Curse of Strahdanya | Ep. 9 | Phantasmagoria: Part 2
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You are back at Rictavio's wagon and listening to Curse of Stradania, a Legends of Aventress podcast. Last time, the expedition found rest at the Blue Water Inn and learned of a mysterious stranger named Rictavio, who may be the fated ally foretold in their Tarouka reading.

After venturing out to search for this man with the monkey, they met the bizarre toy maker Blinsky, the one responsible for creating the abominable doll that has tormented our easily frightened heroes. Finally, they discovered Rectavio's wagon, but within they found no ally, just a bloodthirsty predator. And no, I don't mean me. We will see if they can put a stop to the potential massacre they've unleashed.

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 conclusion of Chapter 4, Phantasmagoria.

And it sniffs and it looks. It rears its head up and it lets out a snarl as it turns and darts straight into town. No! Damn it! Before it does that, before it does that. No, it's doing that. Okay, as it does that, I will cast blow on it. Wisdom, you 16, save and go. I got a natural 16, plus one. Instead, it's a nine.

Actually. Actually. Actually.

I made you get like a pebble under his wall. Yep. No, that happens. Yes, it fails. Divination wizards, my friends. Okay. I want to hear what the slow does before I make a move here, but I want to grab, I'm reaching for rope out of my pack.

Oh, it's C to stack. Okay. It takes a minus two penalty to AC. Okay. And deck saving throws. It can't use reactions. On its turn, it can use an action or a bonus action, not both. It can't make more than one melee or range attack on its turn. The future attempts to cast a spell with casting. It's not a spellcaster, so whatever. I want a tiger. I want a tiger.

I want to see if I can, like, lasso it. Like, after having seen this thing slow down. It slowly starts to slow. It slowly starts to slow, and it rears its head back and lets out a roar, a slow roar. But it still continues to move towards, I would say. Yeah, I want to run after it in 50 feet of rope trying to lasso the fish. Yeah, try to lasso the. Only if you'll allow it. Yeah.

I don't know. I guess an attack roll to see if you... Just a straight attack roll. Would net rules work? Yeah, sure. As I see this, I'm going to look at what happens and I'm going to put a hand on Shepard's shoulder and say, may Garrix guide your hand and I cast Guidance. 1d4? Yeah. I got a 9.

No adding anything to it. I would allow you to add your proficiency bonus. Just proficiency bonus. Just proficiency. So that becomes a 12 then. Okay, and that hits. There we go. All right, easy now, easy. I'll pull back on this thing. I mean, it may be way stronger than me, but I'm trying. You pull back on it and it's rearing against you as it's clawing into the earth, but it's moving significantly slower than it expects it to.

I'm going to dig my heels in and pull and just try to like... You begin to slide it backwards. Hey, hey, hey! I'm going to make a strength contest. Oh, my strength's garbage. I'm at 12. So for the first round, you're able to pull it back a few feet as it tries to resist you and move the opposite direction. Do something! I got him! Almost!

So it's about 10 feet closer to you. I need you to roll another... I'm going to help him. Another small roll at advantage. Oh, at advantage. I'm gonna reach in and grab my free hand. Ooh, it's a 21! All right, you slide him another 10 feet closer. He's about 20 feet away at this point. All right, roll again. Still at advantage? Yep.

The first one was an 11 to 12. 24, so he is going to grip his feet in and he's going to take off and essentially pounce forward. He's going to get 28. I would like to cast a spell magic on him. Okay. You do, and he continues to struggle. I'm at 12. I'm just rolling 12s out the ass. Okay.

So he is once again going to pounce forward and he's now at 40... No, he's at 60 feet from you. So both you and Sarnax have been drugged forward 10 feet. I would like to run after them and... His feet are so close. I know, that's why he's only going 20 feet instead of 40. 16. Um...

Fuck! It's a four. So you're able to pull him back another ten feet as he is struggling again. So what I would like to do after this initial, we finally gain some slack, I'm going to wrap it around my arm so if he wins the strength contest, I won't lose slack, I'm just going to go with him. I'm not going to let slack out. I'm trying to reel this mofo in. Alright, again. Fuck!

So what do we do? 90. All right. You're able to pull him forward another 10 feet. He's now 40 feet away from you. I would like to... 20. So you're going to lurch forward 20 feet as he's able to... Is he ever looking back? Professor, come on, please! No, he is trying to get away. I went down the rope and just tried to help him. We already have advantage. So I'll say with a third...

you are able to outmaneuver the strength of this cat and you're able to pull him in

As you get to him about 10 feet from you, you notice that he is beginning to turn and draw his attention towards you, seeing that his line of escape is diminishing. Up there, settle down! Easy, easy, come on! I will, I mean, I don't have anything else to cast. I've got fucking nothing. So I will instead, wait, do I? I'm going to raise up my hand and cast.

Just kind of move the shadow of my hand across his eyes and cast blindness. Okay. How does that work? I can blind or deafness, though.

Has to make a constitution saving throw. If it fails, the target is either blinded or definite by choice for the duration at the end of each of its turn. Target can make a con saving throw. Oh. Eight. Okay. He is blind. After she's casted her spell, what I want to do is use Hunter's Sense.

Okay. As an action, I choose one creature I can see within 60 feet. I immediately learn whether the creature has any damage, immunities, resistance, or vulnerabilities, and what they are if the creature is not hidden from divination magic. I can use this feature three times per long rest. Oh, wow. Okay. You see as the...

eyes on this creature go blind as it lashes against the rope. It is now flailing around frantically, unable to discern its surroundings. You channel your innate ability with nature and wildlife and you focus in on this creature and you see that it does not seem to have any damage, immunities, or resistances and it is simply a saber-toothed tiger. Oh.

I would... So it's blind, probably enraged. And tied out. How big is it compared to us? It's a large beast. I'm just going to step forward and say, do not scare me, beast. Like I said, find comfort.

and calmness in the faith of Garrix the Fire Lord. And I'm going to step forward, and I'm going to try to, like, sound as calming as I can, as I'm going to try to walk forward with my hand on its face. What have we done? This is a nightmare. Not an A-plus move, I'm afraid.

Calm beast.

Calm, beast. You're doing this and it is not calming itself down. It is in an absolute frenzy as it rides against the rope. So if the three of us are able to outstrip it. You're holding the rope, but you don't have your arms around this. No, totally, totally. But it's not pulling us anymore. It's not able to pull through.

I would... I will... I would say that you could utilize her to help you in lieu of... I will cast Hideous Laughter on it. Okay. While he does that, I want to run into the cart. And how does that work? It's a... Yeah, with saving throw.

Doesn't it have, isn't there an int? Yes. Okay. It has a negative four to its int. It's got a three int. It's a three. Yes. So it doesn't work. So it does nothing. And flow is good. So what I'm going to do is shout to Kana and to the professor and to Sarnax and basically say that we need to wrestle it towards the camera. As you attempt to cast hideous laughter on this creature, unaware of the intelligence of a saber-toothed tiger,

the slow surrounding this being is dropped and it immediately lunges forward and it begins to bolt. It is now blindly running from you. I'm going to have to take one more strength to see if you can hold on at advantage.

17. 9. You're able to hold on it. You lurch forward. It's you, Sarnax, and Kana all holding on to this. But you feel like you have a limited amount of time before it's able to make its escape. This is so fucking bad. I'm going to cast Web. And I'm going to try to run around as if it gets restrained. I'm going to sprint and try to run around and stand in front of it with my shield. And what is the... How does it work?

It's a dexameter dexave. I will say, this determines whether it gets away. So it either gets hit by the web or it's going to wrench the rope away and... What's your...

I used my last thing, so I can't... Yeah, you did. 16. I got a 14. Hey! So it is now... No fucking way. Natural 12 plus 2. By webs. Oh, hell yeah. And so we have... Dive up! Hurry! Do something! So then what I'll do is run up with the slack of the rope that's around its neck. Oh!

I'll begin to try to bind its paws. I'm going to try to help. With Kana and Sarnax, it takes you about ten minutes, but you're able to do this. This creature is flailing against the ropes and the web, and it's growling and snarling at you. You, I will say, look up and eat two...

The elderly couple that runs this place is very, very unperceptive, as they don't notice that this is happening in their stockyard. Once we get the creature bound, then we're confident that it's secure. You bound it, you're even able to, for all intents and purposes, muzzle this creature. I'm going to have Sarnax and Kana basically help me drag the creature back to the stockyard.

to the cart and try to put it in there, assuming that you have emerged from the wagon. Not dead, yeah. Oh, you went to the wagon? Yes, I ran into the wagon. Oh, sorry, yeah. So you run into the wagon, and you notice that there is some loose straw in bedding where you can tell that this cat sleeps. Oh.

Amidst a few other things here and there. You also notice in the pile what appears to be a colorfully dressed Vistani doll. Very...

strong lightness to Vistani, jingling coins and bells, bright colors, flashy embroidery. As you look over the doll, you see that there is a, and this is absolutely excellent craftsmanship and work. As you hold it up, you even can smell the smell of the Vistani camp.

And you look along the hemline and right there is the tag, "Is no fun, is no Blinsky." Continuing to look through, you check the front seat of the wagon.

I need you to make a perception or investigation check. Perception is seven. You look around and it seems to be a spot where Richavio can...

can drive the wagon, manage the horses, but also is able to keep a close eye on the contents of the wagon itself, which seems to be mostly used for the storage of this very large cabin. Got it. You see where there are blocks

blood spots on the inside and the remnants of what appears to be a large stake. As you look through it, it appears to be wolf wheat, just like you had eaten with the Bastani and the previous night when you had dinner. The common fare for this area looks like a very large wolf stake had been brought fairly recently.

to the wagon into this hatch and the blood stains along the side of the wagon seem to be where the stake itself bleeds into the wood and it's been staining the outside. I'm going to, um, ask Elvator for some guiding help. Um...

And... Ooh, good call. Yes. It's your thing. I am. So I am going to grasp my prayer beads with the clasped hands of the orator at the bottom and ask for the guidance of the orator. Okay. So that will point me... For one minute, that will point me in the direction of all secrets. You...

clasp the hands and immediately you're drawn back towards the front seat of the wagon as you look around you see that there is a hidden compartment as you move your hands you are able to unclasp the latch that holds the compartment closed and you find be ready to write

An unlocked wooden coffer containing 50 electrum pieces bearing Strahd's profile and six gemstones, each worth about 100 gold pieces. Holy crap. A small prayer book worth about 50 gold pieces with a green leather cover and indecipherable notes in the margins. A healer's kit.

Three wooden holy symbols inlaid with silver and in the shape of a sunburst, worth 50 gold pieces each. A silvered short sword. A hand crossbow inlaid with mother of pearl, worth 250 gold pieces. Jesus! A bundle of 20 silvered crossbow bolts.

and a worn leather case with gold buckles worth about 100 gold pieces containing three sharpened wooden stakes, a sack of garlic, a jar of salt, a box of holy wafers, six vials of holy water,

a polished steel mirror, and a bone scroll tube with a silver stopper and chain worth 25 gold pieces. As you open it and look inside, the tube contains a spell scroll of protection from fiends,

and a spell scroll of protection from undead. All right. Got it all? I got enough. What do I need to know? How to kill a vampire kit, LOL. I wrote this vampire hunter stuff. Yeah, literally. Fine. You'll have to determine what you would take and what you would leave.

Okay, I'm not going to take anything with me just now. I am going to just take a final scan. Does the doll produce any glowing guidance? No, it seems to be just a doll. Very well-crafted doll. Okay, and then just walking outside. As you walk outside, you see Sarnax, Kana, and Shepard. They are essentially at...

They're essentially at the door now. You see a long path in the dirt where they've been dragging this heavy body of the saber-toothed cat as they look up at you, the cat restrained in their arms as they are about ready to load it into the wagon. Ms. Victoria, please get out of the way.

My apologies. Please continue. No worries. Cat is actually glowing, right? No. Okay. We can't leave this in the cat. Well, we're not going to unrestrain it. We're leaving the thing standing. We can't leave these ropes. Place him in the back of the wagon. As we're loading the wagon into the thing. I'm not cutting the ropes, Professor. Yes, you are. And I web the whole inside of the thing. Chuck him in the web, please. Damn it.

And we put the cat into the webbing. Move over the rope! And I'll pull out my dagger and start unbinding the cat. Dexterity saving throw, Plants. Me? Yep. Uh-oh. Let's do it!

Okay. You do this. He shoots the web in. You throw the cat in. You cut the bindings. And just as you finish with the last cut, the cat seems, with a natural 20, to have resisted the web as it lunges forward. He's disadvantaged because he's restrained.

Well, it doesn't matter anyway, because Clayton has been watching this entire thing unfold as he rips you backwards and slams the door shut because you got one point more than he did anyway. So slam the door shut as it barrels against the inside. The entire wagon shakes back and forth.

Dammit, are you happy? I slam the padlock shut. It's almost like I told you that was gonna happen. Like, I'm the divination wizard. Dammit! I drop webs.

Is it not? To be fair, as soon as Sonic said, it is a humanoid, you're like, okay, get this pet off. I will say, roll an intelligence check. Or no, actually, all of you roll an animal handling check. What if I do? Eight. Nine.

Yeah, you have no idea why that seemed to work. I apologize for being mistaken. It's mine. This isn't anyone in particular's fault. We just gotta stop doing stupid shit!

Actually, I know that that was troublesome, but I found some very interesting things within that card. Great, you did? Yes, I did. See, it was worthwhile. What do you know? You shall never be seen, Professor. I'm the anchors. You're the anchors. We've got to get you a little lace in the way. I'll make you one. Oh.

Oh, my. Professor, inside I found a doll, another one of Brinsky's dolls. Can we see it? No, I've left it in there. Yes, good, good. This is why. What? We have... Frankly, I'm a little shaken from that trip to his toy store, and I'm not going to pick up anything that I don't have to, but that man was great. We can't be going to the office. Furthermore, what else I found inside of the cart, there was a hidden compartment with quite a lot of ammunition, both magical and physical. This man is a fighter.

We need to find him. What kind of ammunition? I rattle everything off that you said. Yes, you do. Holy wafers, a silver thing, and garlic. He has seemed to take in the physical, the religious, every aspect that he can. Does that just immediately sound to me like this guy fucks with undead and kills shit? Yes. This man is a holy warrior.

He's a vampire hunter, as it were. So I would know, like, this is... What was the... The gold pieces had Strahd on them? What had... Yes. Yes, 50 electron pieces being Strahd's profile. Why are these electron... I... I don't know. It's funny about gold pieces. So what you're saying is that, you know, had we just had a reasonable conversation with this man...

