Now knowing that Ireena seems fine, Akyan completely releases her and takes a step back. She's safe, he's done his job (even if he barely did anything during the fight) and now he can get on with whatever needs to be done. He's caught off guard when she makes eye contact and thanks him. "Uh.. your welcome." He replies hesitantly, as he is unsure what to make of her smile. Then he inclines his head to her, then heads over to his siblings and Madame Eva.
He's still not sure how he feels about Eva...she thought that fight was exciting? In his eyes, everyone standing here is lucky to have made it this far. He nods in agreement as Kora and Zathon speak. From what he saw of the other domains, Borca or I'Cath seemed the most hospitable. While he has a feeling I'Cath's splendid visage likely hides a much greater evil, he's not to comfortable leaving Ireena in a place labled as the realm of Desire and Deceit. Either way, it would be good to have Eva's opinion on the matter.
"Bastard stole my earring." Kora replies to Anthony's question and then attempts a smile looking at him and it wavers and her eyes tear up a bit. Looking away immediately, she clears her throat. "Yeah.. I shouldn't be surprised seeing he even warned me of what he had become, but still, I thought his resolve was greater? I really didn't expect...well this."
Once having control of her emotions again, she turns to face Anthony and really look at him. She never thought of herself and him as close.. who are we kidding, Jared was the closest one he was right and she barely knew him. She wondered if his concern was just him doing his job or if he really was concerned for his sister.
Aoufie waits in Madam Eva's tent and just nods when she is ready for her promised reading though wherever they go next it will surely be eventful and probably dreadfully dangerous.
What Kora is trying to read in Anthony isn't straightforward. In the couple of days they've been back together, he hasn't given off a very priestly vibe overall. He acts more like a blunt instrument than a religious man, and there's nothing disingenuous about his concern. He's always scanning and ready to step in to support, sometimes in little ways that aren't really obvious. What has been less sincere are the wall-eyed smiles and 'awe shucks' demeanor, for whatever reason. That tends to fall away quickly and he seems to reserve it for people he doesn't trust.
As for trying to pin down what motivates the concern for others he seems to have is a little more complicated. He clearly has some resentment toward Aoelwyn. He hasn't been very shy about expressing it, though it seems to run a little deeper than the current situation. While there's nothing in the way he treats anyone to suggest he extends that resentment to any of the siblings, It's not the same easy affection some of you share. Maybe because he's older, maybe there really is a layer of priestly obligation, or maybe that's just him. He lived a whole life after going back to his home town.
((Because Anthony isn't going out of his way to hide anything and Kora rolled a 16 there's an emptiness that he covers up with the dimpled smile and beginnings of crows feet.))
When asked for suggestions on which Domain to go to, Madame Eva shrugs and repeats that she doesn't know too much about the other Domains. With that, she departs for her tent to get ready to consult the future.
It a few hours for the Vistani to start settling down. During that time, Madame Eva hasn't emerged from the inner sanctum of her tent as she prepares herself to part the veil of the future. Those few hours were ones of mourning and celebration. Many Vistani were slain, but those remaining rejoiced in the fact that they were at least able to delay the end of the multiverse.
The thunderstorm conjured by the arrival of the Elder Tempest still rages overhead, though it seems to have lost some of its fury. The muddy battlefield eventually becomes part of the lake as it spills over its boundaries, washing away spilt blood. The Vistani separate their fallen from the motley forces of the Darklords into two separate piles. There's talk of burning them once the rain decides to let up and everything has a chance to dry out.
At last, a Vistani lass somewhere in her teenage years summons you to join Madame Eva in her inner sanctum. As you enter the inner portion of her tent beyond the veil of beads, you find yourself in that dark room you were in before. This time, the air is thick with the heady scent of burning incense wafting from hanging censers. Lines and circles of white powder mark the floor, forming an intricate geometric maze. Candles flicker steadily around the room, each deliberately placed within the nest of geometry. In the center of the patterns, Madame Eva sits cross-legged on the floor. She wears an elaborate dress comprised of intertwining strands of maroon cloth. A headdress with long tassels drooping down beside her face rests upon her wizened head, and a black veil similar to a wedding veil obscures her face. "Come, sit before me," she croons, gesturing with a gnarled hand to patch of ground bare of the white dust.
