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Our group now stand face to face with Rahadin, the elven bladmaster and Strahd's right hand man, and Escher, Strahd's companion and elder vampire. The two stand defiantly in their way, blocking the northern Gates of Barovia and their escape from Castle Ravenloft to the Svalich wildnerness. Two immense and slavering hell hounds appear in swirls of smoke and sulfur at Escher's side, and a few moments later the ground shakes as the two immense gargoyles from the castle's entrance land behind the party.
Rule #1: In this campaign, white hair = badass
On the side of good, or the closest we can come in this gray world of compromises, we have our four heroes: Jennik the blacksmith and reluctant warrior, though said reluctance seems to melt away further with each vanquished foe; Jainus, his brother, a warlock of growing power and growing offers of patronage; Kveltrosh, the hermit paladin, once a gnome of simple pastoral reflection, now the wielder of the one weapon Strahd fears, the vampire's self-appointed, imminent executioner; and Tarmon, the well-traveled woods guide who now guides this band of apparent grizzled veterans, who somehow'd, ended-up'd, and who-a-thunk'd their way from a sad slop of mud-caked and wool-eyed peasant boys into this desperate land's last and best chance at liberation.
Note the lack of white hair...
In addition to the four heroes and one run-on sentence, we have a few others who find themselves on the side of mostly-righteousness. The tiger, Machli, sent by powers unknown to aid them in their fool's quest. Scraps, the fey, pledged to the service of Jainus by the Fey-witch Annie, to see them fulfill their bargain with her. Both have proven their skill and valor countless times.
There are others as well that ally themselves with our intrepid lads, for this battle anyway. Emil, the ousted alpha of the local werewolf pack, recently rescued from Strahd's dungeon, stands with the four if for no other reason than he wants to get home also. Kasamir and his newly-revived sister Patrina, both powerful wizards, and both have clear and obvious reason to hate Rahadin and to escape Ravenloft. The latter's views on Strahd himself are a bit more muddy. The three are pledged to aid the party and their respective histories of antagonism with Strahd and/or Rahadin, if perhaps not their trustworthiness, make this pledge likely to remain intact once steel and spell come out to dance. Leotellin Woodsoul, Jainus' father, is there and by all accounts can be fully trusted to lend his considerable healing powers to the battle.
Emil
This was the only male figure that came up when I googled "elf cleric."
Kasamir
Patrina
Janius' and Jennik's mother is staked and strapped to a cart, while Ireena is still unconscious. The two are stashed on top of a large boulder during the fight, and the mortals take up positions around it to defend them.
Is this how you treat your mother, after all that she has done for you?
Imagine she is lying down with her eyes closed. No, not like that you creep.
The battle lasts mere moments, but in the combatants' minds it seems to go on for hours, every move and countermove, cut, thrust, and incantation a campaign of skill and strategy. The party is aided by the timely arrival of their old friend Muriel Martikov, who brings with her the odd little gnome thief, Lem, who take out the gargoyles. Escher is all but neutralized by the combination of the Symbol of Ravenkind, wielded by Tarmon, and Kveltrosh's Sunsword. Rahadin still proves why he is worthy of the elvish title Blademaster, darting in and out of the melee, striking with blade and psychic powers and disappearing before he can be effectively locked down. After trading blows with Jennick to little avail, Lem scores a sniper's hit with his bow, sending an arrow through the elf's skull and killing him instantly.
The bodies are stabbed repeatedly, beheaded, dismembered, and burned to ash by the, let's be honest, not-really-all-that-paranoid-given-all-the-shit-they've-seen-up-to-this-point adventurers. Jainus is able to open the gates with Cyrus' keys and the group heads with all haste to Old Bonegrinder, where Annie said she can keep them hidden for one night. Emil departs into the woods, hoping to see the group again and assist them in ridding his pack and his territory of the corruption that now infects it. Muriel also flies off, now certain her family is not safe at all at the vineyard.
Good ol' Muriel...always arriving in the nick of time. She really can't last too much longer...
Need a pic of Lem!