He might have just been okay with us, and now we've jeopardized it all. He might have. But we didn't, because... Can we get the fuck out of here? Hold on, hold on. It's precisely why I didn't take anything. I think we need this. This is valuable information, and I think that this points to the... We can perhaps trust this now. So can we leave the man a note, like we originally suggested...

roll a sleight of hand to see how well you do it

Okay. Yeah, you clean up as a 12 would allow you to. There's nothing saying that after we don't have this meeting, which we still need to talk about, by the way, and I'm like brushing myself off, that we can't tell him to meet us at the end. Well, yes, but now we have the important context that he's a holy warrior and has a saber-toothed cat. Can we leave him a goddamn note? He didn't know. We are not leaving him a note. He can't know we were here.

Then how are we going to contact him? He's staying at the inn! He'll be back later this evening. We'll meet him at the inn! We are not leaving a note here! I'm sorry! The whole thing with the goddamn tiger really set me off. Can we please get out of here as quickly and safely as possible? I proceed to walk. I'm walking. I make myself invisible. All of the tense is very clearly warped. Invisible!

I have never liked cats. I don't actually do that. You make your way out of the yards, the stockyard. As you glance into the general store, you see that the elderly couple still seems to be completely entranced by each other. They're laughing and playing a game of cards at the table. Um...

smiling up at each other with fondness. They both apparently very hard of hearing. You make your way out of the stockyard. You just finished cleaning up after the encounter with the saber-toothed cat. And you make your way out of...

Arrasax Stockyards. You begin to join the thoroughfare through town. People milling about, greeting each other. All will be well, all will be well. As you head back towards the Blue Water Inn. Professor, if we've got nowhere else to be until, uh, Derek, then maybe we, uh, head back to the inn and formulate a plan? Yes, yes, I definitely need to take a rest.

At the very least, we can maybe have a bit of lunch and discuss and see what's going on. I think it's wise we formulate some sort of tactics here. Yes. Yes, of course. I am less and less convinced that anything that we will encounter is going to be as it seems. Yes.

A man with a monkey is not, in fact, the man with the monkey. The carnival man is not, in fact, the carnival man. I now worry for the husband of our innkeeper. Perhaps he's on the side of the road, slaughtered over wine. I mean, anything's possible, Sarnax. I hope we just don't jump to any conclusions.

Uh, you know, I... Look, we know this place is evil, but that's just wine. I mean, it's just a wine... It's just a shortage. I mean... But if we hear that anything is amiss, it seems far darker and deeper and more evil. I'll give you that. And oh, something is going not correctly. I'm sure it is not so bad, but...

I believe it is at the point where we can presume that yes, it is indeed so bad. I agree with you. I think you're on the same page. Well, I worry about frankly taking anything at face value anymore.

Even this dinner, I... now that I'm... have no off-game stores left, I worry about just walking in with a flung halibut. The cartels. Perhaps we can ask for... I mean, unless you... Unless... Which dinner?

be dealing with, not with Sraddha, but with the Watons. Now, again, I don't presume to know much about these things, but we could always just, you know, with this man not having any kind of invitation, and presuming we even meet him before we have to head out, that might not be an option either way, is I guess what I'm getting at. And he may just be able to provide us some backup without being, uh,

necessarily in the thick of it. So... And why do you presume that he would provide us with that? Very much... Listen, as somebody who's hunting for a living, that man is not just some entertainer or some circus gentleman. He's got some serious weaponry. Agreed. He's very clearly a vampire hunter. Doesn't necessarily mean that he's on anybody's side, but at the very least, enemy of my enemy, if you know what I'm talking about.

I believe his goal is likely to kill at least... at the very least kill vampires, and perhaps a powerful vampire. So I think his aid will be valuable. We need to find a way to approach him and request his assistance in a way that doesn't put us in danger.

All I ask is that we use caution here. Jump straight to divulging any information to the media. We'll get a read of them first. We haven't even met them yet. Of course, absolutely. I would 100% agree. My point is, at the very least, especially if we're not going to meet this gentleman before we head out tonight, we need to figure out what we're doing about this man.

Yes. It's very clear we're walking into some sort of trap. Well, let's get back to the inn, see who's there. Perhaps we can visit Irina if we need to, but let's play it by ear.

You make your way back to the inn without any distractions and you're walking into the main area, not up to the room. Yes. You walk into the main area and you see that...

It is, it's nearly empty, but for the two men that you saw this morning sitting off to the side, they are now drinking and talking in hushed breaths to each other. Danica, the lady of the inn, is behind the bar wiping down, cleaning, appear to be the same glasses over and over again.

Sarnats, you notice the fluttering of wings out of the corner of your eye. As you see, you haven't really looked around this room much, but in the rafters, there appear to be nests. Ravens roosting among the wood. I'll point a finger and say, She has her eyes and ears been here before.

Duly noted. But I'm not so sure we should even... I guess guard our speech that much. I mean, she must know. We gotta talk. Does it feel like we can speak without being, like, listened, like, heard? I mean, by people, yeah. There's nobody around. Except for the two guys off to the side.

It seems suspicious that no one ever comes in here. Professor, if you're asking me yet again if something here in Barovia seems weird, then the answer's going to be yes. No matter what it is that you're getting at. You do say that idle hands are the devil's playthings, so perhaps he's just trying to keep us asleep. Perhaps it just seems awfully eerie. How does it have room here?

In a town where very few visitors even stay open? Well, that's the question. Maybe the reason for them not having wine is... the front. It's a story they tell everyone. Maybe it's purely manufactured for us. Or this place has been around for hundreds of years. They don't really have any overhead.

And they just kind of exist. We're here. We know that there's at least one other guest here. What do they gain by having some kind of a front? It's the only inn in town. Are you just standing in the middle of the tavern talking or have you found a table? We're screaming at each other. I would like to get up and approach the barkeep and say, give me tea. Tea? No. No.

Good evening is approaching, so we do have some red grape mash number three. Would you like some wine? Oh, you have one? Only small amount.

As I told you, we're running on one barrel. Oh, yes. I will have a glass of wine. How about we will have five glasses of wine, please? None for me, Professor. I prefer maybe just a bite to eat since I've worked up an appetite. What food do you have? We have a fresh pot of wolf stew. Five wolf stews and can we have any?

No. She delivers you five bowls of wolf and potato stew and four goblets of red grape mash number three. No one consumed anything. Thank you. Professor, what is your name? Professor. Do you see what the hell is going on here? Professor. Are you well? Are any of us well? No, I'm not.

As he looks at you. As he looks at you in almost a...

In mind-ravaged state, you hear the dingling of the dingle bells as the door opens. I didn't mean to say dingling again. I meant to say jingling. Can we have a Roman parody of jingle bells? Jingle bells, jingle bells, everyone is dead. Fuck, I meant to say jingling of the doorbells.

As the door swings open and you see a couple more patrons make their way in, they head to the bar and they lean against it. They order a couple of drinks and they sit down. They say hello to the gentleman in the corner and they find a seat. A couple more minutes later and you notice a couple more people. It seems like now that it's afternoon, people are beginning to find the need for drink. I would like to just sort of casually...

Cast Detect Magic over 11 minutes, or a minute and six seconds. There is nothing... For 10 minutes, sorry. There is nothing about the food or the beverage that detects magic, but overhead, the circling ravens illuminate the same strange magic of the one above the hags. We proceed.

With the lightning. Stu. Thank you. Well, um, I take my goblet and I'll put it in front of Shepard. And I just push it towards the center of the table and say, uh, thank you, Sarnax, but not taking any chances right now. Stop. I want to take a tiny little taste of this stew. Just taste it.

It tastes like potato and wolf stew. I'm gonna go ahead. It's kind of creamy and it's not super flavorful, but it's probably the best that you're gonna get, at least for a while. It takes maybe like six minutes. You do when it's refreshing. I will consume it. You eat your stew. The ravens are what they seem as well. They give everybody kind of a knowing look. ...

So I suppose that we should not do anything besides await our dinner.

for this evening. Roll a perception check. Me? 22. You look up and you notice that the nests and things seem to be permanent structures. These ravens that are here, they're watching you and though they do emanate that strange magic, um...

But they don't seem to be visiting and watching you. They seem to be denizens of this inn. Like installation, like the inn was built with the purpose of... I wouldn't say that the inn was built with a purpose, but that at least the ravens that are, and I'd say there are about four of them, they are moving around, messing with their nests, et cetera. And they seem to be...

They're not like overly watchful of you that you do notice that one of them that is along the banister seems to be paying significantly more attention to you because there are two banisters that line the upper area, the guest banister. And then there's a banister that as you're, you're drawn to it, you see that there's stairwell on the inside that leads up to an additional balcony. You're unsure of what is up there. Um, um,

But there's a raven that is on that banister that is gazing down at you and watching you with interest, whereas the other ones seem to be just going about their business. They seem to be denizens of this place, not necessarily that this place was built for them. Or even with them in mind. There is little we can trust here in terms of

The incident with the cat. I agree. But ultimately, we need to decide if we're just accepting this invitation or doing something about it. Do we feel comfortable accepting the invitation? I don't think we have any other choice. Then I won't be of much use in case we get into trouble.

I hate to just let a lead go. Perhaps we could write and ask for a ring check for tomorrow night. It's not that idea. Just again, I hate to let it go. Especially if they deny us and say no, that's it. But you are the one in charge.

I wonder, Professor, if we all recuperate this evening and awaken, and we do, indeed, push back this dinner, what if another incident with the cat occurs, and we are all equally or maybe even more tired? We cannot foresee, despite you being a divination wizard yourself, we do not know what tomorrow will bring. I do not...

wish to underestimate a powerful ally of the Countess. As fated in the cards themselves. It appears to me that if the Countess wanted us gone from her land, we would be gone.

I agree. I won't say that they're not since things are waiting us, but I feel it's something we should explore. At the very least, if we decide to try to move the dinner to perhaps another evening, then there's a much greater chance we'll have the pleasure of meeting the owner of such incident. Yes. Perhaps we write them.

a letter and say, oh, we would love to. Unfortunately, we have plans tonight. This was a late notice invitation, but we would be happy to get dinner tomorrow. It's worth a shot as long as we're all on the same page of understanding that they may be sinned entirely. We very well may. And that is the case. I express that we cancel our plans this evening.

to make it happen. Well, I don't want to make the decision here if you all would like to go to dinner. I agree with your concern, Professor. It's a very dangerous place. If we run into seven vampires one again... It would be a very dangerous situation. Again, it would be a risk if we feel compelled to take that risk. At the end of the day...

We have to ask ourselves now, what are we doing? Are we just chasing leads? Are we just running around in the dark trying to figure out what's going on? Or is this going to get us closer to getting the hell home? I believe it will do just that. Then we have to do it. We don't have a choice. Yes.

I agree. So, Victoria, take this down. Dear Lady Walk-Walk-Walker, Thank you so very much for your gracious invitation to dine with you at your home. We would love to. Unfortunately, we have plans tonight, but

We would love to dine with you perhaps tomorrow night or the following day. Regards, Professor Clayton Azran of Miss Halloran University, the Azran Expedition.

That's right. What? Uh, and... Perhaps the innkeeper could... Yes, I imagine a stone in the Buddhist hall. Send someone along. Uh... All right, well, yeah, could you please give that to her? I'll fold up the parchment. Oh, um...

"Is that a letter?" "Yes, of course." She looks up and she whistles, and one of the ravens flies from the rafters and takes the letter from her hand. "Is that almost nails, Fibitya?" "Some, if you have birds that will allow it, but they're kind, they help when they can." "Oh, I see. That's wonderful." "Yes."

It should arrive shortly. They deliver quickly, and if she has a response, I'm sure that that one will bring it back. And you see there is an opening in the top area of the rafters, and it looks man-made when you see that the raven swoops through and flies out into the skies of Berobium. All right, well, that sent, perhaps we just take it easy and...

Wait to see if, uh, Rotavio arrives. Uh, I very deliberately did not eat the stew. I kind of just played with it and smelled it. I will say roll a survival check.

16. You play around with it, and I will say for the sake of many times having to be out in the wilderness and doing certain things, you're able to look through the ingredients, and you don't see any ingredients in this that would give you pause. For the obvious apparent, you can't know what the stock is made of, etc., but...

It feels like normal. It's wolf meat. It's actual potatoes. It seems to be... No, like, crushed bones. No, crushed bones. It's children. It's stuck. Children's bones. You spend... I would say about an hour...

talking in the inn, just trying to drinking the wine. It's not great. Um, it's definitely not the best vintage that any of you have ever had, but it's nice to have a little bit of alcohol in this fury place. And it's about an hour that passes when a Raven flies in and drops a letter on your table as it flaps its wings and heads back up to the rafters.

Reading the letter, once again, you get the same elaborate W as the header on the top. Dear Professor Clayton, I am saddened to hear you will not be able to join me for dinner this evening. I do hope that you find entertainment in town and that you're not lacking for enjoyment. I'm indisposed tomorrow evening, so I'll be unable to meet with you.

But in two days hence, I have an evening free and would be happy to host you at my home. Excellent. Yes. Victoria, just write up a response. I'll let you have it. Tell how we would love to. That is the evening before the festival. It is? Yes. Well, we're not really doing anything between now and then anyway. Besides...

Maybe taking some time to keep training the kids. I have a feeling that the incident with the cat would be far more encumbering than we are presuming. Fair enough. Is the barkeep, like, going through the tavern, like, walking through, or does she just stay behind the bar?

At this point, she's behind the bar, but you notice that she's talking with a man, a very tall man dressed in similar outfits. He's quite stocky, well-built, and they seem to be having a hushed and hurried conversation. And she looks like she's almost reprimanding him. And as she goes to speak, to say something, her face looks frustrated. He leans down and quickly kisses her. She laughs and shakes her head,

smacks him on the shoulder. But then they continue their conversation. She seems frustrated, but at least a little more appeased. Um, it looks like her husband is here. He survived the journey. Color me surprised. Seems he's made his way home safely. Maybe he's found out what's happened to the wine supply. Couldn't hurt to find out, I suppose.

Very well. Are we sure we want to send Sarnax to do this? I've already left. Very well. I hope that's what he was getting at. I walk up and I'll approach. Are they like in the middle of an intimate moment that I can interrupt awkwardly? Ears open. I mean, yeah, they're...

essentially face to face. He's got his arms around her. They're talking to each other in hushed voices. Every time that she looks like she's frustrated or wants to snap at him, he leans down, kisses her, gives her a quick smile and then continues. I thought you were going to kiss Mike for a second. I was going to give you inspiration. Oh, well, we got to win this campaign somehow. Oh, man.

It seems as if your throat was not cut by highwaymen on your way back. They immediately stop talking and he tilts, or he had had his hand on her chin. His hand drops as they both turn in synchronization as they both look at you. I'm sorry. I'm a beater.

The new traveler's in town. He looks down at you and you see his face almost hardened. Is there something you need, Frank? I am soon to be stating my relief that you were not waylaid by a highwayman and also would like to ask what the situation of the wine is. His eyes dart to his wife for a second and in shock, he talks.

"Talking about the wine? It came up in conversation." He looks back at you. "I wouldn't recommend that you talk so openly about the situation with the wine. If the townsfolk catch word that it is running dry, it will not be a good day for anyone here in the lot."

