corner of the room. As they're about to step out, they look down at the floor and all in unison, let the dead remain at rest. Then they step on the floor and run towards the stairwell.

Am I still a whole person? No. Okay. Wow. They haven't released that spell yet. Once they're out of the room and out of distance, it will drop. They have to be like 30 feet away. Oh, is it longer? Yeah. And he obviously doesn't trust you, so why is he going to... I was going to shoot him in the face. Thank God he chose to do that. What the hell happened? We should continue onward.

She's clearly paying these people to be a part of her cult. She's trying to figure out if she's been enchanted and magical in some way. Do I get the sense that the pentagram is magical currently? It doesn't seem to be so. Are you detect magicing?

If I could take 11 minutes, I could detect magic on this pentagram. But we don't have time. We don't have time. There are noises upstairs on the second floor. I'm hearing movement. Yes, let us proceed. We can come back if we need to. She glanced in the corner there, but she disappeared. Who are these people? I think they're just terrible. They've got wrapped up in something dark that they didn't understand. We've got to figure out what's going on. Those people are seemingly poor and manipulative.

Let's just chase after the lady of the house. Is that wise to do so?

Can I just take a quick minute to, like, go into the corner and just, like, feel the wall and see if anything feels, like, unusual? Sure. Roll an investigation check. I'll reach down to Shepard and say, Shepard, are you all right? Have they gotten far away enough yet? Yes, yes. You feel yourself. God damn it! I got seven. Those people, they don't know what they were doing! I mean...

You're right. I don't believe they intend us anyhow. Where's Walter? I believe she went up this staircase. What the hell are we waiting for? Let's go. Let's go right now. It is at this moment that, Victoria, you make your way towards the corner and you're looking. You don't see anything as your me comes into contact with something where something should not be. As you ran into it, you hear...

Coins start spewing out everywhere and for a second you see the face of a red horrific looking demonic creature as it looks out at you. Bye. You see him snap his fingers and disappear. Holy fuck! I'm immediately gonna pray and reveal secrets.

Is anything else in here? Nope. Oh my God. So did we, is she the only one who saw that? No, you all saw that. Okay.

You saw his coins just started spewing out everywhere from this entity. And they were littering the ground as you heard this strange laughter. As all of a sudden, its form became corporeal. And it was an almost spiny, red-looking, very small entity with gnashing teeth and long claws. It...

spoke to Victoria, snapped its fingers, the same exact sound that you heard when Lady Wachter looked towards the corner before she disappeared. This creature disappeared as well. And it said just bye and come and... Okay. There is evil here that we must purge.

Yes, we should go now. Please, let's go. Lead the way. All right. Come on. And I'm going to run back up the stairs that we came down and lead the way. And since you've now seen it, I won't show you the name, but that is Lady Wachter and the creature that you saw. Oh, shit. Should the camera try to get a closer look? Yes, it's an imp.

Damn. I don't believe, I believe we should go up these stairs. This must lead to the center of the house. Fine, and I'll take the other staircase, and I guess when I get to the top, I'll see if there's a door and if I can open it. I would have been before you. Do you want me to leave? No, go ahead. We're just trying to make haste. He's just commanding us to go, so I'm doing what he's telling me to do. I will go where he wants me to go, so I'll go up the stairs and try the door. Okay.

Yes, so you are easily able to make your way up the stairs and back into the vestibule towards the outside. No, we're going to go via these central staircases. You make your way up the central staircase and you find yourself in the parlor area. Not the parlor area. No, I guess it would be the parlor area. The area where you...

You find yourself coming out of the door that the strange manservant had entered in when he first brought you into the house. Looking behind you, you see that the stairs continue up towards the second floor. Continue onward. Okay. Keep going up. Yes. All right. I'll keep going. You find yourselves in an upstairs gallery. As you walk up and you see that the stairs continue to ascend further, you

further up into the bowels of this house and you climb the stairs slowly, carefully, you're listening. You hear absolutely no sounds coming from the second floor of the house. As you finally crest your way over the final stair and you spill out into what appears to be a gallery.

The staircase climbs 20 feet to a beautifully appointed gallery that continues towards the west, running almost the length of the mansion. Framed landscape paintings line the walls, and red silk drapes cover a 10-foot-tall arched window of leaded glass. How long would it take us to get from the basement up here? I don't know, two minutes? Lady, Lady Wachter, are you here?

Nothing but silence as your voice echoes throughout the tall room. The cat's out of the bag. Let's investigate. Let's clear this place at all. Let's clear this apartment and everything first. All right. Let's go. I'll go try the nearest door. You slowly open the door. This bedroom contains nothing out of the ordinary. A neatly made bed, a table with an oil lamp on it,

a handsome wooden chest, a slender wardrobe, and a window box with drapes. Victoria, do you sense anything in here? Any secrets? I don't. It took us some time to get up here. Okay.

But I'm happy to just take a look. I think we shall be very thorough in our searches. I jump in and help whoever needs helping. Go over the... Pull the bed apart, look under the bed. We gotta check each room before we start tearing it apart. Yes. Agreed. Let us fan out. Let's each take a door.

Yeah, so I think we'll each split up. We're splitting up? We'll just in the main hallway and we're all just kicking and poking our heads at each other. That's my intention. Yeah, I agree. Then tell me who's going to where. So I'm in this room. So Shukana's there. I'll stay with you and investigate in that room. Victoria's there. Shepard, where do you want to go? I'll take this one right across the hall. I will go to the one by the stairs here. I'll check this closet, actually. Okay, so Shepard.

You open the door here, and... Oh, you attempt to open the door. But you find that the door to whatever this room is is locked. I'll shout to everybody, this one's locked! I'll attempt to fire a couple rounds into the doorknob there. Oh, thank God I can hit stationary targets. I got a 27 and 25. Okay, that hits. Do damage.

Ooh, 18 points of damage. You are easily able to blow the lock apart on this door. As you look in, the room is crawling with caps. Bookshelves hug the walls, but most of the shelves are bare. Other furnishings include a desk, a chair, a table, and a wine cabinet. The room has an irregular shape, and none of its angles seem quite right.

is that the shifting of the house has set the whole place on edge. And it's just cats. Cats. There's just a bunch of critters in here. It's cats.

Why? Are they sitting and moving? No, some of them are milling about. There are tufted bits of fluff and fabric that they're laying on, and they're cleaning themselves as they look at you warily and quizzically. But none of them are making move to come near you. They're doing as cats do and arching their back and playing with a ball of thread. But they're constantly keeping their eyes on you as if they're watching you.

I'm going to like, like stay in the doorway and like keep my eyes on them and be like, I'm gonna just watch what's going on here for a minute. Keep looking.

Something's weird about this. As you look around from cat to cat, you notice that one of them, the black cat off towards the very edge, sitting on a dark red tufted pillow, licks at its paws and around its neck a collar.

from that collar in the very center where a tag or a nameplate would be is an ornate golden key. Oh, oh, wait, wait, wait, hold on. I see something. I'm going to go grab it. It's a key. I'm going to go grab it. And I'm going to start to like slowly make my way towards the cat and be like, all right, easy there. All right. It's all right. I didn't mean to startle anybody. None of the cats seem to be bothering you at all. They're just...

moving away from you, the one in the corner that you're emotioning towards continues to clean its paws and look at you with hesitancy. I'm going to keep approaching and just trying to talk to it and be like, it's all right. I'm just coming a little closer and I'm going to try to see if I can get closer and see if I can remove its collar. You're going to try and pick it up? No, I want to just try to remove its collar. Roll a sleight of hand.

Where's my lasagna job? I'm sorry, Shepard. I can smell your... Slide of hand! This is twist worthy. This is twist worthy. Slide of hand!

15. It's good enough. You reach your hand down. The cat you see as it arches its back, its hair stands on end. I know, I know. You reach down. It swipes at you, but you're able to move to the side just as the key jostles on its neck and you grab it. You pay 8.

really hard. It rears back and you're able to slide the ribbon of the collar off. You now hold a dog's thing, but there's a real cat or some shit here. You're able to pull it away as the cat lunges at you and then shrinks off into the shadows of the bookshelf. Hey, hey, all right, all right, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. As you watch the cat shrink its way back into the bookshelves, you notice...

The bookshelves themselves are shaped strangely, scrape marks on the ground as if they moved.

I'm noticing this and I'm still slowly backing up to the front of the back to the room and with my face still facing the cats and the door frame is around me on my back to the hallway. All of them are watching you now sitting there their tails going back and forth slowly their eyes do not leave. I'm going to like stick my head out in the hallway and be like guys I got the key but there's something weird about this room something is not right.

And meanwhile, I guess we would have, in that time, investigated our two rooms. This is all simultaneous, please. And so can you tell me which one? So you are in the closet. It's just a closet. It's just a closet! No, it is. It's just a closet. I'm trying the other door, and I'll run to this room. And you are in...

The big room. The big room. Okay. Well, you attempt the door and it resists you. The lock on this door has been engaged and the handle does not budge. Secret. The whole house immediately catches fire. You hear from behind you a groaning, a moaning, a wailing coming from the one door that none of you have checked.