As you comply and sit in a half circle in front of her, she waves a hand in a gentle arc before her. As the does, a stream of cards rise from a deck at her side. The begin to spiral around her slowly, each card rotating. Some of the cards have cheerful depictions of natural scenes, smiling masks, and grand castles. Others are more grim: a corpse hanging from a gnarled tree, a burning village, a grinning skull wreathed in shadowy flames. Despite their varied images, they all bear the same sense of ancientness.
As the cards swirl behind her, Madame Eva says, "It will not be who will be speaking to you, but rather, it will be the Future that will be speaking through me." She stretches a hand out in front of her, palm facing down, and the cards methodically form back into a deck floating in the air. It moves towards Aoufie, the person at one of the edges of the half circle. "Select a card, but do not look. Only I can reveal your fate." The deck obligingly fans out so Aoufie can make his selection easier. Once he picks his card, the deck drifts over to the next person in line, until eventually everyone has selected a card. Madame Eva makes a gesture, and the deck floats back to her side and rests upon the ground.
With another gesture from Madame Eva, the cards you each hold slip from your grasp and drift towards Madame Eva to form a cross in front of her, their faces down. The sounds of the storm outside seem to fade away, the world coming into focus somehow. "Let the Sight... begin."
The bottom-most card flips over. It reveals an armored woman clutching a gleaming longsword. It reads, "Avenger." Madame Eva begins to speak, and her voice takes on a rhythmic canter and husky quality.
"This card tells of history.
Knowledge of the ancient;
Understanding your enemy.
I see a sleeping prince.
a servant of light
and the brother of darkness.
The treasure lies with him."
The card on the left flips over. It reveals a woman with her hand outstretched over an injured man. It reads, "Healer."
"This card tells of a power,
a power of good and protection,
as symbol of great hope.
Look to the west,
find the pool blessed by light.
The white sun will guide your way."
The card at the top flips over. It reveals a robed man swinging a censer. It reads, "Bishop."
"This is a card of power and strength.
It tells of a weapon of vengeance:
a sword of light.
What you seek lies in a pile of treasure,
hidden away beyond amber doors."
The card on the right flips over. It reveals a bleak dungeon. It reads, "Donjon."
"This card sheds light
upon the one who will fight.
You have a great ally here.
Find a girl driven to madness,
locked in the heart of her dead father's house.
Curing her of her insanity,
this is the key to your victory."
Finally, the card in the middle flips over. It reveals a sleek raven perched atop something. It reads, "Raven."
"When the time comes and destiny arrives,
this card speaks of where the Devil hides.
Look to the mother's tomb.
There, the fate of the worlds
rests upon the one from the mother's womb."
With her last words hanging ominously in the air, the sound of the storm outside seems to return. The cards float gently back to the rest of the deck at her side. Madame Eva slouches and lets out a deep breath, looking suddenly exhausted.
Anthony hopes that one of the others has a good memory. These were riddles where both the clues and the answers were completely unknown to them. They have to hope that if they wander around Barovia long enough they'll stumble onto something that fits."Oof." Anthony shakes his head and scrubs his hair, looking hopefully at the others.
Kora admires the ritual and the cards themselves, the beauty of it all, the mystique. Until she realizes they need to make something of the cryptic words that were spoken. "We have to find five artifacts from that? How..." she trails off and nods to Anthony's sentiment. Their task was getting more and more difficult, how were they ever going to succeed? "Will there be a way to know what we have is the right thing?" She doubts they will even find what they need, but if they did, she would hate for them to toss it aside not even knowing it was what they were searching for.
Anthony scratched at the ever thickening sandy stubble on his jaw. "I think a sword and a symbol of great hope will be fairly obvious. But knowledge, an ally, and the last one sounds more like a place than a thing we can take with us.