Yes, the common folk are indeed weak and helpless, especially when the simple fleeting escapes from their terrible reality are withdrawn. Come on! Jesus! He's trying so hard. He is trying so hard, Rich. Oh, but not too fast. Get your shoes off, Rich!

Dingle your dingles out. Just dingle your dingles out. Simple escapes of their terrible existence withdrawn from them for even a single evening. Isn't that true? In not so many words. Yes. That is... Is there something I can do to assist you? I come. I come.

from a land where the common folk are easily manipulated and guided to the appropriate responses, it would be a pleasure for myself and my companions to assist in whatever way we can. You see a look of...

Skepticism on his face. Roll persuasion check. Ooh! Ooh! Ooh, tomorrow I'll get a 20. The skepticism on his face is fleeting as he continues to make, or attempts to make eye contact with you. You seem to be staring straight through him.

Honestly, we could use some help. We haven't received our latest shipment. If you happen to be heading out of town, if you head through the West Gate just past the Bastani camp, you'll find a crossroads that will lead you down to the Wizard of Wines winery. If you wouldn't mind checking it out...

I have heard word from Varovia that they also have not received their delivery, and we've got the festival in a few days. The last thing that this town needs is a lack of alcohol for another one of the barrens' festivals. Indeed, the opiates of the masses are critical for their shallow, empty lives. Yeah.

He just blinks at you. Well... So if you're on your way out of town, you want to check on that for their shallow, empty lives. I am not the leader of the expedition, but I have a feeling that we will find our way out there, perhaps even this evening. And we will keep an eye out for highwaymen. Not sure you'll run into many highwaymen, but I would keep an eye out for wolves. We will.

We just ate wolves, in fact. It's in the stew, friend. Yes. Goodbye. That was even more painful. I knew it was going to be painful, and that was even worse.

What's your charisma score? It's actually pretty good. It's pretty good. Yours is higher than mine. Oh, boy. It's very persuasive. What was the winery in the Wandering Wizard? It is the... It's not the Wandering. It's the Wizard of Wine. Wizard of Wine. I'll arrive back to the table. Wizard of Wine's winery.

I'll sit back down at the table. You definitely don't make it easy to RP and PC. This is what I'm here for. Well, how'd it go there, buddy? It went swimmingly. What'd you find out? I'm going to look at the faces of the men and women and just go read. They're both standing there going...

As they turn back to each other and continue their conversation. There is a winery where the wine is coming from that seems to be waylaid likely by highwaymen. So the gentleman never made it to the winery, I guess. I did not ask.

I mean, I just assumed if he wasn't able to give you some kind of answer about what's going on, then he never made it there himself. That seems to be my assessment as well. I believe that, however, if the wine does not arrive, there will be mass panic in the streets, perhaps even violence. Is there... Is this something that we feel we actually have to look into?

Well, if the professor feels inadequate to dine with a lady, perhaps smaller... I do. I do. Indeed. I certainly don't want mass panic. That's going to make our jobs a lot harder if everybody's rioting. Indeed. And if there is mass panic, then the agents of the Countess will...

slip around even easier than they normally would. So what did they ask? They said if we are in the direction out of camp towards the Vistani camp to keep an eye out. I believe that securing the wine shipment will be critical for the success of the festival in only three days.

Don't you think that would be a valuable service to the veteran that runs this town? It would be indeed. Perhaps we can see the audience once we have completed it. I would say so, but we've got to make sure he's even aware of his chores in the first place. I'd like to think that that's the case, but so far, nothing around here makes any sense. And we don't want to go around doing anybody favors. They don't realize they're getting favors. Four, if you know what I'm saying. So you mean to say maybe we send a letter to him?

and let them know, hey, we will deal with this for you. If you think that's a wise course of action, I don't see a problem with it. But I'm just not the brain for this operation. What could be gained from this man, this Baron? Well, what about his, uh... The dole. Right-hand man? How should we know enough to...

write an educated letter to him and make a legitimate claim. Perhaps we... Hmm. Perhaps what we do is we, if we have the evening, we just go take a look. We see what may be the issue.

We may resolve it in the meantime. We may find out that the entire winery has been salted by beasts or highwaymen, as Sonic says. At that point, we might just be able to deliver the bad news that there's nothing that can be done. And then watch the world ascend into chaos around us. Well, at that point, what more can we do? I believe that there will be wine. Perhaps if we have to be the ones to ship it, so be it.

Well, as much as I like the idea, Sarnax, we're not carrying crates up and through these woods with what we know is out there.

That would be a death sentence. We'd be set upon by wolves almost immediately. Well, we may not know until we see what is available to us. True, but if we can secure some kind of cart and horses, then yeah, I don't see why not. Well, if we have to pass a Bastani camp, perhaps they will lend us something in a short time if we need it. Maybe. Oh, yes, maybe. Maybe.

So like. Yeah, I'm kind of with you, Mr. Victoria. Well, this is a, I believe, this is a different Sonic game, right? Yes. Perhaps one could accompany us in a very short term and we'll just be buying it from you. Perhaps. You are obviously speculating pretty hard here. At the very least, I like your idea of at least checking it out.

It also stands to reason that whoever was shipping this wine in the first place must have had a drop of carbs. Whoever has taken it, if that's what's happened, they must have had a carb themselves or have run off with the other one. If we can find this wine, we may come upon a cart at the same time. It's certainly possible. Is it at least reasonable to send a letter to the Baron now requesting audience, assuming that we look into this problem? I think that's a fair exchange, then.

We'll look into the issue, and hopefully he grants us audience. If we solve the problem, then maybe he hands over his man. Draft to Evan. That sounds reasonable. Oh, please, that's not really my strong suit. Miss Victoria, do you mind? I suppose. How detailed do you want to be of this? Do not let him know where we found out the wine was missing you.

If it is hush-hush. Just that we did. Oh, my. Let him know it would be a shame if the festival were to arrive and there was no wine in Milwaukee. But we're happy to see what we can do, provided, uh,

He's willing to grant us audience. Okay. So I'll jot down a letter. It's come to our attention that wine has been going missing. We know that your important celebration is coming up soon. And we would gladly look into this shortage if you'd be willing to grant us audience view. Okay? And your...

Holding the water up in the air for the ravens to take or take.

I've written this letter and I'm actually sure that I have no power to deliver it. The raven above seems to work directly for the walker house. Well, let's ask, same way we delivered the last letter. That's right. Miss Stannigold. Yes. Let me first apologize for our close friend.

is eccentric, but heartless, I promise you. I'm just busy engaging in my shallow, meaningless life. Yes, I did overhear a bit of that, and I'm so sorry. The wine does indeed help.

Anyway, I have another letter, and I was wondering if one of the ravens in this roost here worked for the bird master. None of them work for anybody, but if you had something you wanted to deliver to the Baron, I could have one of the birds send it to you. Okay, that would be wonderful. And so many pen pals, people so new to the village, and she...

looks up and she makes that same strange noise and one of the ravens flies down and she looks at it almost as if she's communicating without words and it reaches its hand out, grabs the letter and flies off. Thank you so much. We're simply trying to make the most of our time here.

Okay, well, let me know if you need any other letters delivered and send one of the routes to June. Thank you. And another round of wine? None for me, thank you. What time is it? I would say at this point it's probably getting close to five, almost six. Dusk is starting to descend on the town. I'm leaving my mom, please. All right, well, I'll be at the bar should you need me. And she makes her way over to the bar.

It takes maybe 15 minutes. It's really quick before the raven arrives back and drops a letter at your, a letter at your, at your table. And you open it up and it's this beautifully elaborate gold filigree parchment. A big B on the very top. And all it says is, who are you? All will be well. The bear.

This is not exactly the response that we were expecting, I suppose.

Perhaps you will be more amenable to an audience once we have already returned with the wine. Yes. And it is right about this point that the entire room bursts into a loud cheering. Everybody's attention to the door as it swings open, wind blowing in, and you see a finely dressed man.

Almost Vistani-esque, finely dressed in bright colors. His jacket is a beautiful shade of pinks and purples. His vest on the inside striped. As he walks in with a flourish and he bows to everybody with flair and he...

You see as the gentleman behind the bar and Lady Dianica both perk up and they smile and wave as he saunters over and exchanges a quick bit of conversation. He leans sideways on the bar and looks around and waves and nods and does finger guns at people. He seems to be really well received here.

You watch as Danica runs to the back and she comes back out with a brown paper satchel. And it seems to be moist with something. And she hands it to him and tosses him an apple. He nods his head to her, tips his hat, and saunters back out of the inn. You notice a...

You hear a little bit of talk around you. You know, he'll be back later. I can't imagine what story he's got for us tonight. He must have an amazing story tonight. I have no doubt last night his story was fantastic. Who's that?

Oh, hello, friend. Hello, I overheard you. There was quite a commotion. Who was that man? The name is Radu. Nice to meet you. Oh, my name is Mr. Clayton Azran. Nice to meet you. That was the carnival man, Rictavio. I see. Every night he regales us in town with stories of a far-off land. At this tavern? Of course, he stays here.

So you should be back in maybe an hour, maybe two. What do you think? Perhaps we wait. Where else would you go, friend? There's no better place to be than the Blue Water Inn. No. And he raises his glass and chugs some wine. Do you happen to know what's up that staircase there? I believe it is the...

The private guest bedroom where Rictavio stays, and I believe it is the owners that they sleep up there. It is separate from the guests, but that's just what my observations told me. I don't spend nearly as much time here as the Voktor brothers, Nikolai and Karl over there. And he points to the two men that you've seen here all day, the drunkard from this morning.

Fuck! Fuck! And then Clayton says, Fuck! Oh, over there. Those two right there. Yes, they look a little scruffy, but they're both fairly nice. Ah, I see. And how old are they roughly? It's kind of hard to tell, but they're like late 20s, early 30s.

Once they get a little drink and then they become a little less fun as they drool on themselves and ask for more wine. But if you catch them before the drink is fully set in, they're actually pretty nice. I'll come back to the table. I think I need to get out of town for a while. Why don't we go take a look at that vineyard? So, sure, if you want. It is getting dark.

We can travel. It's certainly going to be a little more treacherous than if we wait until first thing in the morning. Is everything all right? You seem a bit... Yeah, you're a little shaken. The two men that have been here all day, they are valkers. Valkers, excuse me. Oh, no. You mean of the mansion? Yes, they are presumably sons of this wealthy woman, Yala.

to say they're not exactly what I would have expected. They're not, like, nice. No, they're pretty nice clothes. You actually take a look at them. Their outfits seem to be perfectly tailored, and you just haven't paid much attention to them. I heard drunks, and I just assumed they were, like, lost drunks. And they, um... Yeah, they seem to be fairly well-dressed. They're talking to each other. You occasionally see them laugh when one of them slams their hand down the table. They're both, um...

They're both fairly tall, broad-shouldered, dark features, mid-length, dark hair. They look very similar to each other. It's hard to tell which one's the elder, which one's the younger. If you absolutely have to get out of town tonight, we can go. We might be making camp somewhere out in the woods. How about this? Could everyone please join me to the room? Of course. I have a brief...

Yes, of course. We'll be right back. Who are you waving to? Just like, oh, don't clean up. We'll be back. Oh, to... She nods. I put a coaster on top of my...

So we get to the room. Here's the thing. I'm convinced this is... You get to the room? Yes. You walk into the room and you see in the corner of the room a rocking chair that had not been there before. And rocking on it sits this. Are you kidding me? Stop! I hate this game! I hate this! I don't want to play anymore! Why? Why?

Nikki always tries to hand me the spoopy stuff and I don't want to sit here anymore. You notice that it sits there. Its head is completely turned around the opposite way. As if staring at the chair. So we can't see its face? No. Its head is completely turned around the wrong way.

So you'll notice on that doll the head's on the back. Oh, yeah. Look at his little feet. That was not here when we left. No shit, Sarnax. I cast attack magic. Okay. Do I see anything? Yeah, you see transmutation and divination. All right, all right, all right. Now everybody just...

I'm saying this from own city. Everybody just calm down. Curio. I'm going to shove it in my case. Just for a damn it. Pull it out.

If I don't want to touch it! And I take one of my guns and I use the barrel and flip it over and try to see if I can find a tag on it. You're easily able to find a tag that says, is no fun, is no Blinsky. I'll reach down and pick it up. Careful, careful. I suggest we take... We got two options, because I'm getting real damn tired of this shit.

We take the doll back to Blinsky, we ask him who purchased the damn thing, because he seems to know who buys every one of his horrible knickknacks. Or we stop fucking around and we start cracking some skulls together at the bottom of this shit. I have a plan. What is your plan, Professor? May you please give that to me and then I will tell you my plan.

We are coming for you. And as you say that, you begin to hear the creaking as the rocking chair begins to move backwards and forwards, backwards. Is the rocking chair magical? Doesn't look to me. I would like to mage hand and extend the hand through to see if I can feel anything in the rocking chair. You feel around in the rocking chair and you feel nothing.

And as your hand begins to pull away, you hear... Coming from the cabinet. The cabinet?! The mage camp flies across the room and throws the fucking door open. And I'm pointing my gun at the cabinet. The door swings open. There's nothing in there. Except for the noose, empty. It had been hanging around the doll of Morbid Molly's neck.

Give me the doll. Sonax, please. One moment. I'm going to squeeze to see if I can feel anything inside. Feels soft. Crikey. I'm going to cut it open.

You cut it open, and as your blade hits fabric, you begin to see worms and bugs wiggle and worm and plop out onto the floor. Centipedes and spiders. A foul stench begins to spill out of this doll. You should hold it in your hand. Burn it! Just burn it!

Starnath, take care of him, man. Come on. Very well. And I'm going to ignite it. I'll have some flame, like, out. And say your name. Basically. You watch as the doll burns in front of you, the sizzling and popping sounds of the bugs as the heat causes them to burst. And all that remains is a pile of ash, like,

Where the doll had once been. Do I feel any more magic anywhere in the room? Maybe not. This place isn't safe. We're not safe anywhere. I believe this inn is almost manufactured to keep an eye on us. It is not right. That doorway, that staircase, that second staircase where they live...

Why would it be separate from the guest rooms? Look, I'm no innkeep, and I'm tired of trying to come up with rational reasoning for all these hypothetical questions. So here is my suggestion. We need to learn more about what is going on in this inn. Hell, in the meantime, I'll sleep in a goddamn pew. Can we stay at the church? I agree. We will not stay here tonight. But perhaps we could learn more before we leave.

To the bottom of this. How do you suggest we do that, Professor? With ravens watching our every move, with patrons every inch of those tables and chairs. I could make one of us invisible. Just one? Just one. And I would elect you, Mr. Morgan. I could make you invisible and you just, as stealthily as you can, perhaps...

Sneak up those stairs and see if there are any clues that the owner and her husband are even real. Or maybe are they in the employ of a countess? Or are they...