Is it this one in the middle? Is that the one that I'm moving towards? Yes. Do I hear that as I approach? Yes. Huh. Does it sound like moaning like they are in distress? Sure. Oh, by the gods. Sonax, do you hear that? I do, Professor. I think Shepard is dealing with cats. Should we take a look? Yes, let's proceed.

I will attempt to open the door with a moaning. You place your hand on the knob and you begin to twist. You hear scraping and wood slamming against wood over and over again as you jingle the handle. The door is locked. Hello? Is anyone in there? Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

Ladies, what have you found? Should we just... Do you want to roll an investigation? I'm going to roll at an advantage because I'm helping you, I guess. I'm just going to roll an investigation for a room because we were going to look at a little... Not bad, not bad. 15. The room seems to be nearly completely bare. As you move through it, you do notice that there is a photo and it's

or a portrait, I should say. And it has a very vague resemblance to one of the men that you saw in the, uh, in the end, one of the drunkards. And you can tell that this is more than likely one of the rooms of one of the Wachter, one of the, uh, Wachter boys. Okay. Cool. Do we hear the wailing? Oh, yes. Um, as, as Clayton speaks, the wailing is nearly, um,

It's incredibly loud. It's booming throughout the entire floor of this house. Would I have time to move to the door that he's at? After we're done, I acknowledge the portrait. I hear the wailing. I dash out. And I am shoulder to shoulder with the professor in front of the door. And I'm like, is that... Do you think that's Stella? Stella, are you in there? And I'm, like, knocking on the door. Mommy? Mommy?

Mr. Morgan, can you assist us, please? I'm a little busy, Professor. You want to try this key? And I'm going to throw the key to him from just down the hallway while I'm keeping my eyes on this creepy cat. You hold the key in your hand and you can tell by looking at it that this key would not fit a door. It's for a much smaller... All right, let me try this. I will take out my few tools and attempt to pick the lock.

10? I think that fails. I'm pretty sure that fails. Can I attempt again?

You may. There we go. Yes, that does fail. So however long that would take with that fail. You are continuing to watch the cats. They move back and forth, occasionally stretching and yawning, but never taking their eyes off of you. The black cat in the corner is peering out from behind a bookshelf as it...

licks at each one of its paws. You are all in the hallway as you're listening to this. You fiddle with your tools and you hear the almost snap of the lock as if it's the rusted portion of it is broken beneath the weight of your thieves' tools. You push the door open.

And the air hits you immediately. Dank, musty smell. Dust covering nearly everything. This room is musty and dark. An iron-framed bed fitted with leather straps stands near a wall. The place has no other furnishings. Scurrying away from you on all fours is a young woman in a soiled nightgown. She leaps onto the bed and hisses like a cat.

"Little Kitty doesn't know you!" she shouts. "Little Kitty doesn't like the smell of you!" And she rears back, pulling the nightgown up around her. "We mean you no harm!" "Where's Mummy?" "Are you Stella?" "Where's Mummy?" "Your mummy is nearby. Do you need her for any reason?" "She was here." She kind of looks around.

They don't smell her. No, no. Why do you need her? We can go fetch her for you. Mm-hmm.

Stella, are you okay? You were locked in here. Do you have food? I do, I do. And I rummage through my path. Closer to me. Can I insight check her? Yeah. 21. She wants you to come closer, Nora. Do I feel like she's...

luring me in or like trying she's definitely luring you in but she doesn't seem like she's trying to attack you okay um I will uh take uh take out rations out of my bag the dried uh wolf meat that we had that we had skinned earlier and I'll uh kind of put my naginata behind my back and I will come forward in a approachable like head down mode and offer her the the meat um

She reaches out. She grabs your wrist firmly. She holds it as she takes the meat. And she doesn't let go of your wrist. Does she...

Connor, do you require assistance? I think I'm okay. Stella, how long has it been? I don't know. How long it's been? And you look down and you see that she has these markings on her wrists where it looks like she'd previously been strapped to the bed, struggling, causing indentations and torn away flesh, but she was somehow able to wrench herself away from it. Mommy isn't with you. Is she...

No, no. Can I come with you? Who did this to you? Your wrists. Can I come with you? Will you take me with you? Have you been outside at all? When? Any time in the last week, month? She looks at you and she reaches out and she grabs your hair. She's not gentle about it, but she's not really, she's not harsh about it either. And she grabs it and she...

She begins to touch it. Soft. Really soft. Are you still hungry? Do you want some more food? Do you need water? I'm really thirsty.

Yes. What's going on down there? We found her daughter. She's not well. I'm just going to put my hand here. No harm. Just going to hand her my water sack and my water pouch. She looks at it and then back to you and then back to the water. She looks at you.

She just takes her eyes off of you. She grabs the water pouch and slowly brings it towards her mouth. She tips her head back and she just pours it into her mouth. The water is pouring all over her, soiling the top of her dress. It's clinging to her body. You can see that she is vanished, emaciated. You can see all the bones in her chest as the wet cloth of her nightgown dries.

clings to her skin beneath it. That's good, Stella. Good job. Connor, you should stay with the child. Professor, there's one more door you need to check. You should stay with me. Stay with the child. Keep an eye on her. I can stay with you. Mr. Shepard, how are the cats looking? They're not doing much. They're just looking at me. Are these your cats, Stella? No. Those are mommy's cats. What?

Who are you?

Little Hedy doesn't know you. Oh, that's okay still. My name is Kana Soyokaze. I have plenty of food and water. I'm here to keep you safe. It's okay. And I try to reach out. You have a nice voice. And she reaches out and grabs your hand again. Do you want to lay down with me? I will sit with you. Sure. The bed smells funny. It does, but that's okay. Lay down with me.

I will sit with you and I just kind of like pat her hand. Will you hold me while I lean on you? Sure. And I will sit on the bed with her and I'll just hold her paw. She curls on the bed and you can smell the sickness, the defecation on this bed as you lean down. The smell is almost overwhelming you. But you hold on to her. She seems to be nearly unfazed by it. And as you begin to rub her hair, she begins to purr like a cat.

I know I'm not there, but how old does she appear to be? She appears to be about maybe 15. Okay. While that was happening, I want to go over and pick the lock of the door that Sarnax had told me about. The...

Be the big better. He's sleeping. Sarnak, it's Shepard and the cat's club. I'm joining. I'm going to stand in the hallway just keeping an eye on all three doors. Just like continually shining light. Before I leave, I will pass Sarnak's the key. Give this back to Shepard.

I'll do that. I'll walk over and I'll give it to you. I'm going to follow the professor. So I got a 15 on the lockpick. You are able to unlock the door.

You push the door in, the sound of it creaking and the wood groaning beneath it as it slides along the wooden floorboards. You are met with a ghastly sight. Across from the door, the fire sputters and struggles for life in the hearth, above which hangs a framed family portrait.

A noble father and mother, their two young sons and a baby daughter on the father's arms. The sons are smiling in a way that suggests mischief.

The parents look like uncrowned royalty. Wood paneling covers the walls of the room. A closet and a framed mirror flank a curtained window to the south. To the north, a wide canopy bed lines pins between matching end tables with oil lamps. Stretched out on one side of the bed is a man dressed in black, his eyes each covered with a copper piece. He bears a striking resemblance to the father of the painting.

Does he look dead? You want to move in and check? Yes, I will enter the room. Sir, are you all right? Silence. This is silly. Is your only response? I will mage hand.

The bottom of my mage hand will extend and it will gently kind of press on the shoulder in an attempt to rouse a dead guy. You place your mage hand on the chest. You begin to push and the body moves like flesh beneath clothing.

the coins fall off and you see wide staring eyes staring straight up towards the ceiling the face completely stern no motion or additional color to it but it's

Doesn't look to be in decay. Is he clearly dead? I would say he's clearly dead. Okay, he's dead, but he's not decaying. Yes. I found... I found her husband. This is...

This is horrible. Look, Professor, because I'm saying it's the shepherd, look for a chest or something for this key. I will tear apart the room to see. That's the last room that we haven't seen. I will tear apart the room. I will roll an investigation check advantage. Ooh, that's pretty good. 17 plus 5 plus 3 is 25. Ooh.

You begin to walk through the room and though you tear this place apart, there's almost a sense of reverence as in the room with you is clearly a dead man. And you try not to disturb the bed area so much while still checking it thoroughly. You rummage through the closet and you find shelves and shelves of fancy footwear and

many fine garments, including black ceremonial robe with a hood. Looking at this, you feel the fabric of it, and it's still warm from the flesh that had recently been beneath it. Walking through, you look around, and I'll see for one second, see if there's... It doesn't seem to be much else in here that catches your eye until you notice a high shelf.

A locked iron chest, elaborately decorated, sitting atop two iron feet. It's high, so high, you would need some stool or something to reach it. I found a box. Does it seem like it would weigh more than five pounds? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, it's probably like this big.

Shepard. Yeah? Is there anything that we should move around here while the others investigate and console the child? Oh, absolutely. If you notice over there, and I point at the markings that I noticed, it looks like somebody's been shuffling some stuff around here anyway, but I don't like the way these critters are looking at us.

Would you like to move and I can keep an eye on them or vice versa? All right, here's the key in case I don't come back. Death by cat is not going to look good on my tombstone. They will burn far easier than you will, Shepard. Try not to hurt them, all right? They're just cats, I hope. And I will, uh...