Need a pic of Lem!
In Ravenloft, this is considered a safe place to sleep.
They arrive at the stone circle and see their occasional benefactor. Annie, for once and for now, has little to say. She waits apprehensively, looking at the sky. As the mortals prepare for rest, they hear the beat of enormous wings. Rorgynvael appears in the distance above them. Now, in relative calm, the party can take in the beast of legends before them. Nearly 40' long from snout to tail, with a wingspan roughly four times that, the great beast seems to block out the entirety of the night sky, as it circles down and lands, surprisingly gracefully -- though all of them are nearly knocked prone as the wind from the creatures wings buffets them. The summit of the hill is too small for his enormous wings, and he tucks them just before he hits the ground. Shimmering silver, but with a deeper black beneath that can be seen from certain angles, the dragon's scales are each as large as a spade. Its teeth and claws are bigger than short swords. The dragonfear washes over the party and they must consciously resist the urge to cower beneath any object they can fit under.
He looks the puny bipeds over for a time, then his long neck swings his massive head towards Annie. The dragon, in a voice like rolling thunder, says,
"Are our friends safe, mother?"
Annie replies, with a sigh, "I am not your mother and they are not our friends, sad to say. But yes, they are safe."
"I fought the Dead One as best I could, but his lashes burned me. I felt the trees calling me to rest. Though his horse made a good supper."
Smiling a bit now, Annie says, "Strahd is dangerous, even for you, and his doom is the destiny of others. Sleep, young one."
The dragon walks, silently, towards the ancient forest surrounding the clearing, and fades away into fog.
Annie explains that Rorgynvael, previously known to the party as "Rorgie," is not yet fully truegrown, and can only manifest in this world for a short time. She was reluctant to let their enemies known of his existence, but the young dragon insisted they help the group when they learned of their capture.
The adventurers also report that Cyrus told them that nothing remains of Argynvost's actual bones -- Cyrus dissolved them into a mineral to preserve them for his "art." They doubt then that his skull will be able to light his beacon at Argynvostholdt, and thus it seems impossible to open the stone circle there. Annie seems a bit surprised but not overly concerned: "Your geas is intact," she says, "And it would unroot itself if the task had become impossible. There is a way, somehows."
She finishes with a warning that probably did not need to be said. "Strahd will no longer toy with you. He will hunt you relentlessly and strike to kill. You must remain hidden, so as I."
As always seems to happen when they find a physically tranquil spot to rest, the gang's sleep is mentally uneasy. A few of them wake and find Annie up, certainly not watching over them, no, no. She shares a few barbed comments with each. Others have dreams or overhear things.
Rorgynvael, aka "Rorgie" - But you should probably not call him that.
Cael Ahnnym-isp, or Annie, to mortals. Nice hair.
The next morning Annie kicks them awake and says, "Wake, sleepy fools. You must go. Your stink draws pests. Remember your oath to Rorgynvael and to me made at the Castle's Gates, and your geas near but still to be completed. I wish you long life, such as it is, but will relish never to see you again."
Ireena has also awakened, a bit weak but mentally alert and showing no signs of vampirism. She desperately wants to return to Krezk to check on the town and her friends but is wary of leading Strahd to the town. Kasamir and Patrina are gone.
The party decides that visiting Krezk briefly to see what happened there is worth the risk. Certainly Strahd knows where Krezk is, and he may go there anyway. They need to grab supplies and they want a safe place to try their resurrection plan on Mom.
Lem also explains that he must retrieve the 3rd Gem of Natural Bounty for the person or people that saved him from being thrown off Ravenloft's drawbridge. He is unable to elaborate, but Jainus detects that indeed he has had a complex geas cast upon him. He must bury the gem at a crossroads and leave it there. The party is skeptical but ultimately decides to allow him to do it.
At Krezk they find the town largely intact -- only Ireena's house and the street outside shows signs of combat. van Richten's body has been laid to rest in the graveyard near the monastery. Their old companion Solomon. He has had to donate or spend much of their treasure for the good of the town, or the good of the town's opinion of them. They still retain much of the coin and the magic items he kept for them. Solomon reports that the townsfolk have somewhat turned on them, especially after Strahd attacked and they were not there to help.