Are they undead abominations? I don't know. Alright, so let's assume for a second that this works. And now might be an okay time because everybody's down in the thing and if I can get up there, I hopefully won't run into trouble. Let's say I do run into trouble. Then what? Y'all gonna burst in and save my ass? Well, we could sit and continue enjoying our drinks.

And you give us a call, a signal, a sign. I mean, the sound of gunfire ought to draw you in. Shoot your gun if you need to. We can get there as quickly as we can. All right. And please, pardon the phrase, but I'm going to play devil's advocate here. Let's say that, you know, we get into a tussle up there and I got to do what I got to do. What if this place is manufactured and we now have to deal with every patron in here?

I don't believe the townsfolk themselves are guilty of anything.

Not yet. Then what are you insinuating, Professor? What do you seek to learn? Isn't this powerful vampire hunter allegedly staying up those same stairs as the owners? That's what I'm wondering. Is he really? Is he truly staying there? And maybe he doesn't know. Or maybe he knows and he's playing dumb. Or maybe the whole vampire hunter thing is just for show. To trick us. Alright. I'm here. You're employed.

My number one goal is to get us out of here. If you think that this will answer some questions, I'll do it. But you're going to have to give me your thieves tools. You're not going to use them? I'm not necessarily practicing it, but, you know, it won't be the first time I've ever tried to pick a lock. Are you okay doing this? Does it sound crazy? Oh, it sounds absolutely insane, but it's nothing worse than we witnessed yesterday.

or earlier today with a saber-toothed tiger. How long do I have once you've, uh, you know, done your thing? Oh, wait, wait, hold on. I may be able to do... I believe I've just remembered something. I could send two. One should not be me. How are you with your divine energy, Sonix? I'm feeling very equipped. I did not...

exert as much energy against a beast as you did. I'm glad to hear that, Sarnax. Had it not been for my energy, beasts would be rampaging around the town right now. Let's just keep that in mind. We're not judging anybody, all right? Let's just focus. I should be able to keep Shepard alive long enough for the rest of you to join us. That's right. I know this is dangerous.

We just need an absolute backup, all-everything-goes-to-hell plan. Burn it down! And draw the ire of the entire town. City. Whatever you want to call this hellhole. Can you send a message at all? Do you have any way to do that? Not today, I have not. Well, I can send a message. How so? Can they respond? What's the range? 120 feet.

Do you need to be able to see them? I don't think so. Within range...

You can cast it through solid objects if you're familiar with the target and know it is beyond the barrier. One foot of stone, one inch of common metal, it's in sheet of life. This horrible, horrible plan is coming together. Thank you, Lucky One. So then why don't we do this? Get a good vantage point down back where we were at our table. Get closer, a different table if you have to. Make up a story for why half the party's not there. And Sarnax and I will take care of the rest.

I take off my poncho and all of my extra shit. I leave my hat. Can you put this in your case?

Yes. I don't trust it here in the room. I'll put it like this. We should bring everything from the room. I mean, if there's room in there, I can throw my pack in there and whatnot. You open your case. I just have a backpack. And you see morbid Molly hanging onto the side of your case, looking up at you. She looks up to you. Hi. Hi.

Did anyone else see that? I'm not so sure I want to answer, Professor. Yes, I did. So, so... You hear a knocking coming from the inside of your case. So what you're telling me is the dispel, whatever you did to unmagic it just didn't work. It worked for a time.

I open it up just a crack. You see two red glowing eyes staring out at you. Do you want to play? I shot it.

Please go. So with just my weapons and no extraneous cosplay bullshit on me, I am going slick, stealth, sleek, and I'm sticking with the lizard man. You hear like the jingling of my lantern. Hey, listen, we got to go quiet now. All right.

roll a stealth check at advantage, please. Shepard, please do not take this the wrong way, but so that we may not lose each other, I suggest we hold on to each other's tails. Sorry. You're an odd fill. So I'm going to let that one slide.

You tell no one about this. And I just handed my tail. There will never be a soul besides you and I that knows this ever happened. Well, if Fredonia has her way, no one will know anyway, so it's fine.

I'm blushing a little and covering my mouth with a kerchief. You can only hear it, too. You can't see what's happening. Let us proceed. It's like they don't fully understand how invisibility works. Double eights. I got a 16. Twist it. Twist it. Can I? Yes, let's twist it. This is the most critical roll we've had all night. Much better. I got an 18 plus eight is 26. I got a 17. That's pretty good.

Okay. I keep that as my lucky coin here. You begin to make your way up the stairs to the great balcony. So just real quick, so basically we would all walk down together. How much time do we have? An hour. An hour, right? Oh, thank God. Okay, that's an hour. And then so we would get settled and just make sure that our table has a vantage point of the balcony.

The table you were at before had a vantage point of both of the balconies. So you make your way down and you can at first still hear their footsteps as they make their way around. But as you join into the fray of the tavern area, the sound of drinking, clanking of tankards, the pouring of wine, and the hum of chatter drowns out any noise that they've been making.

as you take your seats and Sarnax and Shepard as you make your way up the stairs towards the great balcony. Upon reaching the top, a wooden balcony stretches the full length of the taproom, enclosed by a wooden railing carved with raven motifs. The taproom's many lanterns illuminate the rafters and cast ominous shadows on the peaked ceiling. So you are now along that balcony there.

Without trying to make too much noise. Let me get here. Oh, here we go. We're going to get the camera. I mean, we should be able to whisper to each other. How close? Well, I guess all you guys can hear. So there's a door right at the top of the steps. How... Looking down onto the first floor from up here, how...

How many people seem to be paying attention to us? How conspicuous would it be if one of these doors were to slightly adjust? The door can be seen, but not very well. Just the first one, or what? Both of them, if you're looking specifically for them, you can see them, but they're fairly shrouded in shadow. The lantern light seems to be relegated solely to the tap room, to the tavern area, and it's illuminating that way.

area. So it's significantly darker here. If the door itself swung open and just stayed open, it might gain notice. But if it were to just creak open a little bit and then shut, it wouldn't be something you think people would really see. I'm going to whisper to Sarnax and say, all right, I'm going to try these doors one by one.

If there are lots, we're going to open it up, go in quickly, and close the door behind us. Understood? Understood. Xerix, watch over you. So once I get a sense that they are upstairs, I want to stand up in the tavern and say, I hear the great Rektavio is staying in this very inn. Is that true? Yeah! I hear he's a great man of many tales. Is that right? Yeah!

Well, I heard he told quite the tale last night. Is that right? You heard he told a tale last night. I'm going to tell you that tale. And you don't really know what he's saying. This man is completely plastered. But the people around seem to understand this person well enough. Everybody cheers loudly. He stumbles over, trips onto your table a little bit. I'm going to tell you a tale.

You see as he looks like super sad?

As he looks at you, he's like, I'm just going to tell him. You're going to tell him? Go on. You get the first crack at it, my man. Everyone kind of quiets a little bit, and the man you'd originally talked to is like, he's literally said like five times that he's going to tell you the tale from last night. Oh, it's a bit hard to understand him. Well, he's a drunkard. I don't know what to tell you. Well, take your time, and would everyone else like to come and listen again?

Yeah! And they all swarm. Aside from the two Wachter brothers, everyone else seems to...

mill about around your table. The drunkard himself, seeming a little affected by the fact that you were ignoring his outburst to tell you the story, collects himself. I'll talk a little slower then and tell you the story. All right, we'll go on. And I just sort of, as he's telling it, I'm going to like... He was telling this tale.

From a far off land, his wagon made it to... And so the story continues. And as in Paul's, I want to like very... You know how like people try to match the volume level? Yeah. I want to like active listen and be like, oh, wow! And as you do this, roll the performance check. Oh, fuck. You're good. You're good. You're good.

Yeah, you, most of these people are fairly tipsy by now. So they're, they're loving this. This is probably the best moment that they've had all day. Your enthusiasm is infectious. And as you lean in, Victoria, you lean in listening and occasionally you smile at this gentleman as he, as he tells you the story and people are interjecting. Oh, no, no, that's not right. He said this happened first. No,

we did this happen first. And there, it's almost like a communal storytelling and you see that the, you see that the innkeeps are looking and there's a smile on their face. They seem to be enjoying the, the overall atmosphere

tone and feel of the inn right now as they send over a round of free drinks. And you know that that is quite a large thing considering the shortage of the wine, but they're happy to perpetuate this ongoing joy. And you do that. Clever. You make your way. I try the first door? You try the first door. You...

jiggle the dingles of this first door. You attempt the handle and this door appears to be locked. Alright, I'm going to try to pick it. Natural 20. Which puts it at 31. Natural fucking 20!

Sorry, Maya's not here. Thank you, Maya, for the natural 20. 28, right? Yes. Plus the 5 from your dex, right? Oh, sorry, I thought it was a stealth check. I apologize. It is plus 5, not plus 3. So total of 28. Well, now it fails. You really needed a 3 on the cost. Thank you for correcting me. 28 total.

You hear a fake click, and it's hard to hear at first with the noise that's reverberating throughout this cavern, but you're able to tell that you were able to unlock it, and you slowly turn the handle and enter in. Still got it. As you look around, matching end tables flank a large wood-framed bed with a red silk canopy. Across from the bed hangs a tapestry depicting a beautiful mountain valley. The other walls are dominated by fireplates and wardrobes.

Alright, Starnax, I don't know how this magic works. I closed the door behind us. I don't know if using your lantern might break the effects. I don't know. I think it will. We should just take our time. Not too much time and just be aware of our surroundings. We gotta move. We got other rooms to check out. So we're gonna start investigating and trying to see if we can find anything. Roll an investigation check with advantage.

Do you want to roll? My investigation is plus two. Oh, mine's plus four. I will help. I still have guidance? Or is that for one roll? So I would basically be like...

Casting spells that includes cantrips drops your invisibility. Guidance was not a thing I did. I didn't roll guidance. You would have known that. I would have known that. He did tell you and you would have passed that check without the guidance. I didn't use the guidance. Yes. I'm not guidancing you. Holy shit. That'll be a 12 for investigation.

You look around the room and it's quickly able to tell that this seems to be the bedchamber of Danica and Erwin. Yes, Erwin. Erwin. Erwin. Sorry. Yeah, that's what I immediately thought. Danica and Erwin. As you notice a small painting of the two of them on the bedside table.

You mill about and there doesn't seem to be much in here. The thing that strikes your attention more than anything is the bed. It's finely... It's finely... crafted and the linens and things on it are beautifully made. But there's almost a pristine-ness to it, as if this bed has never been used. I just want to check under the bed.

Roll another investigation check at advantage, because Sarnix is helping. I don't like that. Uh, 20 total. You check under the bed, and the floor seems to be normal. You look around, your eyes trail along the four posters of the bed, up into the wall and the ceiling, and you notice there is...

a almost completely concealed trapdoor on the very ceiling of this room. Sorry, did you see that? I'm empowered. I look around, echo a prompt, and yes, I do. You know I've got no choice, right? I know. I'm going to... I have to climb onto the bed to get to this trapdoor. I'm going to go for it. Well, it sounds like there is an uproarious laughter and applause downstairs. Perhaps the rest of us

The others are distracted. We may have time. All right. I'm going to climb up to the trap door and just give it a little tug and see if it'll move and wedge it, diswedge it.

You poke at it with the barrel of one of, with judgment and it doesn't give way at first, but as you continue to put force, it pops up a little bit and moves to the side. Some hay and dust begins to trickle down out of it. And it looks like some strange dark attic. I think if I, I think, I think if I jump, I can probably get up there and maybe I can pull you up after. What do you think? Yeah.

I think that that is a slender number. All right. And I try to jump up and see if I can pull myself up. Here, I'll boost you with my shoulder. That'll be advantage if he's helping. 13 for acrobatics. You jump onto the bed, a loud groan.

fills the room as the wood settles in, not having bared weight in quite a while. It sinks beneath you, and you're not able to gain the leverage you need to grasp onto the edges of the trapdoor. All right, all right. One more try, Sarno. Get up on here. One more. Yeah, get up on here, and I'll use your knee. I'll use your knee as a boost. Okay, three, two, one.

You, Sarnax, this time you adjust your lantern in a way that you have a little bit more leverage. And as you find yourself on the bed, you bear down. Once again, a loud groan echoes throughout the room as the wood sinks beneath your weight. But you are able to time it appropriately as Sarnax helps to boost you upward.

You grab onto the edges of the trap door and you pull yourself up with all of your strength and you're able to pull yourself into an attic.

This 10 foot wide, 30 foot long attic has a ceiling that slants down toward the west, dropping from a height of eight feet to a height of five feet. Four strong nests cover the floor and a locked iron strongbox sits against the north wall. A small square opening in the south wall leads outside.

Two trapdoors with iron hinges are set into the floor. I'll just poke my head back into the bedroom. Starnax, I can pull you up if you want, but there's just some straw and what looks like a lockbox. I can try to make it quick. I will notice, though, that there seems to be an entrance. We can exit. So maybe I should pull you up. We can go check out the lockbox and then we can just make an exit to the outside. We don't have to go back out the way we came in.

Pull me up on my toes. No, that's going to hurt. And what I'll do is I'm going to lay my body down so that basically just my head and my arm are reached out the trap door and use the floor of the attic as leverage to try to like help pull him up. So I'm basically the way you would try to pull somebody out of ice if they've fallen through ice. I'm going to try to pull him up. I would say roll strength to see how well you're able to pull him up.

A 13. Yeah, I would say that it's fairly easy enough to pull him up. So then once we get him up into the attic, I'll just kind of point out the things I saw and motion to the lockbox and say, look, we came all this way. That may be what we're looking for. This is probably of great significance for the professor. I'm going to try to... I'm assuming it's a lockbox. I'll see if I can open it.

And I'll just kind of take my, you know, cautiously approach the lockbox and see if there's a lock on it. You make your way past the four nests. The golden nests. Along the room. On the iron nests. And you make your way to the locked iron strongbox. Are there any birds in the room?

I have an axe. Not that we know this. Super shit. You are now knelt before the strongbox. You can tell, even just at first glance, that it is locked. All right, I'm going to give this a try. I'm going to see what I can do. Come on, Shepard, let us see. What is this trapdoor leading to? Maybe outside. I'm going to put my ear hole down to the trapdoor to get a sense. Okay.

I love your whole rolling perception check to see what you hear. Perception, you said? I do. That is a 24. You listen and you hear absolutely nothing. It's complete silence. Blow the trap door. So it's not back down at least into the main area of the inn, I would assume. I suppose not. I'm going for the hump. Let me work on this lock.

14. You use the tools and you're attempting to, but this is far more difficult than you had expected. And after a bit, you have not been able to unlock it. Perhaps we take it and give it to the professor. How big is it? It's pretty big. It would be cumbersome to carry. You wouldn't be able to. You'd have to just drop from the trap doors. You wouldn't be able to climb while carrying it.