With weapons still in my holsters, I'm going to move towards the first piece of furniture that I can see that has the markings where it looks like it's been made. All right, you move towards one of the sections of the bookshelf. It stretches along the southernmost wall. You shake it from side to side, and you can tell that it moves on hinges. And as you pull it outward, you reveal a doorway opening further in.

Behind the hinged panel in the bookcase lies a dusty 10-foot square room with a curtain window and shelves lining three walls. On the bottom shelf rests an iron chest. The other shelves are blank. Oh, hell. Sarnax, there's a chest in here, too. Oh.

Does it look like the key that you gave me would fit the chest? It does. Yeah, yeah, this is probably it. Bring me the key. Let's be careful. Just watch the critters. I'll walk towards, I'll keep my lantern cast at all of them, and I'll just extend my hand in with the key as I keep an eye on all the cats. Before I open up this chest, I am going to use Find Traps.

as a second level spell. It just says, "A trap for the purpose of this spell includes anything that would inflict a sudden or unexpected effect I consider harmful or undesirable, which was specifically intended as such by its creator." You immediately detect a poison trap on this box that seems to be disabled by using the key.

Very... Use of the key disables a poison needle trap hidden in the lock. Very, very clever. All right. And I'll insert the key and I'll turn it. You...

Insert the key and you can hear the hiss as the poison trap deactivates, the click of the lock. You open it up completely unscathed. Nestled inside are quite a few items. A silk bag containing 180 electrum pieces, each coin bearing Strahd's stern visage and profile. A leather bag containing 110 gold pieces.

A wooden pipe that has been passed down through many generations of Wachter patriarchs. Five scrolls, notarized deeds for parcels of land given to the Wachter family by Count Stradania von Zarovich nearly four centuries ago.

a supple leather case containing an unbound manuscript titled "The Devil We Know," a poetic manifesto written by Lady Fiona Wachter, attesting that the worship of devils can bring happiness, success, freedom, wealth, and longevity.

A blasphemous treatise bound in black leather titled The Grimoire of the Four Quarters, written by the infamous diabolist Devostas, who was drawn and quartered for spell practices, yet did not die. This is a forgery. The actual grimoire would drive a reader mad.

I take all of the paper... Not none. Sorry. A very old letter to Lady Lavina Wachter, an ancestor, from one Lord Vasily von Holtz, thanking Lavina for her hospitality, loyalty, and friendship over the years. This letter is clearly written in the handwriting of Shraddha Vanzarovich. I'm going to take all of the paper artifacts and leave the pipe in the money. Okay.

So I'll gather these things up and close the lid of the case, take the key out, and head back to Starnax in the front of the room. What did you find, Shepard? There's a lot of paper here. It looks like deeds, some kind of bound book with the title about devils. Here, we'll take these things to the professors, but feel free to take a look. I let Professor read them when they are out in danger. Kana, how is the child? Good.

And we'll head to the room and poke our heads in. So I'm just petting her while she... She seems to have finally fully calmed down. Correct. And she looks up at you, and for the first time you see into... You look into her eyes, and the cloud of madness over her seems like it's receded a little bit.

Please don't leave me. Take me with you. I don't want to stay here anymore. I don't want to leave you here either. Stella, what happened here? Mommy, can we stay here? Is Mommy not feeding you? She feeds me when she can. I'm in trouble. Too much trouble.

What trouble could a young girl like you have caused? Right. Mommy knows best.

Because I don't care if you...

Professor, shall we take Stella with us? These are not conditions for a young girl. I'm not there. I'm not there. Whoever you cross the... It's just, I think, you by yourself. Just me? Oh, I thought you guys walked over. I thought you guys... Oh, we poked our heads. Yeah. Well, we're walking past. Yeah. To bring the professor that needs to be down and the key. Yeah. Maybe you can catch them by the way. Shall we take Stella with us? This is not...

I'm so hurt for now. We will check in with Victoria and the professor. All right. You can take a short nap, Stella. And I will hold her in my arms and let her lean against my chest and pet her while she falls asleep. What is... I just turned to Sarnax and... What is with the people of this land treating their kids like this? They are wicked, dear.

I am starting to believe that there is power to be derived from torturing, consuming, slaying children. I do not care for it one bit, Shepard, but I will hold, I will refrain from burning this entire place unless the party already wins. Let us see what the vessel has found. We must bring the child back.

to the church, but I am not the one to make that decision. Agreed. Professor! So while that happened, I guess you saw the lockbox and the fine thing. Are there any immediate stools anywhere? I would say you'd easily be able to pull some things over and climb up to get it. Okay, so I will... You definitely need Victoria's help, but with her help, it would take you a couple of minutes. I'll give her a boost up just to grab it.

So we're not disturbing anything? Would that still be two? I think you've disturbed enough that you know that moving a stool or something is going to be the least of your worries. Okay, well, I'll pull up the stool, I'll grab it, and I'll take down the lockbox. And just look at it, see if I can open it. You pull the lockbox down, and it seems to be locked. Yes, we found this!

Well, here, I'll trade you. If you walk in, because you haven't been here before, the stench of death immediately hits your nostrils as you walk into this room. Both look towards the bed, and being a cleric, you immediately are able to sense the gentle repose spell.

She has been using witchcraft to preserve his body. I'm going to attempt to see how long this man has been dead, if the spell does not prevent me from doing so.

I'll hand the professor all of the paperwork that I found, the books and all of that stuff. Who's this? It was this stuff I found in a locked box in the back of that room with all the cats. There was some gold, and I left the money. We're not thieves, but there might be some stuff amongst here that might be helpful. It mentions the devil and some weird things. You want me to take a look at the box? All right.

And then if you want to roll a medicine check. Let's see what I get. 14. You look and inspect the body, and though he has been held in this stasis, you imagine that this body has been dead for roughly about three years. Three years in his wife's embrace.

to exist in such a putrid state. It sickens me to the core. What does Gentle World Pose actually do? It keeps it... So it essentially keeps the corpse from deteriorating and it extends the amount of time you can cast Resurrection on it. Oh, okay. So essentially right now in the state that it's in, if somebody had a Resurrection spell, you could resurrect him. So that way you don't have to use the seventh level one. Okay. So you could do you Raise Dead. Revivify doesn't work because that's within a minute, but...

the other ones you can use. Got it. And so it looks like she's been essentially doing it to keep his body from decaying. So you're opening the box? Yeah, I'm going to see if this key looks like it fits the box. The key that you have around your neck? Yeah, the same key. It looks to be of a different size. This isn't going to work, Professor. This one's not for this box. The portrait. Which portrait? One downstairs. Okay.

Maybe what was in this room not that long ago, she deposited her hood right here. So she must have come up and then gone somewhere else. How could we miss her? Shall we head downstairs? Well, there is what Victoria was referencing from before. You still got to check that out. Oh, I was, you would realize that the secret staircase goes down immediately behind the portrait.

So what you were detecting, that secret, which is the secret stairwell. Oh, we came out there. Got it. Okay, my misunderstanding. I apologize. Um, so... I believe that this gentleman, Mr. Lockwood, is half the car's flow. What? Is he... Are these the bones of an ancient enemy? No, the two of swords, the paladin...

This card of power and strength, it tells of a weapon of vengeance, a sword of sunlight. I see a sleeping prince, a servant of the light and brother of darkness. His treasure lies with him. What the hell? I mean, look at him. It's as if he's been asleep for years. I will attempt to search him. I think we should attend to the child first.

If this is some sort of holy warrior, then why would Lady Wachter even attempt to keep him around if he's a threat to Shadania? I don't know. There must be some reason. And you said that you got 11. You rifle through his clothes, and at first you don't notice anything until you come across an iron key in his front breast pocket. Okay.

This might be the trick. All right, nice, Zaius. Go for it. Very well. And I'll unlock it. You place the key into the iron chest. You disengage the lock. You open it up. Inside sits ancient bones.

No words, no notes, no letters, no bits of fancy. Soil and ancient bones. We're now at level six. As you rummage around in the soil, it is then that you notice, hidden beneath them,

A dark leather diary. The Journal of Lady Sraddhanya Vansarabha. I believe this is the journal that von Britten was referring to. Madame Eva's divinations prove correct once more. This is the wisdom.

This is the knowledge that the coddlers have. Yes. Professor. I will open it up and just leaf through it. And there seem to be pages. It seems to have been written in about halfway before the writing stops. Could these be more bones of St. Ambrose?

I'll look around through them to see if there's anything else. So you're just looking through it? I guess I'll look through it. I want to get through the whole thing and see if there's anything hidden. You won't be able to read it in one sitting. But I'll read the first page to get a sense of... Just to yourself? Yeah.

I'll read it out loud. I'm just asking what you're doing. I will read just the very beginning out loud just to kind of get a sense of exactly what this is. Does it feel like it's in the first person, like it's a journal or a diary? Just to get a vague sense of what I've read.

I am the ancient. I am the land. My beginnings are lost in the darkness of the past. I was the warrior. I was good and just. I thundered across the land like the wrath of a just god. But the war years and the killing years wore down my soul as the wind wears stone into sand. All goodness slipped from my life. I found my youth and strength gone. And all I had left was death.