Anthony chuckled mirthlessly. “Yup. If we’re lucky we’ll be dead long before then and it will be someone else’s problem.”
He raised his eyebrows at Ismark and Ireena. They couldn’t lug them around like furniture indefinitely, or keep protecting her like she was some priceless artifact in her own right. As much as he didn’t wish a dark fate on either of them, she was only important here because Strahd wanted her. Otherwise she was an ordinary woman, no more or less valuable than the Mary and Gertrudas of the world.
Standing, he gathered what little he had to leave. “Any last things we want to do here before head out? Anyone need healing?” To Madam Eva he asked, “Any parting wisdom or useful gear you can offer?”
Aoufie mulls over the vague riddles or clues. "I agree that we probably know won't until we stumbled upon it and spark some epiphany. Yep, I am ready to go" He stands ready to depart.
Ismark, who had been standing quietly towards the back of the room with Ireena, responds in an adamant voice to Kora, "I go where Ireena goes."
To Anthony's question, Madame Eva wearily responds, not rising to her feet, "Unfortunately, I'm fresh out of both." She looks up to meet your eyes. "I can only offer my sincerest wishes for your welfare."
With the reading over and with you armed with cryptic clues about the future, it seems the next best step is to escape Barovia.
He was still wary of the woman's overall intentions, but there was no denying that she'd helped them when she could easily have turned them over. That had to be worth some benefit of the doubt. "Thanks. Hope your helping us doesn't completely upend the peace your people have here."
Anthony looks around at the others. "Guess we head to the border, we can discuss where we're going on the way?" He didn't really have a strong opinion one way or another. The would all be horrible in their own ways he was sure.
Akyan ponders the reading as Anthony and Kora talk. A sleeping prince, who is a servant of the light and brother to darkness... Sounds awfully similar to Strahd's brother. And if that's the case, it sounds like they'll be visiting more than one grave if they do decide to hunt for these artifacts.
The elf stands and prepares to depart with his siblings. "That's a good enough plan as any I guess." He replies to Anthony.
The decision to leave was made and Kora was itching to get out of there. As they all leave the Vistani camp, Kora steals a brief look back. Things had changed so much in the time they had arrived till the time they were leaving. From dancing and joyous meetings to this? And they were leaving them all, she shared Anthony's hope, which was a strange feeling for her.
As they run towards the mist, she turns to Aoufie. "I have no idea how any of these talisman work and I know Madame Eva just said they would, right? Well, yours seems the most intuitive to just start playing? So would you mind playing that lute as we run towards the mist and see what happens?"
"I will give it a try Kora though this is a first for me as well." says Aoufie. When they approach the mist, he starts playing a song he learned about a journey to far off unknown lands. The song has deeper chords of certainty of looking forward and not wavering. A tone of a seasoned traveler who may not know where he is going but has to confidence to reach such a destination.
He also looked around at the others. They seemed to be holding up well enough, but no one was really talking. It was hard to say. "I know we were all planning a short visit. Does anyone have anyone waiting on them that we should try to get a message back. Maybe thought the Vistani."
Once they were all gathered up and begin the trek back to the nearest border, Anthony is lost in thought, pondering the riddles, doing his best to commit them to memory, though they were impossible to solve with such little information to go on. They would just have to hope it would all make sense with more context.
Akyan raises an eyebrow at Kora as she makes her suggestion to Aoufie. He would have suggested I'Cath or Borca anyway, though he leans towards I'Cath simply based on the titles of each domain. Well, it seems he doesn't need to voice his opinion.
When Anthony asks his question, the elf briefly thinks of the guild. However, he shakes his head. This isn't something they need to get involved in.
As they continue towards the mist he speaks up. "Since none of us really know how this works, perhaps we should move as a tight unit. Ireena and Ismark don't have mist talismans, and with Azalin in control of the mists, we can't know what he can do with them. That said, I suggest you two travel towards the middle of the group." He looks at Ireena and Ismark as he says the last sentence.