Fair enough. Why don't we see where this other trap door goes? And maybe we just take the lockbox right outside, and then we can take it back up to our rooms. Granted, if the professor's right about all this, they're going to know, and we'll probably be in some deep shit regardless, but... I agree. But let's take a look.

After you, my friend. I'm going to try to open or pull it. You pull open the trap door as you look down into a large... and you look down into a room. A large painted toy box rests between two small cozy beds. Murals of ravens in flight are painted on the walls above the wood paneling.

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On the premises. Not that I recall, Sarnax. No. Well, we've got two options. We press forward with the lockbox. We've got three options. We press backwards with the lockbox, or we just go back. Give it one more shot, Shepard. Fine. We got one more. How much time, roughly, have we spent? Probably 15 minutes. You haven't gone that long. All right, we got time. I'll give it another try or two. Let me just... I'm rusty, all right? I'm rusty. No, that's a fail.

On my third attempt, just to give you a try. You fail again, and you're beginning to get frustrated, but you know that you have to give this one more college try. One more Miss Tyler University try. For the professor. For the professor. As you focus.

You move it left and then right and then just a little further in and clip. Lock pops. Shepard? Sorry, sorry. And then I will... Roll for initiative. Stop. I'm fucking... No! Oh my god. I can't handle this. Stop it. I'm like, I just killed two people. Stop!

I killed him. You're such a troll. I was like, this whole... Okay, all right. I ease the locked box lid open. Looking inside, you find a small black velvet sack containing 150 electron pieces, each coin bearing the profiled visage of Shredamia. Ah.

Six pieces of elaborate jewelry worth roughly about 250 gold pieces each and three potions of healing. Well, that's it? I mean, this is a lot of value, but there's no secrets here. This is just a box of jewels. This is not what the professor was looking for. I almost feel bad about taking it now, but...

I mean, we could use the potions. To be fair, we're kind of hard up on cash. What do you think? I do not believe in robbing these people. Well, the potions. We can take the potions. I'm with you. We don't need the money. We don't need the money. We can take the potions. I think that is a fair point. I'll take the potions. You have three potions of healing. I give one of them to Sarnax and I take the other two. Okay.

You have two potions of healing, and you have one potion of healing. Now, now, the question... It's been about 30 minutes. I'm going to close the lockbox and relock it. Perfect. I'll say you're easily able to do that. And now there only one question really remains, Sarnax. How curious are you where this other trapdoor goes? Well, we are already invisible. LAUGHTER

Say no more, fam, after you. You both lower yourselves into the room. The ceiling seems to be a little bit lower here, and you're easily able to move the trap door back into place. And I'll say that you were smart enough to close the other one before you did all of this. Thank you. We definitely were. Yeah, of course. Um...

I shouldn't, but that's funny. As you find yourself in this room, the first thing you notice as well is the beds as well, the dressing is beautiful and it's childlike. But staring at it, it looks almost as if it's never been used. Be careful what we touch. Let's just give it a quick one. Is there a door in this room? There is.

We have only one way in, one way out, so let's just give it a quick once-over and get the hell out of here. This is all very strange. Briefly, untouched. I believe the professor is...

You can hear dogs barking from outside. The professor's insane ramblings may actually be correct. Look, I didn't want to say it. I didn't want to say it either. Your words, not mine, but to be fair, we've seen some pretty insane things in the last few days. I was worried he was not well. He might not be. We all might not be well, I suppose. Anyway, let's take a look. Give it a once-over. Oh, an investigation check. Oh, jeez.

An 11. Your attention is drawn to the toy box on the side of the room.

Oh, the DM's done. Yeah. Okay. That's it. That's all you find of interest. Unfortunately for us, Arnax, my role has drawn our attention to this. I am going to step very closely and look at this toy box as carefully as I can. All right. To be certain if there's anything immediately visible. Without even thinking about it, as if it's second nature, my right hand is drifting to my holster. Okay. All right.

I'm going to try to perceive if there's anything amiss about it. Roll a perception check. Natural 20. Oh, God, I give it up. Natural fucking 20. Gotta give it up for my lizard boy here. Perception, it'll be a 28. Gotta give it up. Gotta give it up. 28. Okay. Nothing seems to be amiss. Outside of everything else, this is the only part of the room that really looks used. Okay.

Well, Shepard, let us go over the possibilities. I believe there is a near certainty that if we open this, there will be a doll that's probably moving and will see us and whoever is behind the scrying magic of said doll will be seeing us as well. Even if we're like this? Fair point.

- I see the lead open, I suppose. - Not that I'm provoking you into opening up a toy box for Kelly. But I'm just, you know, again, playing the advocate.

Well, if there was anyone to play a devil's advocate, Shepard, I'm glad it had to be you. Hey! No, you did not! You open it? That wasn't a go-ahead! And then there were two. This is the Three Stooges of Barona. Two Stooges of Barona. We need Kana here. And the music changed.

You open the toy box to find a miniature puppet theater with appropriately sized marionettes of a king, a queen, a prince, a princess, an executioner, a tax collector, a dunce, a vampire, and a vampire hunter. A garish toy Vistani wagon pitched to a wooden horse and filled with tiny wooden Vistani figurines. A pair of painted wooden clown masks.

one displaying a mean scowl and the other a frightened expression. A wooden top painted with images of scarecrows chasing children through the forest. A stuffed, real bat on puppet strings. We seem to bear the hallmark of Dunstan's style. So, a completely unused room. One...

I'm trying to use toy chests and some weird Blinsky toys inside. Yes, that seems to be the situation. Do we need to take this with us back to the professor? Can we just leave this be? We can leave this be. Just make a note of what is inside. I, uh, I try to commit them to memory. I'll say it's pretty easy. There's not that much in there. Out the door, I guess? I suppose that's all there is to it.

Let's see where this spits us out, I guess. And we'll head to the room, the door of the room. You open the door and slip out. And you find yourself back along the grand balcony. You realize you were one door over from the room you'd entered. Oh, well, how much...

What time do you think we got left? I believe there's enough time to investigate the far door. It is what the professor would want. One last door. It sounds like he's doing well down there. All right. Good luck, Colin and Victoria and the professor keeping busy. And I'm going to try this last door with the handle. You attempt to open it and it jingles. Don't. Jiggles.

but it does not move. It does appear to be locked. I don't know what's up with me. I'm dingles and jingles. One more time. I love it. We'll see if I get this over. I think we got enough time.

I don't know how you all hear this. You hear a click as the door itself pops open. You know, I don't know why I ever even gave this up. Regardless, let's go. And I slip in and hopefully close the door behind Sarge. This small guest room contains a bed heaped with wolf furs, a footlocker, a tall wardrobe, and a writing desk with a matching chair. An oil lamp rests atop the desk near a journal bound in red leather, in a red leather jacket.

Looking around this room, you see things of color. Not much, but you could easily ascertain that this is probably the guest room of one Rick Toglum. Sarnax, if you don't mind, not that I'm telling you what to do, but maybe go through the man's pockets and I'll check out the footlocker. Excellent idea.

All right, go up. So what are you doing? I'm going to go for the Foot Locker and then I, you know, you mentioned the journal in his coat pocket. The Foot Locker is not locked. As you open it up, it contains nothing but common clothes and travel wear.

As for everything else, please roll an investigation check. Either at advantage or separately. Do you want to roll seven since you're looking at his coat? I'm going for the journal, yeah. Ooh, baby man, this dice. I'm sorry I ever doubted you cracking dice. I'm on fire right now. Oh.

I got a 22. Okay. You look through the room. You're easily able to spot the journal. It seems to be the only thing of importance in this entire room. You pick it up and you begin to look through it. The writing makes frequent mentions of conversations with someone named Drusilla and recounts many long and tedious journeys by wagon.

There are also notes about various oddities that Rectavio has seen in his travels, including a were-hair child, a boy who transforms into a rabbit on nights of the full moon, a half-orc woman named Gorobacha who could chew through iron chains.

a giant man-eating plant that had the most remarkable singing voice, a pair of conjoined goblins, a small man with no legs named Fillmore Stunk who could drink whole casts of wine without getting drunk. Well, I haven't found anything. There's nothing in the footlocker. Is there anything of note in the journal?

Seems to be strange, fantastical travels. Nothing more. Can you commit most of it at least to memory, or is this something we've got to bring back to the professor? I believe if we bring it to the professor, Octavio will know that we've taken it. Man, he'll know someone took it.

It's fine. Actually, the point. My point is, no, no, Sarnax, I'm just saying, do you need to keep... Can you see the journal floating? And it just appears. I don't think we need to take it if you know, if you can tell the professor everything that's in there. I just don't know if there might be something he might find that isn't, you know... Shepard.

Beyond us. May I tell you what I want? Please. I want to see you. Then take the damn journal, Sarnax. It's fine. He's not going to know. I do not believe it. Why? It's my second fault. Then put it back. Just remember what was inside and we'll report it back to the professor. I'll try to put it back as I left it. All right. Rule of sleight of hand.

Actually, both of you roll a sleight of hand to see how well you do putting everything back. Two. My sleight of hand is a... I think it's... Oh, yeah, plus five. Seven total. Well, that's it. We might as well get out of here before we run out of time. What do you think? I just had an idea. What if the journal has secret magical ink?

where there's notes in the modules. Okay, I didn't mean exactly that, but that's what I'm talking about. What if the professor saw something that we didn't? You're right. We should steal it. Just take it. What's a journal? What's the worst they can add? My first inclination was correct. Look, I'm not an advocate. We left the money. We're not here for wealth. We're here for survival. We need all the information we can get. And if this guy is not what he seems and he's not going to give us what we need, then we'll take it.

He doesn't need to know we took it, even if we meet the damn guy. Perhaps he will think that the innkeeper stole the phone. Yeah, it looked like...

Well, shit, we gotta get back. Is there a way that we could frame the interiors? Okay, I'm sorry. Is there a way that we could frame the interiors? I mean, I... Well, if their door's still open, I guess we could take something from the room and put it in here, but... I mean, but you saw the room. It doesn't even look like we live in there. That is true. We can't put a picture of them in here. That doesn't make any sense.

That would be too obvious. Do I recall anything from their bedroom? Do I recall anything from their bedroom? I mean, you said it was like pristine, right? So it's like there wasn't like clothing or like...

There were like pieces of clothing and things like that, but it doesn't look like that's where they sleep. Sarnax, I don't know. This isn't right. Even if that is their bedroom and it's just fake, it doesn't look like they're staying there. I don't think there's anything we have to plan. Well, then I believe that we should bring this journal back to the professor, what he would want most. And we have to figure out where they're actually staying, because something's not right about this. A children's room? A

Something's not right. There must be some secret compartment that we missed. I'm pretty confident at least everything where we were, everything we saw. We did it. You might be right. Let's just get back. We're pressing our luck. I just had an idea, Shepard. Hit me. We need to go back into the child's room. Why? We did not move the toy chest.

We didn't move it? We did not move it. It looked like it had been used. This is a house of trap doors. Would it not be logical to hide a trap door beneath a toy chest?

Alright, alright, alright. Let's just get in the room because if this wears off, at least we won't be visible inside the room, alright? Yes. We'll slip into the... You have like ten minutes left. We'll slip into the children's room here and shut the door behind us. Can you do that? And on the count of three. One, two, three. Oh, I helped the fuck out.

With my zero plus zero in strength, I got a 17. I got a nine. That's still a lot. You both grab onto the toy chest. You look at each other and you slowly count down to one. As you wrench the toy chest forward, it's not attached to the ground. It's just a toy chest. Your strength overwhelms you as you...

swing it backwards and smack it against the wall. There's nothing beneath it but floor. Do I hear this? Damn it! We're making a ruckus! It's too loud downstairs. Okay. Quick, quick, now, just, let's get it upright and fix it and put everything back the way it was. Damn it! Fucking dumb and dumber. LAUGHTER

I wasn't going to make you do that until you were like, we both grab it. I'm like, okay, well, they both grab it and try to move some fucking toy chest. They're going to be like, they're going to try and move it thinking there's something there and they're going to throw it. We'll try to pick everything up and put it back in the toy chest and send it back where it was. Did you check behind the tapestry? What tapestry? In the other room. No, I went up in the... No!

Quick, into the other room. We close the doors. We are now in... You have to understand that they may see us coming. We are out of time. Let's quickly check the tapestry. All right, we look under the tapestry. Roll an investigation check or a perception check.

22. I'm rolling pretty hot fire right now. Perception, let me check. Sorry, I'm flipping back and forth here. 20 total. You slowly move your hands along the tapestry line.

depicting the beautiful mountain valley. And at first you don't notice anything at all as your fingers slip behind the tapestry. And where you expected your fingers to make their way all the way down, you hit a couple of bolts because it's mounted to the wall. And there's nothing here but tapestry. They hear no more. I love how it does that. Let's get back to our room. All right, you satisfied? Yes, yes. All right, come on. And then we are going to basically book it.

Close the door behind us and stealthily make it down the steps and try to like...

Out the front door. I will say you make it out the front door and the moment you take your feet down the stairs, both of you become corporeal again. I'm going to basically drop on the ground and slump up against the in-building and be like, Jesus, why do I feel like that was all for nothing?

Well, we learned that the professor is probably right. Something's up. Something's indeed up. We should get the professor this journal. Maybe he can discern something that we cannot. All right, keep it hidden for now. Let's get it to the professor and let's just relax. Would you like a hand to stand up? Yes. You both feel a hand on either one of your shoulders.

And you immediately hear, well, hello to the both of you. Are you on your way into the inn? Yes, yes, sir. Well, the first drink's on me, and hopefully we'll have a round of stories, right, chaps? And he smacks you on the back. Rick Povio, great to meet you both. Oh, uh, Shepard, it's a pleasure. He shakes your hand, he grabs it. There's a strong grip as he shakes it. There's a light in his eyes, a happiness.

And you, friend? Sarnax of the Iblowood. I've seen men like you before.

Strigger, yes? So have I, yes. You are also not from here. No, not at all. We have a friend that would very much like to meet you. Oh, that is great. When will I have the pleasure? He's inside. Twenty seconds from now. Then it looks like we both have a place to be and a time to be there. Follow me, chaps. And he walks in ahead of you as he swings open the door. Um...

I just look at Starnak's like... I whisper... No, what are you waiting for, huh? You probably shouldn't have stolen his jersey. And we follow him. He doesn't notice you there, though. No, I don't.

Oh, God. Okay, yeah, so we follow him in. All right, so you're able, you follow in as Rotavio makes his way into the tavern space. Everybody roars in tears.

they usher him over. He finds a seat. He's actually fairly close to the two of you as he takes his boots up onto the table and leans back to listen to the story as you're told the tale of a unicorn that brought candy to a town full of people who just really wanted candy. Cool.

Who's telling the story? The drunk. You can tell that it's not at all the story that was being told. You've listened. It's divulged from something that was significantly more sinister and interesting. And then someone had mentioned a unicorn, and now all of a sudden he's just on a tangent about a unicorn. So he's making it up as he goes.