My army settled in the valley of Barovia and took power over the people in the name of a just god, but with none of a god's grace or justice. I called for my family, long unseated from their ancient thrones, and brought them here to settle in the castle Ravenloft. They came with a younger brother of mine, Sergai. He was handsome and youthful. I hated him for both.

From the families of the valley, one spirit shone above all others. A rare beauty was called perfection, joy, and treasure. Her name was Tatiana, and I longed for her to be mine. I loved her with all of my heart. I loved her for her youth. I loved her for her joy. But she spurned me. Old One was my name to her. Elder and Sister.

Her heart went to Sergei. They were betrothed. The date was set. The words she called me, sister. But when I looked into her eyes, they reflected another name, death. It was the death of the agent that she saw in me. She loved her youth and enjoyed it, but I had squandered mine. The death she saw in me turned her from me, and so I came to hate death, my death.

My hate is very strong. I would not be called death so soon. I made a pact with death, a pact of blood. On the day of the wedding, I killed Sergei, my brother. My pact was sealed with his blood. I found Tatyana weeping in the garden east of the chapel. She fled from me.

She would not let me explain, and the great anger swelled within me. She had to understand the pact I made for her. I pursued her, finally, in despair. She flung herself from the walls of Ravenloft, and I watched everything I ever wanted fall from my grasp forever. It was a thousand feet through the mist. No trace of her was ever found.

Not even I know her final fate. Arrows from the castle guards pierced me to my soul, but I did not die, nor did I live. I became undead forever. I have studied much since then. Vampyr is my new name. I still lust for life and youth, and I curse the living that took them from me. Even the sun is against me.

It is the sun and its light I feared the most. But little else can harm me now. Even a stake through my heart does not kill me, though it holds me from movement. But the sword, that cursed sword that Sergei brought with him, I must dispose of that awful tool. I fear and hate it as much as the sun. I have often hunted for Tatyana. I've even felt her within my grasp. But she escapes me. She taunts me.

She taunts me. What will it take to bend her to love me? I now reside far below, Raven. I live among the dead and sleep beneath the very stones of this hollow castle of the stair. I shall seal shut the walls of these stairs that none may disturb me. This is...

How she became a vampire. Who's a bargain? Yeah. Well, what I find is interesting is she mentions fear in the sun, but we've seen her walk about it. Well, unless you count, it's kind of cloudy. It's always a little cloudy here. Maybe that is her intention.

She keeps it overcast all the time. Is that enough? Perhaps it needs to be direct sunlight. And then an overcast sky that's not direct. Would that be a fair thought to have? Yes.

That's why we have not seen the sun since we've been to this land. Except for the one time when you entered the bones. Right, right. Of St. Andrew. I mean, even the father said it was unusual. Yes. He said years, years and years. Maybe these bones are the key. Or...

Could we create new shallow ground? Did you read all three of those pages? Okay. Is there some way to know? This journal doesn't... I will need to spend more time reading it, but what if there's some way to know whose bones these are? I was hoping it might be in the journal. Could it be Sergei's bones?

Is there a chance? Brother of darkness. I'm not. Sorry.

That's right. We could have all congregated. I'm petting. I'm trying to go with the girl. There was nothing written on the chest, right? Like no marking. How heavy is that box? Are we able to take it with us? It's probably 10 pounds-ish. I can get it. That's fine. Let's see if we can take this old stuff. We can be with Connor. Make sure she's still all right.

And we need to get out of here. I don't know if we're even going to find Lady Wachter. She might not be here anymore. We can get a tamer pop this house. There could be a way to get more information from the gentleman lying there. What? No, it's me. I hate to do it, but given the minutes, we may be able to speak with him.

you can do that? yes the power of Garrix knows no limits do we have the time? how much time do you need? ten minutes i believe let me check you've already wasted so much time eh?

Perhaps we try to find Lady Warkter first, and then we can come back. Very well. Let's go collect Kana. Yes. Should we collect the bones? Or are we bringing the whole chest? I mean, it's just a bunch of dirt. I don't want to, like, disturb her. We should take the whole thing. Or lose any of it, you know? I don't mind carrying it. It's not that heavy. Okay.

Let me know if you need assistance, Shocker. It's fine if I... What we should probably do is relock it, because if I gotta drop it quick, I can drop it, and it's iron, it should be alright. You mind relocking it? Of course. And here's the key. Thank you. And I'll stick it, like, on my person, in my vest or pocket or whatever, and I'll just carry the chest. It's not that heavy.

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 salt mine.

You can also go to thecrookedmoon.com to pick up your own copy of our first published supplement, The Crooked Moon, a folk horror tome for Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition. And don't forget to snag all the extra goodies like dice, miniatures, plushies, a tarot deck, and more. Thank you. Kana, how are you? Are you alright? I have the sleeping Stella in my arms. How's she doing? She's breathing softly. She's sleeping.

I'm okay. I've managed to calm her down. She's just sleeping. But I think we should take her with us. We should bring her with us. Are we going to run into any trouble if somebody recognizes her? It could be dangerous. We should hide her face, certainly. I just don't know how well known her or what their children are known. And it might cause a stir if they see us walking around town with one of them. Yes, we should disguise her or perhaps I can make her completely unseen.

But we know her brothers are at the inn. I don't think she was allowed to leave the house very often. She was fed when the ladies fed. It was time to feed her. I think she has been starving. For whatever reason, she seems to be getting in trouble. She didn't say anything.

How or why, before she fell asleep. But I think for whatever reason, Lady Wachter purposely keeps her locked away, maybe to not draw too much attention. Can we lock this door, perhaps, and then search the rest of the house and then come and collect her?

Perhaps lock it in a separate keynote room. If you have a way to relock the door, I don't think we have a key for this one. Are any of the doors relockable? Doesn't look like it. They all use actual keys. So you can lock it with the same key, right? You don't have any. I picked the lock, so I need to tell her back, but I don't have a way to like... I see, I see. Yeah.

I'm fine taking and carrying her with me as long as we don't come across too much shoe I can carry her. She's familiar with me now, so if she wakes up, she should hopefully be too distraught. Then let's make haste. Right to the church, right? At once, we need to find Lady Wachter. Yes, we've got to go to see her. I am prepared to silence her, Kana.

should the need arise. Right. Have we found the Two of Swords card? The Paladin card suggests a weapon of vengeance. I believe that's how many the twirl is. It may rest with Sir Nicolai. He is on the same card. The card indicated that the treasure lies with him. But it does mention a weapon of vengeance, a sword or something.

He might have wielded that sword since he was the one that Stella told me. Fiona. Fiona said that her husband was against Stanya. She was not. He might have been the one that wielded the sword into battle. Can you read the card, please? The Two Souls Paladin card.

This is a card of power and strength. It tells of a weapon of vengeance, the sword of sunlight. I see a sleeping prince, a servant of the light and brother of darkness. Say again. Yes, the treasure light. Are there dates in that journal entry? Any idea how old it is? No. No dates, but it is surely... Say again. The brother of darkness. That's assuming if the sword still even exists.

What if it's just lost in time? Perhaps we should search downstairs. You think that it might be here? I do not think so. I suspect we won't return here once we've left. Fair enough. So this may not be the sleeping prince we are looking for, Sir Nicolai. I believe it is.

Wait, hold on. Just get it straight. The dead man in that room is not who that card refers to? No, it is not. It is referring to Sergei. His final resting place is where the sword that Shraddhaanya fears is. Yes. We have not necessarily found that treasure here, although this is all very useful information. No, we have found the treasure of knowledge. So it's safe to assume these bones aren't his?

Perhaps not. The bones of an ancient enemy. That is external. We have found the traitor. The sword we're referring to is the paladin. Why? Why separate the bones from the sword? Because I think Sir Nicolai was maybe just as great of an enemy as Sergei Ryshkin.

I think Sergei was the one that wielded the sword that the paladin card is referring to, and that the traitor may in fact be referring to Sir Nicolai, Stella's and Fiona's husband. These are probably... We do not know whose bones these are. Until we can learn more.

I believe we should keep it open. Roll an intelligence check. Okay. That's my specialty. Well, it's important. I don't know. Uh, eight. Yeah.

You could turn that into something else. Well, you also have your divination stuff, right? Yeah. Up to you. Make your choice.

It's your choice, buddy. I'll fucking do it. It's an 18. You scan through a little further and your attention is drawn to an entry in which Shredanya is speaking of deeds given to the Wachter family and speaking of a certain set of bones in their possession.

Bones of Leo Deliznya, an enemy of both the Wachter family and Strahd. Leo was one of the soldiers who betrayed and attempted to murder Strahd on the balcony after the killing of her brother. Damn.

So he worked for Castle Ravenloft? Yes. And so in the diary, it said that after Tatian jumped from the balcony, the guards turned on Strahd and fired arrows into her, but it didn't kill her. Leo was one of those guards. He was then tracked down and murdered by Strahd, and all of his bones had been destroyed, but a few. The Wachter family are in possession of those bones. Interesting. Well, now we know whose bones these are.