They speak with the burgomeister and, with Ireena's help, they restore some of his and the town leaders' trust. Killing Rahadin and saving Ireena helps to a degree while simultaneously increasing their concern regarding retribution. The mayor grudgingly agrees that Ireena probably shouldn't stay.
After getting to their own house, the moment of truth arrives. The two brothers must decide whether to proceed with their plan. Resurrecting their mother requires that they first slay her in her current form. But if the resurrection power they gained in the Amber Temple does not work, their mother will be fully and irretrievably dead. Jennik is reluctant, but ultimately gives up as there is no other plan that even has a hope of providing a permanent solution.
Jainus slowly but deliberately chops off his own mother's head. He then places her head in contact with the stump of her neck. He places his hand on her forehead and tries to release the magic he gained in the Amber Temple.
For once, the gods are kind. Jainus' mother opens her eyes and she rises and embraces her family.
I love this plan! I'm excited to be a part of it! Let's do it!
The heroes are again torn -- they can stay to protect the town but surely draw Strahd. There is still much to be done outside the walls, however, so they decide to get to work. They head to the last circle they have not visited -- the Ruins of Berez, to confront the Witch Lysaga.
After bidding their mother and (step)father farewell, Jennik, Jainus and hte others make the half day's journey to Berez, a ruined town deep in a dark marsh. There they find the last stone circle and, to their pleasant surprise, Muriel once again. She has alerted her family and made them leave the Vineyard for one of their other hideouts. She was then at a loss for what to do, and could not want to dwell on the frantic uncertainty that her life had further become, so she returned to her normal duties. One of which was to spy on Lysaga, a frequent tormentor of the Martikovs. She tells the party that Lysaga has stolen one of their Gems of Natural Bounty and for years has been attacking their vineyard with her animated scarecrows and other weird magical servants. The scarecrows hung all around the town act as lookouts and will sound an alarm if they are spotted.
This was almost the last thing Kveltrosh saw.
With scraps and Lem on recon, the group maneuvers around the periphery of town without alerting any scarecrows. Berez is filled with rotten, flooded ruins -- old hovels and shacks, rotted from near-nothing to actual nothing. The largest remains are of the mayor's house, a two-story building with a iron-fenced garden, now little more than a jumble of half-standing decomposed slats and foundation stones. When the party crosses the threshold they encounter the ghost of Burgomeister Ulrich. He is not hostile, however, and tells the group a bit of the history of Berez, where yet another young woman, Ulrich's daughter, struck the fancy of Strahd. Like Patrina, she was murdered by her community to stop her from becoming a vampire, although she was executed swiftly by a remorseful father rather than stoned to death as Patrina had been. Strahd retaliated by flooding the river which in turn flooded the whole town and killed all the villagers.
The heroes turn towards the center of town, where Muriel says Lysaga's hut is usually located. The wereraven also said that she has a flying chariot in the form of a carved out giant's skull. She is a powerful witch and very dangerous.
After some sort of "plan" to rescue the ravens Lysaga has locked up in cages outside of her hut goes awry, they take to outright combat. Lysaga jumps in her flying skull and shoots spells at the party from high above them. Lem and Jainus attack the skull itself while the others fend off the now-animated scarecrows. Eventually the missile fire brings Lysaga to the ground, but she promptly casts a powerful death spell at Kveltrosh. The paladin pulls on reserves of will he did not know he had, and, while hurt severely, shrugs off the death spell. Lysaga is then quickly cut down by the party -- she had no chance once she let the heroes within striking distance.
The party crosses to the other side of the river and Scraps promptly enacts the ritual to open the circle. The heroes have vanquished another villain and come one step closer to bringing the Fey back to power. But the last circle remains closed, and the group is at a loss as to how to open it. Still there is a darkness to the west they have not yet investigated. And, as night comes, so does Strahd.
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