But Rattavio seems to be interested and find it quite funny. So do I see them? They're walking in afterwards. You see Rattavio as he sits down and they're walking in afterwards. Well, thank you, my man, for that lovely story. And so then...

And then what happened is the entire town had a big cough. Thank you. And then a doctor came in and gave them all lollipops. Thanks. Lollipops from the belly of this unicorn. And then they didn't have that cough anymore. And then what happened was that...

And you see as the group kind of splits a bit as a few of them turn towards Riktavio to see if he's going to begin telling a tale. And some of the more drunk patrons continue to clamor around the storytelling man and listen to the tale that he's weaving with all of its...

Where are you from, Fred?

I'm from, uh, presumably far from here. Bargis. Yeah, yes. Do you know Bargis? I've been. Have you? So you're really not born here? No. Where are you from? I'm not from here. Where are you from, friend? Secrets. For now. Are you stuck here? Can you leave? Can you? Not that we know. If I could, I wouldn't be asking.

And if I could, I wouldn't be here. Dana! I'm sorry, I'm just, I'm a little on edge. Well, um, it's a pleasure to meet you. Is your plan to perhaps go home at some point? My plan is eventually to go home, but when? Well, who knows when? Until then, make the best of a bad situation, I say. Yes.

How long have you been here? You! Oh. You don't speak much. Well, I just, uh, heard quite a tale about you. You don't see half-elves here often.

Yes. I suppose not. No. I'll fix my hair if you want them right here. I can't hide much from a man like me. I hope I'm not being too presumptuous. Not at all, sir. I'm Victoria, I suppose. Lovely to meet you. What brings a pretty lady like you to a dark and dreary place like this? Well, I'm assisting the professor here on his voyage.

I see. That's fine. Well, a round of drinks, then? Yes, yes, please, absolutely. I normally spend the evening regaling the patrons with tales, but I think tonight is a night that you should spend regaling me with yours. I think I'm about ready for one of those drinks.

Rick Tavio calls over to Danica and Erwin, both of them seem to be really receptive and he pays for a round of drinks. That's very kind, thank you. Very generous of you, sir. Thank you. Well, how I'd love to hear more about you. You seem very well liked amongst the people.

Yes, I've really seen so much joy since we've been here. Certainly right in the stairs.

Well, I do, Tygian. But tonight's not about me. Tonight is about you. Regale me. What brings you to Grogia? How have you found yourselves here? Well, this is part of an expedition for Miss Hallery University. Have you heard of it? I've not. It is a university in the city of Brieg, in Vargas, like you... I've not been to Brieg.

It's quite a great city. I do miss it. And yes, so my life's research has been about Barovia and

What a strange place to dedicate your life's work to. Then you show up here and find that life is not so heavy here. Well... Lacking is the one thing... Life is the one thing this place is lacking. That's right. That is right. I must say, after spending my life researching it, I knew that it would seem daunting

Well, as you know, most places have their fair share of danger.

But yes, I will say I've encountered more danger here than other places. Well, you're a well-travelled man. I guess round. Well, anyway, this, uh, so, uh, as I'm sure you were aware, uh, when you arrived here, perhaps, that most thought that Barovia did not exist.

I want to be talking low enough where people can't eavesdrop easily. You're basically off towards the side now. You've moved over. You now have your glasses of wine. Everyone else is really engaging in the stories with the strange drunk with his unicorn tails. So I believe... So most didn't believe it existed.

And just based on the tales that I've heard and evidence that I've found in my previous digs that I was convinced that it existed. And I wanted to prove that. And prove what I did, I just didn't realize that it was a place from which we could not escape. At least without the permission of Countess Strudania.

Well, that seems to be a lot of people's folly. But, as I've said, you do what you can with a dreary situation. Yes. And the Vloki, the Vistani, they seem to be able to travel in and out as they choose. They mention that to us. So, it seems like there are ways in and out.

If you are trying to go home, as are we, perhaps we could help each other. I have a bit of work left to do. Stories to compile. When I head home, I want to be able to tell all the time now, the tales of what I've encountered here. I've no hope. Venture of spirit. Yes. Yes.

It's a lot like what the professor's trying to do, at least in some regard. Well, uh, yes, of course. So I think, uh, I too am trying to learn what I can. We're just in a predicament where if I can learn everything that I possibly can about this place, there's no clear way to get home. What are you doing while you're in town? How are you keeping yourself busy?

Telling stories. Learning from the locals. Going on three months. My goodness, in this town. In this and the other towns. How did you come to find yourself here? The same way you did, friend. Along a lonely road shrouded in mist. Was it a chapel in Ereos? Ha!

No, but I believe I've heard the tale, the one you're thinking of. I don't want to be presumptuous, because a gentleman such as yourself seems to know a lot about what's going on around here. But the Vasani told us that the only one who really can let people go, or I guess even come in, is the Countess herself. We do plan on meeting with her.

You do? And how do you plan on accomplishing something like this? She gave us an invitation for dinner, and we're hoping to seek her audience and go from there. You have an invitation to the castle? Yeah, something like that. And you plan on going? Well, to advise against it. I do not deem myself worthy of advising you anything.

You do what you'd like to do, but I... Should you go, I would like to hear all about it. We can arrange that. Have you been to the council? No, I must not be worthy of the Countess's eye. Miss Carvio, do you know of a young woman suffering the bites of strange mosquitoes? You...

Hit a nerve. Roll a perception check. No, roll an insight check. Not good. Thirteen, actually. His face doesn't crack as he looks towards you. That depends, friend. What type of mosquitoes? Where in the ventress? Have you heard of such an affliction? I myself dabble a bit in medicine. She was not in a ventress. She was in Beruvia.

She allegedly met with you not too long ago, when she was experiencing her strange bites. And allegedly you said it was nothing more than a giant insect, when we all know that not to be the case. Well, it has been a lovely evening. I find that it is time for me to retire. Oh, please, don't go on his account. He's...

A little anti-social, but what he means to say really is that we had just heard of you and we were curious on your take. We've come into contact with the young girl and she mentioned you. Roll a persuasion check. Okay. Ooh, that's pretty good. That's pretty good. That's good. That's good.

That is a 24. There you go. All right. He looks at you for a second. He seems like his feathers are a little bit ruffled as, well, if the half-oak leaves it. I shall say, as you know, personally, that some women can get a little flustered when they fear. She was of a high-born disposition. I did not find that...

Frightening young girl was going to cause healing. Elves, as I'm sure you have looked at them and seen, the wounds themselves are not causing any adverse reaction. She's not changing. Confirm that, yes. So, I chose not to frighten her for fear she might attempt to run away and find herself in even more perilous danger. Wait, is there... Is there any chance that she might change? Not...

at the present time that I left her. How sure are you? We left her with the kids. I'm positive that unless she's come into contact with large mosquitoes of the same variety and incurred more wounds and in a different way than the first, that she is in no danger of changing. Shepard, we examined her thoroughly. I believe what he is saying is still true.

Might I ask, how did you come to examine her in the first place? I was travelling through Barovia and I heard that she was, the entire family for that matter, were being shot by the nobles. She had come down with some illness. Her father begged me to come and see her.

The word had gotten out that not only do I tell the best stories, but I'm a bit of a medicine man myself. So, as I have not feared of illnesses of any kind, I visited the mansion and I took a look. Have you encountered anything like this in the rest of your travels here? This is a strange place.

You will encounter many things you wouldn't imagine, too. Don't get us started. Yes, we've had quite an interesting few dates. But Irena's case was the first of its kind that I've seen so far. What significance to the mosquitoes do you assume this girl to have? Well, that all depends. There must be something about her that's causing an attraction. But...

I wouldn't begin to understand the inner workings of a mind like that. Well, I think she's safe for now. We've made sure of that. But now, our goal is to begin to figure out our way out. So, I believe... Do you plan on staying here? Yes. I will be here at least for the next few nights. Unless something leads me in a different direction.

They call you the Carnival Man. Do you truly have a carnival? Yes. Rick Tavio's Carnival. You had a monkey. I did, yes. If he was not Piccolo, he was not welcome here with Ian, so I traded him to that strange Blinsky man in exchange for...

His wares. If you haven't been there, you should. No, we've already been. It's quite an interesting place. Give me ideas for the carnival once I return to Evantris. And you didn't get anything unusual from his shop or nothing's been out of the ordinary? Everything in his shop is out of the ordinary. Touché. And I picked up a few things, but nothing to note. I don't mean to pry. I apologize.

Don't you all mean to pry? Since I've met you, that's all you've done. Well, to be fair, it seems like we've got a lot in common, and it seems like you might have some of the same goals we have, and that's why we are so quick to cling to something that we can kind of understand. It's very possible that may be true, but up until this evening, I've never heard of any of you. So unless you have a reason for being here to see me...

I can't imagine that we know enough about each other to make a decision like that. I agree. I'm just simply saying we'd all like to go home someday. Someday, yes. Well, it was a pleasure to meet you, and if you need any help or any assistance from five very capable individuals, we would be happy to help them anywhere we can. Duly noted, friend. And I will be here telling stories, should you enjoy a nice...

break from the dreariness of the land round. Of course. Do you believe in fate? You see his interest piqued for a moment. I do believe there is an element of fate to the world round us, yes. Do you... Have you... Are you familiar with Madame Ava Vistani? For the first time, you see his face crack for a moment.

I believe that it is time that I turn in for the evening. Would you like to have a nightcap with me in my room? Yes, sure. We would. Yes. Well, let us make our way upstairs, then. Please lead the way. He stands up. He waves to everyone. I'm heading in for the night. Please do not let the merriment cease. Continue. Drinks on me. And he winks at me.

Danica as she once again starts to pour more wine. You can see that the stream of wine from the barrel marked red mash number three seems to be slowing down or great mash number three as it begins to slow down. But she fills the tankards and begins to pass them out as he leads you towards the stairwell

up the stairs and around the corner and through, or to the door that the two of you are familiar with as he takes a key out of his pocket, unlocks the door, opens it, and waves for you to come in. There's not much procedure to this, but... That's fine. We appreciate the invitation. As you all file in, he makes his way to the desk. Ah!

and quickly sits down behind it as he props his feet back up on the edge of it, one boot over the other. You speaking about fate, friend. Before, Sarnas, I don't mean to cut you off, and please, I don't mean to be presumptuous, sir, but I just want to let you know that we are skeptic that the things said in this establishment are not necessarily secret or private. Depends on where you speak, then.

But if you're worried about the Countess, this inn is not watched by her, though it's watched by someone. Interesting. Uh, Sarnat, sorry, continue. Whom is it being watched by, if not the Countess? What is this fate, Madam Eva, you speak of? Have you received your... from her? I have. Is that what brings you to the Blue Water Inn? Yes. Go on.

It is also what brings us to you. Go on. I imagine, perhaps, that in your readings you were told tale of the five of us, and in a similar fashion our reading mentioned you, the entertaining man with the monkey, that you would be a great ally in defeating the Countess.

It seems as if our fates are intertwined, unless I am mistaken about your reading. We're being awful for, because quite frankly, we're tired of mincing our words and getting jerked around. More options. What exactly did this reading say, if you believe it's in regards to me? He believes that there is someone who is not as he seems. That he is a powerful ally. That he has a monkey.

You say you are being frank because you don't want to mince words, but to ask you a question, and you talk in riddles. Either tell me what the reading said, or the conversation can end here. Victoria? Just that card. Just that one. This card sheds light on one who will help you greatly in the battle against the darkness. Look for an entertaining man with a monkey. This man is more than he seems. To fuck!

Well, Madame Ava is quite a character. Rudolph Van Richten at your service, friends. And he reaches out your hand to shake. Vampire hunter extraordinaire. And you see magic around him shivers as he drops disguised self. The man he had been before is no longer the man who sits in front of you. This man is significantly older than...

But there's a coy smile to his face, happy wrinkles around his eyes. And you see his heavy leathers. He has stakes and holy water and all manner of things strapped about him that you had not been able to see beforehand. The colors of the carnival no longer present. Well, that was quite the joy, don't you think?

I enjoyed every bit of that. That was the most fun that I have had since I've stepped foot in Barovia. I'm astounded. Rudolph, Mr. Rudolph. Van Richten to you, sir. Van Richten. Now, your name. Clayton, you said. Yes, yes. Last name. Tell it to me now. Asram. Love it. Miss Tullery University. Yes. Been there, done that. You have. Oh, yes. I've written many a book there.

I'm a famous vampire hunter friend. You haven't heard of me. Have you? You've studied Barovia, friend, and you haven't heard about me. Have I heard of him? You see as he snaps his fingers and you feel a shimmer around the room. Don't worry. It's a silent spell. They won't hear a damn thing we say in here. Whiskey! You brought some. And he pulls out his black and he throws it at you. I'm just looking at Sarnax like...

So, you fools, you're the one that took my book, yes? Give it back. Yeah, we were just about to come clean about this. We thought you would want to see his journal. In our defense, it was the professor's idea. I have no doubt that it was.

This is a thought. Do you think I'd leave anything important in my room? Not a chance. You stole his journal. We thought there might be valuable information in it, to be fair. Look, we found a lot more than just that book. What else did you steal? We didn't take anything else. That's exactly it. We found a chest full of jewels and money, and we left it where it was. We're not interested in stealing, Professor. No, we did steal three health potions. But that's to save us and our hides, because we're not getting any goddamn help around here.

all of those things and the one thing you stole was this man's journal. And the health potions. And the health potions. There's four things. We figured the information was actually of value instead of actual valuables. We're not interested. We're not common thieves. I am so sorry for the man. Don't apologize.

This is quite the entertaining event. You took my journal. We thought there might be some information about Barobi in it. Or maybe the professor might be able to read it in a way that we could. You would have been wrong. Well, better safe than sorry, right? Fair enough. Can I insight check this guy? Yes, you can.

I think I'm revisioning that, so let me just check. Professor, can I get my hat back? You didn't put it in your damn case, did you? No, no, no. I believe when I went to put it in my case, I saw it. No, it's right here. Thank you. As are your bags. Here you go. Again, sir, I can't stress enough how sorry we are. You must understand that we're all just a little on edge. Insights 15.

He seems to be completely honest with you. Have I heard of him? Roll an intelligence check. History, maybe? Yeah, history. Thank you. Sorry. So that's a little better. Plus eight is 20. Yeah. You've heard tales of a vampire hunter named Van Richten. Rudolph Van Richten. Wait. Wait. Van Richten. Yes. Yes. Yes.

I've heard of you. Of course you have. You've... You're quite an acclaimed vampire hunter. And... At your service. And he bows before he flourishes his arm and he bows down. Yes, you've traveled across Striga and elsewhere slaying...

Countless untold fiends. I've heard of your exploits. How did you... Did you intend to come to Barovia? Um, Professor, before we go any further, just in the full honesty and disclosure, the thing in your case... That is one of the dirtiest things you've said all night. Hold on to that thought, if you will. Please don't brandish the thing in your case.