Neither Sir Nikolai nor the brothers. So, I believe the Paladin card is still referring to Sange. Yes, indeed. Well, let us...

bring the child with us and let us investigate the house. I would say that you would all know that the cards do not intersect. Each card refers to something different. So the one card referred to Rudolph Van Richten. It told you what you were looking for and where to find it. The next one was referring to Strahd's journal. It told you what you're looking for, which was Strahd's journal and where to find it. And so you know that the paladin card tells you what you're looking for.

And where to find it. Yeah, so the first sentence is what you're looking for. The second one is where to find it. I don't think we should wait 10 minutes here, frankly. And do we even need to? Do we get any value out of that? No.

and find out what was the cube and where would his wife be hiding. Also, why he had such a vendetta against Shraddha. Why he hated her and his wife didn't. Well, I'll leave you to the professor. It's going to be fun waiting.

But let's investigate the rest of the house and we can come back up if there really is no more danger. Not to be crass, but I don't think he's going anywhere. I agree. Do you want me to remain up here with the girl? Or do you want me to carry her around the house with me? If we find... I mean, I don't have a good answer for that. Because the bottom line is, if we find Walker, she sees us with her kid...

Things are going to get dicey. You stay here with the child. If we stream, you should be able to hear us come running. Okay. Agreed. So we will investigate the rest of the house. Roll an investigation check. Advantage.

I'm going to park outside, like kind of in the doorway, so I'm not completely in the room holding the kid. So I'm kind of in the foyer area. You're taking her outside? Yeah, I'm taking her out of the room, but just so that I don't get shut in. But you're not carrying her while she sleeps? I'm carrying her, but I'm just still on the upper level in that foyer area, kind of where the stairs are, just waiting and listening. You got it. 22. You flipped the house apart. Oh, okay.

And you find nothing. No remnants of anyone left. Servants gone. Lady Watcher gone. Just emptiness. I really hate being in Lucette. Well, we know she has an enemy in town. We could use the Burgomaster against her. She's clearly paying these peasants to chant and create gold for herself. That's how she maintains her wealth.

Perhaps it would have been wise to secure her request in writing. Damn. That's actually a pretty good point, Sarna. I don't think she'd have even agreed to that. Perhaps not. Perhaps not. Oh, you guys have left. Sorry. I doubt it. That was a good question. Well, we'll reconvene with Kana and we'll... We should take the girl. We should get out as quickly as we can. Do we feel like we can...

I believe I'm now comfortable if you are willing to speak with... I am willing. ...Nicolai. Perhaps he will know nothing, but... Since the Lady Wachter has escaped, perhaps we can glean some information of where she may be hiding. He's not going to go into, like, a frenzy or anything, is he? I pray he does not shepherd me.

I pray this gets ready. I will keep Stella outside. This will probably be incredibly traumatizing to her if she saw this happening. And I will dart kind of back into her room just so if she wakes up, she's not surprised. And I'll keep the door kind of cracked so she doesn't hear as much. Okay.

Oh, I do not need ten minutes. I have ten minutes to speak with him. I misread my own spell. I can do it instantly. I'm going to put the iron chest at my feet and draw both my weapons while Sarnax is preparing. So as I stand in the room and everyone's preparing, I'll hold my lantern and I'll cast the light over the corpse and

And I'll stare into the flame and then back to the body as I begin to cast Speak With Dead. And I'll say, Your soul has left, but your knowledge has not. Garrix compels you. Speak with

Come on, Cass, and see what happens. There's no save for this, right? Because it's just dead things you talk about. I think it's just yes or no questions. You watch as the body itself doesn't move, but the mouth slowly opens, the eyes still completely vacant, staring up the ceiling. And as the mouth opens, the legs of a spider crawl forward and scuttle down the chin of the man.

skittering away down his body and off the side of the bed. Dust rises up out of the open mouth. A foul stench can be smelled filling the room. Where would your wife be hiding if she were to hide? The closet. Why were you against the Countess Stradania? I...

I was neither for nor against. Is your wife a good woman or evil? One can be both. Where is this closet? Behind you. I just, I spin around both guns like all in the closet. There is an armoire. Professor, I thought you checked this.

I did, but perhaps there could be some kind of magic here. I mean, you made us invisible. I would like to Mage Hand and just start to open and put the Mage Hand through to see if I can feel anything that may not be visible. If I can, my lantern reveals invisible objects. You do that. You scan the room and there is nobody in here with you.

And there's no, like, trap doors or levers or anything in the closet itself. Nope. And I will say, you specifically asked if she were hiding. Yeah. Aww. So she's likely not hiding. She's long gone. Likely long gone, yes. Well, I think we should dispose of this gentleman's body in the gardens.

Do what you will. Shepard, would you give me some assistance? Yeah, I guess. I'll, like... Somebody else can grab the chest at least until we deal with this. I don't think it was in my... Would it fit through the opening of my case? No.

The body? No. What if we put it in a long word? The other chest. The lockbox that had the journal on the back. We just fold up the things. He does like a little lock thing. I mean, are you surprised that I asked? Professor, stand back. I'm going to use my boot. Okay.

So I will place the iron chest into my case and shut it. All right. It's probably safer in there anyway. Agreed. Starnax, you grab that and I'm taking the feet. Yes. Very well. And so we'll go, unless there's anything else anyone wants to do in this house, I'll take him to a plot in the garden. Okay.

And I'll pull out my oil and I'll douse. Sarnax, you're going to burn him out here? It's going to draw attention. Are you sure? Yes, I am sure. What attention? Are you guys with us? Okay. Are you all right with this? He'll be long gone before anyone investigates. There must be some reason for keeping him alive, but maybe that was a question we should have asked him.

Perhaps. But that chance has no past. Do your thing and let's get to the church. Or perhaps we can bring it out towards the woods. We don't want to start any kind of forest fire. If this man was a good man, then maybe he deserves a proper burial.

Instead of being left to burn into a pile of ash, Sarnax. That is a proper burial, Connor. Is it this point that you can hear throughout the town yelling and footsteps? Sounds like guards mobilizing and making their way through the town. It sounds like it's heading towards your direction. We should go now. We should... Oh, uh-oh. Yeah, um...

Burn him, dispose of him, let us go. We need to get to the church. I'll cast Sacred Flame. All right, let's try to go to the church, I guess. Our best bet may be to confront the guards and say that we found this girl in her current state trapped inside. And that she had threatened to murder the Burgomaster.

Perhaps it is better for us to confront the gods. All right. Oh, wait! And I press a digitation, the fire off the body. The body itself is...

smoldering, the skin bubbling as the fire had begun to consume it. It's very fast-acting. Is he recognizable at all? Not really. The skin from the face has been nearly melted away.

Can we take his body too? Yes, we should use it as proof. Oh, damn it. Even if his face isn't that recognizable. Oh, all right. So it's at this moment that four town's guardsmen make their way around the corner. Who goes there? Doctor! Oh, hello, hello! Yes, yes! There is an emergency in this house. We've been told.

Lady Waksha has been come upon in the night by a group of brigands. No, no. Fitting your description. It is quite the opposite. No, we have discovered that Lady Waksha has been... He looks around and sees the burning, smoldering corpse lying at your feet. Please, please come. This looks real bad, but please let the professor... I will stand where I am.

Bring me the girl. We have uncovered... Men! At arms! Everybody just calm down. And you hear the loud clanging again as ten more guards come up around the other side of the house and begin to encircle you. We have proof. Listen to what the professor's saying. We have proof. We have proof. We came upon her doing horrible things. Demonic things.

Literally devilish things. Look at her daughter. She's filthy. Starved and kept away. We have proof, too. We found the grimoire in the manifesto. Yes, we have devilish writings. We have saved this girl. We have found that her very own husband was killed three years ago, and she's been keeping him alive. We've just begun to give him a proper burial by fire. Because after I had learned that they were practicing necromancy in the basement of this...

mention. We wanted to ensure that this corpse could not be raised as well against the people of Valaki. Persuasion check. We believe in you, Professor. Who's rolling? You produced me? No, you have a burning corpse at your feet. I am not charismatic in the least. It is a 16. Are you plus zero on charisma? I'm plus one. Oh,

He looks back and forth between all of you. We received word that the Lady Wokter had been come upon in the night. And here we find you, burning the evidence in her very garden. The evidence of who? Take a look. I see who this man is. She did say you had killed one of her guests. Yes.

Yes, it looks quite fresh.

I understand how this looks. We all do. But all we're asking is for you to at least entertain the idea that perhaps she's come to you in a false pretense. We're offering to show you the proof that we have it.

We come bearing no arms. We would like to comply with you absolutely. You can show us the proof if you come willingly. Yeah, if you're willing to look at the proof, we're willing to cooperate. Hands behind your back as we manacle you. Get the manacles. We're cooperating. I will not let go of her. I would hope so. And you feel as the guards begin to surround you and at least two guards on each of you as they begin to start to manacle you. Uh...

As he, I would like to cast suggestion on him. Oh, Jesus. And he rolls an eight. I don't give a fuck. Oh my God. I don't give a fuck. How did you allow this to happen? Oh my God.

The manacles are unnecessary as I assure you that it is safe. You will allow us to take you through the house and show you the evidence and you will be honest and you will insist to the rest of your guards that we mean the town no harm and that we are on the right. Hands off me. Easy. We're cooperating. Hold steady, men.

Make it quick. Yes, of course. Take him to the server. And I will lead him down to the cellar and I will say, we uncovered a necromantic ritual. You can see all of these bones. They were animated. Wait, is the trap still there? Oh, fuck. Let's be definitive. Do you have Starnax with you? Yes. We're all there. We will walk onto the dirt floor. Yeah.

We have to say those sentences. The entire ground begins to shake. Do you not see? As skeletons begin to rise up. Eight skeleton bodies rise up. See, see, men, perform yourselves. Only roll once, since I know what this is for.

And I roll a natural two. To dust! Yay! To dust with you! Oh, God. That never seems so amazing, buddy. Holy fuck. It could be a fluke. You will come upon my cultist! And I say, I lead him through the wall.

We managed to take out this one. The rest, please. He leans down onto one of his knees and he rolls the body over and shakes his head and looks away. Do you know this man? No. No.

...

Does he see the pentagram on the floor? He doesn't seem to be looking or noticing anything. Do you see this pentagram right here on the floor? There's nothing on the floor. Do we see it? Yeah.

What? Sir, sir, you've got to believe us. There's... We must take them to Sal's room. You saw these skeletons, did you not, rise against you? I did, yes. And you then understand why we had to burn the corpse that we found. You can see the conditions that this poor girl was living in. Whatever the lady was doing to her was inhumane. We can take you to her bedroom where we found her. It's covered in human feces. I think I've seen enough.

Let's head back outside. Again, we're willing to cooperate, but we hope you believe us. Lady Wachter is very powerful. I cannot stand against her this day. But I will let the Burgomaster know what we have found here today. You've got to let him know that his life is in danger. We never saw you.

Stay away from this place. You do the same as well, and we have failed to mention the reason why we came back this very night is that in a lunch that we had with the Lady Wachter, she asked us to be assassins and murder the gentleman who murdered the Burgermaster himself. Isaac. And Isaac. His... Yes. No, both. Both. She asked us to murder both of them. We agreed in order to...

to deceive her and to this off of our sense. But when we came to investigate cult rituals, a devil, this poor child, he is in grave danger. Lady Watcher is powerful, which means that your Burgomaster's life is in danger.

He seems nervous almost as he looks around and he begins to look at you questioningly. Are you in league with her? This is a distraction to keep us... The Burgermaster. And he immediately turns and heads straight upstairs as he begins to yell and shake his arm and point out, to the mansion! And they all begin to nearly at full speed run, head straight to the Burgermaster. Okay.

We should join them. Let's go. The girl. We have to drop the girl off somewhere safe. I am not leaving her. We just can't take her into battle. Which way in town is the mansion? It's near where... It's not near where the inn is, but it's on the way. Are they assuming that with the guard here? It's going to be a distraction and the Burgomaster is... We may be too late. Defense this.

In case they will think that it's us again, we must use her husband against her. I suggest we bring his body and burn it in front of her to intimidate her. Hold on, that sounds... You must do it! That sounds about right. You cannot leave it here! What? We will get her away though. Surely she will cry out, she will reveal. Everyone in this town must know that her husband died years ago.

Yes, let's just bring it. Oh, Shepard, can you handle it? Damn it, fine. Come on, let's go. We rush off. What do we do with this girl?

I'm still carrying her. Bring her with us. She will lose her mind if she wakes up, and I am not. She's pretty zonked out. It seems like this is the first time she's felt actual comfort and relief in a long time, and she hadn't seemed like she'd slept much. She's in a super deep sleep. Let me take her to the church, and I can meet up with you later. Yes, please. Hurry. Would we pass the church on the way?

church is on the opposite side of town. I will use my bonus action to channel my blossoms of the spring breeze and expeditious retreat dash movement action to get there as quickly as possible. You are on your way, speeding through town. The guards have already been told not to apprehend you. Those that are

those that are engaged and heading towards the Burgomaster's mansion do look at you quizzically as they see you speeding through town. I'm going 90 feet for six seconds. Oh, yeah. Well, it's amazing. I wonder what the hell that even was. Naruto run. Naruto running. But I'm also holding it, so I'm like...

Yes. So you do that, and I'll say for the second part, it's going to take you all, so I'll let you know when you get back, but you're able to make it to the church. Father Lucian's there. You speak to him. He takes the child from you. He says that he'll take great care of her. She wakes up for the exchange. She seems pleased to be there, and you're able to drum her off at the church. I give her a hug and sweat back towards this last four minutes

up to ten minutes. So however much time it takes me to get there, I'll use the rest of the time to sprint back to the Burgomaster's place. So we will follow the guards behind and come to the mansion. So you... So the guards have already left by the time Kana leaves. So Kana heads out. So you're just leaving the body? No, Kana's carrying it. He's carrying it. Are you?

Yeah, I've been told to. You walk outside to the garden, the smoldering remains of Nikolai Wachter, and you see that the body is no longer there.

as you hear rustling coming from the line of trees at the very edge. I bullseye right at the direction of it. Should we say that he walked her away? I'm going to cast the bullseye. Reveal yourself! No, no, no. You know that he's not so kind of you to be playing with the dead. No.

Lady Voktor was very concerned with what you've done tonight, and she asked me to come and check in on her poor husband. What's good, Julie? Really? Look at you. How could you so easily desecrate the bones?

Of one who's lost his life. How could you? It's not at all what I'd expected. Be quiet. We are talking. It is the opposite of what we've done, giving him a proper burial. It was not for the work of the lady. He would have been ash and returned to the soil of the earth, as it should be.

Who's in there with you? Oh, you mean me? And she reaches into the tree line and you see a shaking young guard. His limbs are nearly locked up. He looks frozen and horrified as she runs a finger down the side of his face. Be quiet. You are falling. Come back. She pushes him back into the tree line. What are you going to do with him?

well we're going to spend some time together you see and he's going to tell me all the things i want to know and i will make sure he has a very pleasant evening before he finds himself in a deep relaxing sleep of course now i did hear that you may have come across something that does not belong to you

Is this true? We have many things that do not belong to us. In any last meeting we had, I believe I said to you to not go sticking your nose into other people's business. Oh, but you did not listen, did you?

They never do. And we have done no such thing. Oh, really? Yes. We were invited to the film. We were invited to the film? This evening. Yes. When you walked in during her book club meeting.

You're very enlightened then. No, not then, but this all pertains to us. This is all our business. Business of the expedition and business of getting home from this expedition. You know, you are very overwhelmed.

You should take a deep breath. The night is beautiful. The wind is slightly warm. It's perfect. You don't need to be getting yourself overwhelmed. You look so angry, Professor.

You are too young to be angry. We must be going now. It's been a lovely chat. Oh, it has been a lovely chat. Please return it to me when you're done with it. You know what I'm speaking of. Good night. Then I will tell you when it is a good night.

And she looks at you, her eyes blaze red. I would not press you alack. The professor is tired. He simply needs to sleep. And that is what we intend to do, Countess. Would you bid us good evening? I would. But first, Victoria Darwin. Come to me. I'll step forward towards her. Victoria. Victoria. Hush.

This is a moment that does not include any of you. She reaches her hand out to you. Look at your fingers. Look. Look at the way your veins pulse with passion.

You believe in a god who does not know what lies near, heart that beats in your shoes. You have power running from your veins, little one. You could be so special. When you come, you will stay the evening with me and I have lots I want to show you. Our dinner does not have to end.

It could last for a long time. Yes.

I can't wait. I look forward to it. She leans in. She runs her hand down the side of your face. She places a chaste kiss on the very base of your neck. Soon. Now. Be quiet. We are leaving. It was great to see all of you.

Now please, this time, keep your nose out of other people's business. I don't want to have to keep cleaning up after your messes.

Good night. She turns and she tosses her hair behind her. Let's go. You will enjoy this. And you see as she kicks him deep into the forest. Get up. Walk faster. And she begins to move off into the woods.

I'm gonna just keep staring in the woods. We should let her walk off with that guy? Yes. Pick up the body. The body's gone, right? No, it's gone. She said that Lady Wachter was worried about her husband. And so she came to collect her husband.

Let us go to the Virgo master's mansion, please. We just keep willingly getting our people. Their fates were already sealed. There's nothing we can do. If you'll provide me one moment, then I'll hobble over to the patch of soil where it had been burning. I assume with half of it being charred, there would be some ashes there. I'll reach out to my pouch and I'll pull out a seed.

Submit to the soil of the earth. And I'll place the cover on. You gotta get to the Burgermaster. Yes. Just go quickly, please. I hope we're not too late. We may very well be. Would I have beaten them there?

Yeah, I'll say you would have easily have beaten them there. So we'll switch over to that. As you make your way, you notice a congregation of guards down the road opposite of the one that leads to Wachter House. And you quickly dart down it until you come to the second largest house that you've seen so far in the village of Lockheed. And it's here that you see the entire house surrounded by guards.

The one that you remember speaking with steps out, and he looks around you. Where are the rest? Are they with you? They are back at the mansion, but they're on their way. They were carrying the body of Sir Nicolai. Well. Well, it looks like it was but a diversion. But all is well. The house is secure. The Burgomaster? Yes.

was asleep in his bed, now pacing his parlour, quite displeased, but safe nonetheless. I would much rather he were angry at us than that he were dead. If I may ask, what did take place? Nothing. We must have cut them off at the head. I believe once they saw us fleeing towards the Burgabaster's mansion, whatever designs they had on his head, they have quirked. Is Isaac here?