I assure you it's not what you think. We just want to make sure you understand what's going on and if this actually is a sanctum of sorts. The case is going to float up and spin around. I love this. Quite an interesting trick. How does it work? It's an old family heirloom passed down. I'll show you later. Would you please take a look inside?

He looks down at his face and says, what am I looking at? Is this some horrific devil doll with red glowing eyes inside? None that I see. Is there a doll at all? Not that I can see. That's not good. There was this creature. You mean that doll on your back? And as you all turn and look, you see as Morbid Mary is...

slumped over your back. Oh, dear God! I drop to the floor and, like, roll and, like, try to get it off me. That is quite the reaction to a doll. And I'm, like, reaching for my weapon and, like, scrambling up against it. What is this? How? What? That! The thing! And I want to mage hand and, like, grab it around the neck. It looks like a blinky toy.

But it moves, and it's a sentient of some sort. I don't believe it's sentient, but yes, it looks like a Blinksy toy. Wait, it just does this? Probably. Let me see. I move the mage hand over. Do you want to be my friend? Let's be friends. Would you like to go murder someone? Let's go murder. It's just a toy.

I grabbed it with you, Chad. You're kidding me. You know, those dolls are horrific, and they multiply. It hung itself in our room. Oh, yes, I'm sure it'll do other strange things. Wait, it's... Has it vomited on you yet? No. Oh, its head spins. It'll vomit soon. It's a fucking toy?! Yes.

What are the strange children that live in this land, the ones that are not being used for ritual sacrifice? Well, this got dark very fast. This land is dark. Yes, but I haven't had enough scotch to delve into that bit of trouble. Perhaps you should pour yourself more. We have much to discuss about that. We're all just moving on. Looks to be so. Is your friend not mine? No.

Let me take my jacket off. He takes his jacket off and gets himself a little more comfortable. He kicks off his boots. There's a hole in one of his socks. There's a big toe sticking out of one of them. There is a child's room beside us. I'm sure you know that. Oh, yes. Yes. And yet we've seen no children. And, Professor, from what we found, nobody's living in any of these rooms. Oh, well...

Nobody's living in them yet, that's true. Wait, the innkeeper? Not in their room. If they're living here, it's not in those rooms. Oh no, they live here, just not in those rooms. What does that mean? Well, they're were-ravens. They're what? I'm sorry? Yes, they're were-ravens. That's a thing? Well, they're people that turn into ravens, yes.

But they have managed to be able to control it, so they can turn whenever they like. They sleep in the attic. There are a few nests up there, four. Two for the parents and two for the adults. Or two for the parents and two for the kids. Yes. They're kind folk. Some order, I believe. I've been doing a bit of research on them. I don't quite have enough information yet to make a...

judgment, but those that run the inn are very kind, and the ravens on occasion have warned me away. There's a horrific hag windmill up the way, and they frequent it, warning people for going there. Not anymore. Not anymore. I just want to go on the record and say that this...

This day, this day in the history of days that I've existed, that I've known you, have been a series of horrible, horrible misjudgments and miscalls. I would say that this is going to continue to happen.

Yes, yes. I'm not blaming anybody, Professor, but I am just a little... Ah, the Keepers of the Feather. They're called the Keepers of the Feather. Keepers of the Feather. Yes, and so far my experiences with them have been quite good. Wait, so you're saying they send ravens? No, they become ravens. There's more of them than just the Mordekaiser family. They... I've seen them in a few places, but I know they frequent the... The raven that was watching the windmill. Was that a person?

Oh, yes, the ravens that watch the windmill. They watch the windmill itself and they watch the circle of stones. They warn people from approaching, especially travelers who are new to the area, for fear that they might succumb to their doom at the hands of those horrific hags. Order of the what? They're the keeper of the feathers. We can't win. We just can't catch a break. I suppose they watch the church as well.

You know, I'm not quite sure. The church is hallowed ground. I don't know if they spend much time there, to be honest. Would they not be able to fly above hallowed ground? Oh, no, of course they can, but what's the point of keeping an eye on hallowed ground when it's already safe? One smashed itself against the window, killing it instantly. Oh, no, that can't be a keeper of the feather. That must have been just a stupid old raven.

Does it make sense that a keeper of a feather... You know that not all ravens in Barovia are keepers. Well, would a keeper of a feather, just theoretically, fall prey to a sleep spell, fall a simple ten feet and die? Does that sound right? That depends on the age of the human that was transformed. Some of them are capable of

at the age of four. The younger they are, the more likely they are to succumb to harm and ravenfall. I'm sure it was just a raven, Professor. And rightfully so, the older they are as well, the more fragile their bones. Yes, yes, yes. Well, uh...

Yes. That is certainly... So keep her the feather, you say. But, you know, if you're a magical folk, like I imagine you are, just like I am, friend, then you can just simply detect for magic on them. And if they seem to blow with that glow, then you know that they're a were-raven and not an ordinary raven. Yes, yes, then... I mean, that makes perfect sense now. Yes. Now. Well, um...

Nothing can be done. Nothing can be done. What is the goal of these keepers of the feather? You know, as I've said, I haven't very well delved into it too far, friend. But I've been keeping my eyes on the Vistani camp outside of town. Yes? Vistani. Oh, I'm sorry. What were you saying? Oh, you've been keeping an eye out on the Vistani camp. Yes. Yes.

I'm not sure about them. You don't trust them? I trust about half of them, and even the ones I trust, I don't trust. What are you concerned with? Not all of the Stonnie are what they seem. Are there any in particular we should keep an eye out for? More so the ones outside of town have caught my eye.

traveling to and from Lady Wachter's house. And I'm assuming you've discerned so far that she is an ally of the Devil's Strong. Speaking of dinner invites, she gave us one as well. Yes. She had you trailed, didn't she? She did. Oh, I knew it. Someone asked her to want to spot him. Yes, she had me trailed as well when she realized she couldn't get anything out of me. She rescinded the invitation.

Does she mean as farm? Well, that depends. Do you mean her... Do you mean Stradonia Han? She's a staunch ally of the Lady Stradonia. To be honest with you, I had hoped that once we had achieved some sort of time with the Countess, we could talk to her and reason with her and she'd let us go, but that doesn't seem to be the...

So you intend to fight the Lady Wokja?

Well, we were going to see what happens if we set foot in there fully prepared to do what we needed to do to leave safely and in one piece. The cards spoke of a powerful artifact, a relic that she keeps buried with the bones of an ancient enemy. You don't say. Does that sound familiar? Yeah.

What's the reading say? Verbatim, Fred. Do we just want to tell him the whole thing? So he has all the info? Do you mind, Fred, could you submit to a zone of truth? I would submit to it, but I can't guarantee that I won't pass the safe. You will attempt to pass, or you can choose to fail. I reserve my right to lie to you face to face.

Well? We've just met. I am extending a bit of trust, but I'm not stupid enough to trust explicitly, complicity, whatever that word is. Explicitly. Yes. I've had a bit of bourbon. We could all stay in the zone and you'd be able to ask us the same things. Yes. We could all be in the zone. We'd be willing to offer up information as well. Yes. Well, then I reserve the right to say nothing at all if I'm not ready to answer the question.

It's up to you, Professor. It's not necessary. It's not necessary. I just thought maybe we could prove each other's honesty. You are the incoming professor. There is no reason to bring spells into it. Just a show of good faith that I assume you can do the same thing. I figured we would all be subject to it. But if you are against that, I certainly won't insist. But I feel comfortable...

are sharing, given that I've heard of you and you seem like all of the evidence points to you are who you say you are. Well, ask away and I'll tell you what I can. Well, let us go through the readings and we will just confirm to you, perhaps it will perhaps give you some kind of information. Well, by all means, read away. Sorry.

Uh, the Nine of Glyphs, the Traitor Card. This card tells of history. Knowledge of the ancient will help you better understand your enemy. Look for a wealthy woman, a staunch ally of the devil. She keeps the treasure under lock and key with the bones of an ancient enemy. I should have known. Lady Wachter, what means hiding the journal of Stradonia von Zarovich right under my nose? A journal? A journal. Oh, yes. An ancient tombstone.

Shadanya would want that with someone she trusts. All locked away in Castle Ravenloft. I've been trying to get my hands on it since the day I arrived. Why not keep it in the castle like you initially said? It must have walked away from her somehow. And she either doesn't know where it resides, which is my thought...

Which makes Lady Wachter quite the tricksy woman. Or, some start worried about being with Lady Wachter, which on its own makes her even more of a formidable foe. Fair enough. So, there's a journal, and it's her journal. She got it. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. So that means that she's perhaps too clisctive to us.

She is fooling the Countess, you mean. Lady Walkford. Yes. It's his traitor card. Quite right. Quite right indeed. Perhaps we can threaten her and no blood need be shed. Well, she has the same goals as we. I suppose either of those things could be correct, but we take this gentleman's noting that...

This woman may be very powerful. That's right. We proceed with caution. This would be my only thought. So the Countess does not watch over this inn here? No. She doesn't keep much for eyes in the city of Vallocchi. She has on occasion traveled in, but with the hallowed grounds and the barricades around the town being what they are, it's not as...

Easy for her to manipulate here, as it is in Barovia. What do you know about this baron? What do you want to know about this baron? Why... What is it with children in these festivals? Why are children required? Why is attendance required? Because children and adults are required. Both, neither one is discriminated against. The flyers explicitly require children are required. The baron hates the Lady Stradonia. His family is from a long line of people.

original founders of this land before Stradonia came in with her armies and conquered it, far before her turning, as it were. And the Baron believes that his family is the rightful lord and master of the land of Barovia. He has a seething hatred for the Countess, but along with that, a seething fear he has.

can't seem to overcome his fear of the Countess, and he believes that while he is the Burgomaster, as long as he keeps the people happy, that it will keep the lady away. Don't know how true that is. Actually, I'm lying. I do know how true that is. It's not true at all.

But he's ignorant, and he thinks that it works. So he puts on these stupid festivals. He requires that people are there. But he fears that should the town fall into the same sadness and self-deprivation as the village of Barovia, that Shadania will soon lord over this town as well. When a soul comes...

It succumbs to despair. It is far easier to be harvested. This is true. Well, for the Countess, it's neither here nor there whether the person is wallowing in sorrow or not. As long as it's sold that Barovian house, then Stradonia's interest will be piqued. So if what all you're saying is accurate, then why doesn't Stradonia just absolutely crush everybody beneath her?

Sounds like she could. Of course she could, but why would she? I don't know. Somebody like this Burgomaster could be removed no problem. Especially if he opposes her openly. Yes, he does. But isn't that half the fun? Doesn't the cat like the toy with the mouse before it pounces? And why would she want to rule over an empire of ash? It's better to have a land of people to rule than no people at all. It's much more fun to watch the mouse run.

than to watch it cower in fear. Speaking of souls, what is the nature of the soul in Barovia? Well, I'm glad that you asked. It took me at least a month or so to figure it out. As you meet Barovians, I'd watch them closely. Some of them do not function like normal people. They're incapable of the normal range of human emotions. Those Barovians have no soul. What's happened to their souls? They were never born with them.

Only about one-tenth of all Barovians are born with souls. Well, I don't understand. How's that even possible? Well, and I don't know this for sure. The journal, Stradonia, would actually give me the information I need. I do believe on this. But whatever magic that Stradonia used to make herself what she is, this undead abomination, gave her additional powers.

She bolstered the people of Barovia, creating from nothing empty vessels to give the area the appearance of a bustling valley of people. But those that were trapped here on that day long past, those are the only souls that remain. And the adventurers that she tempts in from...

The material prime of Avantris. Material plane of Avantris. Wait. Additional souls she can add to her roster. What do you mean, the material plane versus... Well, as it were, she can only gain nourishment from a Barovian that has a soul.

So, if she is feeding upon all of the Barovians with souls and there are none left to feed upon, as sometimes it can take a century before a baby is born containing the soul of a past, a long-dead Barovian. So, she uses the Vistani to lure and lead adventurous travelers like into the land of Barovia.

To feed on them. So, wait, are you saying that we are not in the Ventress currently? Oh, no, friend. At all? Where are we, then? You're in Barovia, friend. Yes, but I presume that Barovia was just some magical part of a Ventress, maybe in Trigger or somewhere else. I've not fully discerned its exact location, but I have a few guesses. Do you mind sharing what you've learned? Well...

You heard of the Shadowfell, friend? Of course. Well, I think... If there's any plane of existence, I think that might be the one we're in. So we're not even... ...in the Vantress at all? You were in Barovia. And that's all I feel comfortable enough to say. The Shadowfell... Makes so much sense. I can't believe I didn't see it earlier. We did cross over from Trigger, Professor. Yes, yes, of course!

I should have known it was some kind of crossing. Everything I've read with the Vistani, it just seemed like it was a place you could get to. And therefore, Irena must have a soul. Yes. Oh, she does. Oh, that little, little minx. She contains, I'm assuming you've put it together already, professional, as smart as you are, the reincarnated soul of the lost love, of Shranya Tatyana.

What? That poor girl was birthed with the soul, the reincarnated soul of Shraddha's lost love. Such a shame. Poor Vaharina. Poor thing. Bad to know. Nothing that we can do about it now, that's for sure. Is she doomed? Well, as doomed as one can be, housing the soul of the one woman that caused all of this to begin in the first place.

Yes. Yes. But if we prevent her from being killed or fed upon, at the very least she'll be safe. Oh, she won't be killed. No, I'm sure that Stradonia has other plans. What would she possibly want with him? Well, many things, I'm sure, but...

Her fate will take her to the castle someday. I have no doubt of that. But until then, the best we can do is keep her protected. I left her brother with many things to keep her safe. Well, he wasn't very effective. He tasked us with bringing her here. You brought her to Vallaki? Yes, she's currently at the church. Oh, well, in that case... She's upon hollow ground. She couldn't be more safe. Good. You had me worried for a moment. It feels... I feel confident that...

You've confirmed our belief. Excellent. We've a lot to unpack here. Oh, yes. Well, and I'm exhausted. I have to have a saber-toothed cat. Do you? And he is quite...

Oh, yes. Oh, well, that sounds very wonderful. Is it from a Vantress, the cat? Oh, yes, of course. You brought a saber-toothed cat all the way from a Vantress here. Yes, when you put on a facade like I do, you have to buy yourself a saber-toothed cat and bring him with you. I don't trust the Vastani. There's a scent to the evil ones, the ones who are in league with Shrod. I purchased a toy from Blinsky, and I've been training Chad. It's my saber-toothed cat.

I've been training Chad to sniff out these Ebroo Vistani. He's harmless to anyone else, but he has the scent of them. He'll find them, he'll hunt them out wherever they are, and he will rip their throats from them. But it is quite a task to train him and to feed him. And he was quite the... he was in quite the mood when I brought him his steak tonight.

And Drusilla, my lovely horse. My apple. Oh, Drusilla. Yes. Your horse. Yes, you saw my journal. You've read all about her.

Though I was clever. I made it seem like a friend, a traveller I'd trafficked with, but no. That is what I had assumed. Sweet darling. Incorrectly. So a traveller indeed. Yes. Yes. When you put on a disguise like I do, you have to make sure that everything is pitch-puffed. Quite right. You leave no stone unturned. That's right. You steal no journal off the desk of a man.

and do not replace it with another. It looks exactly the same. With the same... Rookie mistake. Yes. Yes. We are not generally thieving, so it was a... That does not sound that way to me. Three health potions. This has been dire times. At least you didn't take their jewelry or their electron. To be fair, do we consider these... Do you consider these people an ally?

Haven't decided yet, but as of right now, they're not on my radar as an enemy. They have been rather kind to us. I was thinking maybe we should just come forward and apologize. We should return the health potions immediately. This is just, this world is harsh and dangerous. They won't notice their bone. They won't. So we should use them. Might as well. You stole them. We didn't take their valuables. We only took what we needed necessary for survival. Well, it depends on what you consider valuable.

Me, I consider my health to be valuable. But worry not, I don't think they'll notice. All right, if you say so. Perhaps we can make it up to them by securing some wine. That's a wonderful idea, Mr. Sarkis. Yeah, you wouldn't happen to have any idea or heard about this wine shortage. I had begun to look into it myself. I've heard a bit about the tale. Did Erwin put you up to it?

We had just heard a tale from both... His father's the lord of the winery, but he wouldn't tell you as such. They got into a spat a few years back, and they're not on speaking terms, so I imagine he's standing that way not only to look at what's going on with the wine, but check on his father as well. You see, the land here is not fertile, and for wine to grow as it does is a magical means, sir.

I've done a little bit of digging. It's a joke once I finish the story. There are three gems, or were, that were planted in the ground, creating fertile land for grapes. You'll notice there are three different types of wine here. Red grape mash,

Number three. Let me, actually, let me look through my notes. Let's see. Red grape mash number three. Yes, red grape mash number three. I see, I'm taking detailed notes. Yes, I would hope so. I would be. I'm not going to say. My quill is dry. Yes. Well, here's a quill. Oh, this is the wrong place. I need to be looking over here for the grape mash.

That one is the one that's most common. It is the least of all of them. It's the least valuable of all of them. One that's most easily able to come by. And then, let's see, wine storage, yes. And the, no, I apologize, it's purple grape mash, number three. I always think red, because wine is red. Let's see. There's also one called Red Dragon Crush. Okay.

which is the second tier on the list. They are completely out of it here. And the other one is a Champagne of some kind. Oh. Name. The name escapes me. That one hasn't been seen for maybe a year. That, the Champagne, is the one that caused the rift between father and son. You see, without these gems, the ground is no longer fertile. And about a year or so ago,

The gem for the champagne was mysteriously taken. Grapes were no longer able to grow and stock dried up. I believe there's only one vat of it left and it's at the winery for very special occasions. Now the other two, they were in plentiful supply until recently and I heard whisper that at least one, if not both, of the other gems have gone missing. So all three gems are now missing.

I cannot, I can neither confirm nor deny, but a nose knows, and I've been sniffing out the wine, that's it. Do you know where these gems may have been brought to? I made it out of the winery myself, so I couldn't tell you, but I do know the entire area is infested with blights. Needle blights, twig blights, like strange druids of the forest.

It's a dark place there. How the inn was able, how the winery was able to stay so well guarded and undisturbed by the horrors of the forest for so long, I couldn't tell you. I must admit, I am particularly interested in these gems that affect the soil composition and the cultivation process.

of plants in this land. I find the soil to be quite amenable for my purposes, but my crop is very unique. Well, I can't speak to all that. I'm not much of a green thumb. But it's definitely worth checking out and

Perhaps tomorrow morning, we will set out. Yeah, I mean, that was our plan, at least for tomorrow, to maybe see if we could figure out what was going on at the winery. Well, I definitely wouldn't recommend going in the evening. Agreed. High wind. Not high wind. The druids. All manner of things. Well, it seems like this inn is safe to stay in.

Oh, yes. I sleep here. Yes, having met you, I feel much safer to be honest. Lock your door, though. Why was there a magical rocking chair and evil dolls?

I believe I have already spoken on this. The dolls multiply. And the madman, they create rocking chairs. Well, where the rocking chair? My assumption is they probably walked down to one of the other rooms and dragged it in. And just to be certain, I mean, we found fingers in the one doll. Yes. Well, that is strange.

I have known on occasion the dolls do some pretty unusual things. Collecting fingers does not surprise me. Does it look like the doll cut the fingers off themselves? Have you noticed blood on the outside of the doll? Have you been near a cemetery any time recently?

No. Yes. Well, oftentimes they'll dig through the graves and take back trinkets. It's possible that someone was recently interred. It was a graveyard. Can we just burn it? Fuck you. Fuck you. That's why I said cemetery. He said no. You said yes. And then...

And then he goes under his brother. Yes, it was a graveyard. It was a cemetery. It's all right. So we can just burn them all. Anytime we find one, we can just burn it and hope that we stop them from multiplying. You can at least attempt to. I've never seen it work, but these are terrible. Why? Why would someone create something like this?

Lenski's a strange man, but... Can we kill him? Well, no. You could. I can't imagine that he would fight well for a man of his weight. But he's harmless, aside from his strange sense of humor. Well, and, you know, the room full of Irina dolls. Yes.

I haven't had the heart to tell him that they're modelled after an actual person. I think that's one of the few things that would actually repulse him. What would the Baron need with those dolls? Oh, it's not the Baron that uses those dolls. It's his strange henchman, Ezek. Do you know what he uses them for? Well, he sleeps next to them. For what purpose, Ezek?

He finds Ivrina to be quite attractive. I've had enough. And he needs, what, one a month? Well, it takes about a month for him to ruin the one that he has on him. Oh, dear God. Absolute heresy.

I don't even know what to say. Are you thinking sexual things? I'm not insinuating anything sexual at all. I don't know what you're insinuating, but the bottom line is it can't be good. Well, have you met him? No. Oh, well. Well, then it goes to show you wouldn't know much of anything. Yes, um, no. He's, um, he's a bit of a monstrous creature, is that correct?

He has a fiendish deformity, a monstrous tiny arm that casts fire from it. The townsfolk are quite repulsed by him, and the hand seems to move about on its own and do things on its own, and it oftentimes lights the doors on fire. Oh, well. I suppose that's less sinister. It's still an instrument. It's not the mind of a child. Well, that depends. He doesn't have much of a mind at all.

His intelligence is... Honestly, I think Chad is smarter than he is. Why does the Baron... Chad's a cat. Why does the Baron keep this man around? Well, you haven't seen him, of course. He's quite huge and he's horrifying. I see. Gets a lot of things done. Now, people in town, they heavily dislike the Baron, but there is fear, and fear gets a lot of things done.

And why would the people of this town that fear the Baron, or hate the Baron, why would they put children into stocks? Well, if they fought against it, then his deck would take them and lock them away in the Baron's house, and God knows what happens to the ones that go there. I sure don't. So it was part of the culture here where they punished children for being sad. But not just children, anyone. Or adults otherwise. Yes, well...

It is what it is, friend. If I were you, I wouldn't go poking my nose into other people's business. There's a lot to be done here. There are evils that need to be addressed. Yes. We're just trying to make sense of things and try to get somewhere that doesn't lead to another question. Oh, well, you're barking up the wrong tree. There are nothing but questions here. Many things will go unanswered for you. We've learned that in our time here.

We'll let you get some sleep. We need some sleep as well. It's getting late. A lot of information. We're so pleased to have met you. It was lovely to have met you too, half-elf. You know now that I think of it, there are some shadow elves. An accountant of them. You don't say? Yes. I'm not sure exactly of their location. They move about. But if anyone would know...

The were-ravens, they see all. So if you're looking for someone who could tell you a bit about your heritage, that shadowy tinge to you. Oh, yes, you do. Oh, yes, you do. What's he talking about? Thank you. If you're interested in that, I would keep your ear about the ravens. Yes. Put your hair down. You're trying to hide it.

Though I do like a top like that. Frames your face nicely. Well, I'm off to bed. I'm going to get up and leave the room. Burning secrets. Sarnax, don't look at me, buddy. Well, as for the rest of you, it was great to finally meet some friends in Barovia. And I will keep my ear out for more information about Lady Warkta.

And eventually we'll get together again and we'll have a conversation about the rest of these cards and we'll see what I can tell you about them. But in the meantime, unless you know if I hear anything amiss about town. Yes. And you do the same. Of course. Yes. And if you're in my room again, you're not going to find anything here. Next time you rummage through my cart, at least take something. Make it worth your while.

I hope at the very least you understand that we aren't thieves. No, you're definitely not thieves. Thieves would cover the track of the way they dragged my Chad through the dirt. It was more like he dragged... Never mind. It doesn't matter. We appreciate your hospitality and we look forward to meeting you again in the morning. Yes, if you'd like to spend time with Chad, let me know. He's much more calm around me. Great. Thank you for the drink and, um...

Your cat is quite strong. Oh, yes, I know. I've trained him well. Have a lovely evening. Good night. Good evening. Good night. Good evening. I'm going to head back to the room with the men. And I assume Connor was with you. She probably would have followed you guys. Victoria left by herself. Okay. Well, with that, I'm going to go...

Sit, think about trying to sleep. Fucking toys. Well... What the fuck? They're not malevolent, so we just have to understand this is how they are. And we'll deal with it. If they don't mean us harm, I suppose it's not the end of the world. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little vets. And that's fine, but I'm just saying, make sure you get some sleep.

Don't stay up all night again. We need you in top form tomorrow. Fine. Can we go in? Yes. I still do think that the one from Mad Mary was malevolent and bewitched. It is interesting that it was able to, uh... Oh. Well, maybe it wasn't the original one. God, how many damn things are probably in your case?

I open the case. They're probably like cockroaches. You see one, there's Demis Vespondris. Are there dolls in it? You don't see a single doll in your case. Well, it's gotten off somewhere. I'm going to bed. As he says this, you see as his hat begins to move up as two red eyes stare out from underneath it. But what you notice is that they're upside down and there's nothing on his head. Ha ha ha!

And it slowly lowers. Did I feel that? I would say you felt your hat lift, but you feel nothing on your head. Don't. Please don't panic. Like I did. Admittedly, in the heat of the moment, I panicked. Let's all try to remain calm and we'll just deal with them as we see them. I agree. The magic is gone. At least the 11th magic, I believe, is gone.

You can tell that at least the new one that you found with the head backwards does have the transmutation and the divination magic. But the morbid Molly doesn't seem to have any magic affecting it that you can tell. It just seems to somehow be able to animate.

So the new one is... The one that you found on the... The pile of ashes. The one that we burned. The one that you burned, that one did have stuff on it. Okay, but it's burnt. But you burn it, yeah. Wait, what did it have on it? It had divination. Oh, oh man, transmutation. So it probably had the scry spell on it.

Well, good night. We'll reconvene in the morning. All right. Sorry, do you have one minute before you go to bed? I do for you, Shepard. I had a dream last night. It was not unpleasant. A dream? Yes.

Yeah, I was flying over Barovia, I guess. And I thought I was riding something, but I was actually a giant silver dragon. And I laid waste to all of Barovia. And I got to be honest with you, it felt pretty good. It was just everything was burning and the destruction and everything. All of this evil was gone.

And I just didn't know what else to really make of it. And I figured maybe you'd want to know. And you were this dragon. Well, I mean, it was just a dream, but presumably, yeah, I guess I was the dragon in this dream. I mean, it was just a dream. But I was kind of been expecting to have horrible nightmares after all the things we heard before we fought those guys, damn tags. But I don't I don't know.

There is great power in dreams, especially when the gods are involved. I've experienced many similar dreams in the garden. But you said silver of scale. I mean, from what I could tell, it was hard to remember. You know, like once you wake up, you don't always remember everything. You don't always get all the details. And you bathed Barovia in fire. Something like that. I mean, absolutely. Just laid waste to all of it.

Does that sound off to me? A silver dragon breathing fire? Yes, that sounds very off to you. You know the silver dragons don't breathe fire. There is something there, Shepard. Pay attention to your dreams. Color is important in the dragon world. Garrix is not just of one color, but he's of red and of gold.

Both dragons with the power of fire both utilize the power of destruction. One good, one evil. To show the duality of fire that our very own Thomas is learning. But the silver, that is a dragon of ice and frost, pay attention to your further dreams. Perhaps Garret has approved of what you've done.

To the window. Well, I mean, like I said, at the end of the day, they're just dreams. It doesn't mean I'll even have any more. But sure, I'll try to make a note. Nothing is coincidence, Shepard. I think you might be right, based on just the things we've experienced in the last, like, 72 hours. I look forward to hearing more. Please be forthcoming. Sure. I'll do what I can. You want the bed tonight?

No, thank you. Sleep well. Perhaps if you sleep better, you will dream better. Maybe. Good answer. Good night, Shepard. Did you want to do anything before you go to bed? Either one of you? I just went straight to bed. While they were having that discussion, I was kind of trying to fall asleep. Um, I'm okay. Are you sure? You all... I'm okay. You all find yourself drifting off to sleep. Victoria...

Your dreams, you are awoken once again in dreams. You are attached to the bed like you had been the night before. But looking down, you...

There is no hole in your abdomen directly to your spine. Blood spills out around you. Instead, you find yourself writhing in pleasure. And as you look, you see as your belly gets larger and larger, fruitful with life. Until the pleasure turns to pain as lash marks begin to appear on the flesh of your exposed, impregnable abdomen.

You look down in horror as you see your belly stretch and move until bursting from it,

pale as anything you've ever seen. Blood red eyes, wrinkly skin. An infant vampire begins to claw its way out of your stomach and make its way towards you, its mouth dripping with the blood that is drained from your body. And as it gets to you, to your face, it looks down into your eyes, blood dripping onto your neck from its exposed fangs. Mama.

as you wake up. Shepard. I choose to wake up. I choose to die. Is there a rule for that? You wake up. You open your eyes to the sun barely shining in from the window and immediately in your face nestled next to you.

is Molly, holding a knife, dripping with a strange bloody substance. As she looks up at you, she pulls one of her fingers to her mouth. And that is our web session tonight. What?! Oh my god! Well, well, well. Rudolph Van Richten, we may meet at last. Will this fated ally be the one to tilt the scales in favor of the Azran expedition?

All signs point to unlikely. Especially with how difficult it was for them to wrangle a simple cat. And especially now that they've robbed the poor Martikovs and have become petty thieves. There doesn't seem to be much real heroism in store for them. Where will Van Richten guide the expedition? Find out in Chapter 5 of Curse of Stradania: Widow's Watch.

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