His henchman. He sleeps here, yes. This is his home. So Isaac is inside? Yes, he's with the Burgomaster. And they are both well? They were when I last spoke to them. Any of the windows, were they left open? Not that I know of, but I didn't walk through and check all of their windows. May I...

You may not walk into the Burgomaster's mansion without his express permission. Understood. If you are concerned, he will check the windows himself, and he has asked that we post guard at his place for the entirety of the evening. Is there any chance we may have an audience with him, sir? I highly doubt it. He is in his...

Good job. Yes. Understood. Well, if you have an opportunity to pass forward to him, I imagine my companions will be here shortly. We will stand guard with you until he is ready, perhaps, to speak with us. We have some information. You're going to stand here all night long. He's going back to bed.

If that means saving his life from the hands of Lady Wachter, then yes. You can go home. Find where you sleep and sleep there. You can request an audience with him in the morning when he's helped in his... Very well. I have promised my companions that I would wait for them here. I will...

a little further away, but you may stand here next to me if you need. Just very well. Not all night. Understood. I'll just have my naginata. If I see you checking the windows. Absolutely. Will not. It's in his damn pajamas. No, sir. No pajamas. And from that point, I would say it takes probably about...

15 minutes or so before you make your way to the Burgomaster's mansion, you see the guards completely encircling the entire thing. There were around 15 that came to Wachterhaus to assault you. There are about 50 that are around the entirety of the Burgomaster's mansion.

And as you look up, you can see that there are guards stationed inside, that you see that there are two guards on the topmost balcony. Looking through the windows, you're able to see a guard pacing back and forth in a hallway. They seem to have this entire place on lockdown. Within like five, ten minutes, I'll turn to him again and say, any sign of Lady Wachter?

Have I screamed for the guards? Yes, sir. There's not been sign of Lady Wanda. Right. Will you remain here a little bit longer until my companions arrive? I will be here all night. Very well. What is your name, sir? Frederick. Frederick, I'm Kana, and I will bow halfway.

Thank you, Frederick. He seems to be really confused. This is probably the first time he's ever seen a woman that is standing at attention like a guard would do. And there's a part of him, I would say, and you need to roll for this, there's a part of him you can see that he keeps questioning whether you're mocking him or whether this is serious. He's finding it hard to believe that this is the thing that's happening.

Do I sense that he's uncomfortable with me and like culturally? He's not necessarily uncomfortable with you. He's just, he's in shock and disbelief. Once he got over the fact, once he realized that you weren't making fun of him and this is your name, he's trying to kind of just get used to the idea that

there's a woman that is essentially a guard, a militant, and he seems to really like that. He smiles at you, and you can tell he has respect for you, but he's trying to do his job. Do I feel it requires further explanation? I will remain silent, vigilant, and just wait for my friends to arrive.

About 15 minutes past, and that's the scene you come up to. Kana is literally standing next to what appears to be the captain. She seems to be in a stance as well, right next to him, and he's kind of looking back at her, but then constantly scanning the streets. Oh, God. Do we make it? Is he dead? He's not dead. I don't want to speak out of turn. Sorry. Well, this is Captain Frederick, by the way. Now that your companions have made their way, we have this place on lockdown. You may head out.

I just wanted to take the time to apologize for the commotion in the scene. I know that we did not get off on the right foot, but we're glad to hear that everything's all right. It is for now. I can't stress enough how willing we are to comply. If you ever need to send for us, we're staying at the inn I cannot remember the name of. The Blue Water Inn. The Blue Water Inn. If we need you, we will send for you. I will make sure to let the Burgomaster know what has happened to this factory.

And from there, it will be his decision how he would like to handle the situation. Thank you. Thanks for your patience. Don't forget to put in a good word.

I need addition. John nods at you. There's a little Trump addition in his face. I'm still concentrating on suggestion. Yes. Fuck, I forgot that was still going. Why do you think this is turning out this way? Okay, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. You should be in a fucking cell right now. I should be. All of you should be in fucking chains begging for your lives. That's what all of you should be doing. Oh my god. Yes, I...

Professor. Yes. Are you sharing any more evidence with Captain Fudge? No, no, I believe that they are well informed. I think we should get some rest. It's been a harrowing time. It has been. Captain, will you let us know if you spot any sign of Lady Wachter? No. Very well. Professor? They are capable of doing their jobs. I think you let them handle it. Thanks again, sir. We'll see you tomorrow, maybe, or if you need us. Once again, he kind of looks at Connor.

I revert my gaze. Good night. And I start walking back towards the end, I guess. Well, we should go to the church. Professor, should we go? What happened to the church? So I dropped off Stella with the priest. You woke him up. He was asleep. He was in a nightcap. What was his name again? Lushan. Father Lushan. Father Lushan was asleep. I woke him up in the midst of all the chaos.

I delivered Stella. She woke up. I explained the situation so she was not frightened. She seemed to be much happier. She seemed to know who he was and he seemed to know who she was. He was really concerned over the state of her and he immediately had...

additional people there helping to bandage up some wounds and they had already started to set up food to feed her and to clothe her. We'll have to compensate the father for bothering him as such now. He now has one Tatiana and four children.

This is the Clayton Azarain Memorial Orphanage. Compliments of Miss Tower University. Sponsored by Tower University. Let us return to our room. Yes. Quickly.

What time is it? It's probably 2 o'clock in the morning. Okay. Maybe we check in with Stella in the morning. Yes. On the way out of town, yes. All right.

I will, I guess we'll do it back fine. Yes, you make it back quickly. Once at the inn, you are sure to be as quiet as possible so as not to wake anybody. I'll say you even make a stop by Rudolph Van Richten's room and you can hear his heavy snores as he is sound asleep in his room.

you find your way back to your rooms and you are able to commune in one or do whatever you need to. Professor, I know you said we're going to head out in the morning. I'm assuming you mean the winery. Yes. It won't look weird if we just skip town all of a sudden?

I am not too concerned about appearances at this point. All right. We already have, I believe, thanks to a bit of arcane magic, we have some good graces with the Burgomaster. I think we've proven to the town guard, Captain Frederick, and the Burgomaster himself that we are on his side. And if we can wind back to the festival, it's even more good graces. Thank you.

I hope so. Two nights. The night after tomorrow? It's a little less than 48 hours, right? No festival? Yeah, so you have one, so you have all day, a night, all day, festival. Right. So if we make haste in the morning... It starts in like the mid-afternoon. If we make haste in the morning, we could...

Hopefully get back in time. Well, there's always a chance we stumble upon the shipment on the way to the wire. We always make it all the way there. That's right. So if we can just recover even just the shipment, we can worry about whatever might be going on there at another time. Yes. In fact, I wish to observe this crystal...

You're not going to be disappointed if we don't make it to the winery, are you? We will eventually make it to the winery. I have no doubt. Fantastic. It will give me more time to examine the crystal. I find that a medal. Do you have the crystal? Yeah. The green gem?

We don't have too many hours till sunup, and I'm feeling all right. I might just try to shut my eyes for a little bit and rest. We should get some sleep, but then let's get up early and leave. Yeah, we don't have too much time to dilly-dally anyway. Before we retire, I must ask, Victoria, are you feeling well? It's been a long day. It has indeed, but I would not...

Blame it on a long day to present your neck to a vampire. Victoria. I didn't. I didn't present it. I saw it with my own two eyes. She could have bared her fangs and drained you from every single drop of blood from your body. But she didn't. But she didn't. Yet she could have. At the very least, I believe what Starnax is saying is it was reckless.

I understand. I just... I don't know what came over me. Wickedness. Wickedness came over you. You never told me. I do. And I see it in you. In my head, I have little black flames in my eyes. Anime style. Anime style. You do want to make it home, right?

I suppose. There's nothing to say now. We can't leave here anyway. Not yet. We need to be careful if we're going to get out of here alive. I'm being careful. All right. And the way I see it, frankly, is if you would like to join the Countess and be a consul to join her side, please feel free. Professor, we just... I would, of course... I shudder at the thought of it, but...

If you are compelled to do so, you may be able to stop hesitating to kill me. I don't know where you stand, but I can say honestly, something just came over me when she spoke to me. Wickedness. Not wickedness. I suppose the same sort of influence she has on other people as well.

Truly, none of you felt it? No. The armor of my god shields me from such types of wickedness. Anger. A lot of anger and hate. Can I... I want to walk up to... Are you sitting or standing? Whatever we're doing. Standing. I'll walk up to you so that we're face-to-face. I'll stand in front of you.

And I'll open my hands to allow you to put yours in mine. Victoria, spilt water will not return to the tray. Let today rest what happened today. Pass over us for now. You must remain vigilant. I don't consider you to be wicked. I think you are kind, highly intelligent in your voice. Please do not let their words hurt you. I'm here to protect you.

And I will protect you from Stradania. If she decides to lure you into her, I appreciate it. I squeeze her into you. I will tread. Fair point, as always. I'll sidestep and stand next to her kind of proudly and protectively. For what it's worth, I agree with you, Kana. I think we're here to protect each other, and that's why Stardex is so concerned. Speaking of which, how many more times are we going to meet her and not do anything about it?

Because my patience is wearing thick. I understand that, but do you have a death wish, Mr. Morgan? Would you like to die again? And I don't mean any harm. If any of us would like to join her or cross her now when we're not ready, feel free. I just... I want everyone to know that it is in their power to choose. I won't force anyone to remain a part of this expedition. But...

It is a death wish to attack her. Agreed. I'm not eager to join her, but think of the knowledge that she has of this land. She's ruled it for centuries. I have no doubt. But there is time and place for everything. And as told in the crystal ball and in the cards, the time is not yet. And I will not even dare to think of encountering

of fighting, of taking combat against the Countess until we have fulfilled the divination that we've received. All right. There is still much to learn. Yes. I don't care. Yes. I fear we will not like what we do learn. Great. I'm going to sleep. I'm going to get some rest.

I, so Victoria, just under my breath. Thank you. I'll go for a walk. Okay.

Would you like some company? I will remain next to you in silence. Just know we're getting up before dawn. We're getting out of here early because we've got to try to make it back in time. Agreed? Yes. Yes. Everybody be ready. Before dawn. Yes. I will remain awake until Victoria has returned. So I will be downstairs. Well, are we trying to remain...

Loki, do you think that with us being the good graces of the Burgomaster, we don't need to hide our faces? It should be all right. At least for now, I'm going to get some sleep and then we'll just head out first thing in the morning, hopefully without incident. I will wait for Victoria to return. I will be outside of the inn.

For her. If you need anything, just wake us up. Will do. And I'll just, this probably looks kind of awkward, but I'm just posting up out front, just kind of like leaning up against one of the posts of the inn, just panning back and forth, looking into the night. The real is like 2.33 in the morning. I'm getting tired, but I'm simply waiting for her to return from her walk. Okay.

And then I'll escort her up to the room whenever she's ready. Um, I'm going to kind of, is there like a place near the end that would be like away from people just kind of like near the wood line or something like that? Yeah, you can find a place near, near the tree line. Okay. I would just want to find a, like a quiet out of the way, out of sight place. Um,

And I'll kneel down in the grass or the dirt or whatever and undo the back of my dress and expose my shoulders. And then I'll unravel my prayer beads and just hold them tightly. You've got wickedness in you. You've tried to hide it. You've tried so hard, but everyone sees it. You can see the darkness that peeks out of you, especially in this land. It's not going to be hiding in your throat. I'm just going to whip.

with my prayer beads onto my back until it just welts for him. And I'll do that for a little bit. You do that. And then you feel a hand cold on your back. Fuck. Did you really think that I would leave you here alone? Oh my God. And I sweep wickedly. And you can feel her breath on the back of your neck before you even realize that it's her.

And then coldness as her tongue slides from the base of your back all the way up your spine. What? Come on. You've cut yourself. Much sweet to say. And she takes her hand and slowly turns your head so that you're staring directly at her. And you can see as some of your blood is lining the outside of her lips. She slowly licks it off.

It is dangerous out here. And she moves the tree line away and you see where a wolf, a large dire wolf, lays dead, not a mere five feet. But that's why I am here, to protect you. Your friends, they don't understand you, but I do. I know what it's like to be both wicked and good. That is why we were meant to find each other.

I do. She slowly slides her arm around your waist and pulls you up against her. You can feel the boning in her corseted front pressing up against your naked back as she leans her head on your shoulder. We will be friends always, Victoria. Don't you think? I think there's so much that I need to learn for myself. I think perhaps you could help me with that. I would love to.

I'm kind of bad with my friends. Not yet. Oh, no. And I would not ask you to. I like them very much. I just like you a little bit more. Now. And she pushes you forward a little bit. Get inside so I don't have to kill more wolves to save your life. And give her a little smirk. She runs her hand down your back one more time. Make sure that you hide those. They won't like society. But I do.

And she turns around before you can say anything more and heads back into the brush. I'm going to button my dress back up and walk towards the end.

You are easily able to walk back towards the inn. Are you okay, Maya? You're easily able to walk back towards the inn. You see as Kana is leaning up against one of the posts outside of the inn. I'm kind of smiling and flushed. Kana, what are you doing?

Oh, that's with Sonny. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. If you hear like... Lady Victoria, I was waiting for your return to make sure you got to bed safely. That's so kind. Thank you. How was your prayer? It was really close. Learn a lot in the darkness. Very well. Let's go to sleep.

It's been real. I hold open the door for her. You are able to make it inside and you find yourselves settled into bed and finally able to get a good night's sleep. So before we go to bed, while that was happening, I would have made a final cup of tea and

And I would have... I'm just sitting there drinking tea while all this is happening, not realizing. And I would take ten minutes to cast Fairvoyance. And I would say, Privacy Oak. Looking into the tea leaves in the bottom. And I would like to place a censor in the bedroom of Wachter House.

and see what I see. Sure, I'll say for the sake of this, you can see and hear. Okay. You place your sensor. For a moment, it's misty and really hard to make anything out. As finally, you begin to see familiar shapes come into view. The bed. The body.

skin bubbling and burnt, face, the skull mostly exposed where the fire seems to burn the brightest. And in a nearly translucent nightgown, your entire body exposed to your vision. Fiona Wachter is laying atop the body,

rubbing her hands up and down his boiled flesh as she slowly casts her spell. Don't worry, my husband. You will never leave me. We are in this together forever. As she leans down and she kisses him sensuously, you can see the way the flesh moves beneath her lips, unyielding.

She nestles into his arms. You can see the bits of skin that have, where it's blistered, have rubbed off and are still sticking to parts of her chin. She nestles down into him and slowly closes her eyes to fall asleep. Do I notice anything unusual walking behind him?

Victoria. I'm not looking at any particular part. I'm just seeing if her gait has changed. I would say probably not. Okay. So she looks just as normal as she did when she left. Yep.

That's what you see? I'll put my cup away and go to bed. You mean try to. I will attempt to go to sleep. Dark themes, mature strength. As Professor Clayton nods off. You would have gotten used to the fact that I keep my lantern lit but low in time of the evening.

And I'll be kneeling before the fire, looking, staring. And while still looking, without even changing my gaze, I'll say, Shepherd, are you awake? Uh, what? The god that Victoria worships, Illmeter. Yeah, yeah, what about it? Do you know of this god?

DM? Have I heard of Bill Mader? Probably not a roll of religion check to see. I'm comfortable just saying no. Then yeah, no. No, no. He's not a godly man. I'm not a particularly religious individual. She says she prays. She says she is a woman who believes in the divine. That is not what I see.

I'll shift in bed and kind of sit up and lean towards him and roll over. What do you mean? You don't believe her? It may not that I do not believe her, but your God is weak. Impotent to shield her in the way that Garrix shields me. I'm going to take that as you're concerned about her. But nonetheless, as far as I understand about religious individuals, is generally they don't appreciate one person insulting their God.

You wouldn't like it if people said the horrible things about Garrix, would you? People can say what they will about Garrix. It all burns the same in Dragon's Fire. I guess that's true. Damn. So what's your point, Starnax? Do you want to DM this one? What do you want to do about this? My point is observe the power, the shielding, cleansing flame that Garrix provides to me.

And I believe even to you. Hold on to it. Let that fire burn, and you will be protected in a way that Victoria is not. I mean, look, there's no doubt in my mind that what you do is very real and powerful. Derek is a very powerful entity, and I've seen it firsthand. I get that. I didn't like that Shredonia just walked right up to her, and we didn't do anything about it. What do you propose? Converter? Converter?

Perhaps that isn't a terrible idea, Shepard. Perhaps it is Garrix that will be the one that saves us all in this dark land. I wouldn't mind that. Hold it tight, Shepard. Let the flames cloak you like a warming blanket from your earliest fondest memories. All right, Sarnax. Good night, buddy. Sleep well. Yeah, you too.

And as soon as I'm certain he's asleep, I'll roll over. I'll reach in and I'll grab another small twig of wood. I'll cast it into the fire. I'll watch the flames ignite. I'll stare into the flame. And cast... Ogre. Garrix. Firewood.

Every day my power to destroy increases. I see your draconic eye. I feel your dragon's fire. There is darkness in this land and even doubt amidst my companions. I do not intend to let her go to the darkness, Gerrit. I intend to save her very soul. Am I a fool?

Old cat's long green. Wheel and woe. As I predicted, thank you for your infinite wisdom, Fire Lord. I'll put the lantern down.

into my spot that I've been keeping it, and then I'll kind of wrap around it like a lizard. Like a lizard around like a warming thing in a terrarium. And it'll feed my cold blood as I will drift off to sleep. So at what point does Shepard get to start multiclassing into a cleric? Clerics? Clerics?

And you all receive a long rest. And I think that might be where we call the session tonight. It seems as if Lady Fiona Voctor has even more dark secrets than anyone ever anticipated. If it's true what she says about caring about her family, then she has a very interesting way of showing it.

They've seemingly rescued yet another poor, helpless child and have quite the growing collection at this point. Will they face the wrath of the Widow? Find out in Chapter 6 of Curse of Straudania: The Raven Child. 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 Aventress family.