Armed with clues about their future, the siblings set out to the south towards the frosted mountain peaks and foreboding pine forests that lie before the inscrutable walls of fog surrounding the Domain of Barovia. As they trek through the sodden groves of solemn trees and across rain-slicked meadows, they can’t help but think back on the past three days. These were probably the most action-packed three days of their lives. It’s not everyday that someone learns that an evil entity of almost unparalleled power wants to bring about the end of the world.
The dark, stormy sky overhead seems to match the oppressive mood that settles over the group as they trudge onwards towards the Mists, invariably getting soaked to the bone by chillingly cold rain. Despite only spending two days in Barovia, you will never forget your time here. Some of you would bare scars from the skirmishes you fought. Others would perhaps bare mental scars from your experiences here. Even if the siblings managed to escape mostly unscathed, one of their brothers was lost to them, perhaps forever. Jared, with his constant friendly teasing that always bordered on being annoying, had been claimed by Strahd. Hopefully, Jared would be able to resist being corrupted by the influence of the Domain until he could be rescued.
After a few hours of marching in the rain on a forested slope of a mountain, you finally come to the border of Barovia. About 30 feet ahead of you, a curtain of impenetrable fog looms in the air. Unlike normal fog that drifts about, the fogbank hangs in the air like a wall, wisps and eddies curling around the trees near it. It looks particularly ominous in the encroaching dusk.
Having decided to try to travel to I’Cath, Aoufie pulls out his ornate cittern and begins to strum its strings. As his fingers strike the first resolute chord, the wall of mist shivers as the thick notes run through it. Yes, the instrument did appear to have some influence over the Mist. Emboldened, Aoufie starts to play his traveling tune, and the Mists respond to his song by slowly parting to reveal a path.
With Aoufie’s tune filling the air, you enter into the Mists. The Mists obligingly give Aoufie a wide berth, forming a sphere of empty air about 30 feet across around Aoufie. As long as he plays his song, the Mists stay away from the group as they march on. Underfoot, the forest floor gives way to sodden grass, and then bare earth. Thankfully, Aoufie’s instrument seems to tug him along gently, guiding him towards I’Cath. As such, he’s able to lead the group to their new destination.
As you march, you occasionally see flickers movement and misty remnants in the Mists about you. Sometimes, you pass near an area where the fog seems thinner, and you can faintly see what you assume to be other domains, though the images are always distorted and the sound muffled. You also pass… things that move in the mist. Several of them are humanoid in shape, and they just watch you silently as you pass, their forms obscured by the swirling Mist about you. Other times, you pass by alien, twisted creatures of immense size that lumber about. Thankfully, they don’t seem to notice you, though Aoufie’s cistern urgently tugs him away from them
Finally, after a few hours of walking through the mists, Aoufie leads the group to one of those thin patches of fog. Through the thin curtain of mist, you can faintly make out a pond and maybe some buildings. It was hard to tell with the distortion the Mist made. The cittern continues to tug Aoufie towards the image, and deciding that this must be I’Cath, you each step through the shimmering veil one by one.
To anyone that may have been watching, they would have seen several people one by one materialize from the faint mists hanging in the chill night air. To the siblings, as they step through the fog, they find themselves in some sort of garden. One of the first things they notice is the sudden shift in temperature. Even though it’s night, it is considerably warmer than the cold, forlorn Mistlands you just traversed through. It’s also much more humid.
The garden you find yourself in is dominated by a large, glasslike pond in the center. Flowering lily pads and other aquatic foliage clog the pond, and carefully arranged, almost tropical-looking plants and stones rest around the pond. The garden is enclosed by a low stone wall, and beyond the wall, you see several large, wooden buildings with strange architecture. Cobblestone roads separate each imposing building, and you assume that you must be in some sort of neighborhood. At the corners of each building, you see strange lanterns hanging from the roofs that bathe the area in a gentle, orangish light.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM- Azalin's Doom
DM- Surviving the Unsurvivable
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Now knowing that Ireena seems fine, Akyan completely releases her and takes a step back. She's safe, he's done his job (even if he barely did anything during the fight) and now he can get on with whatever needs to be done. He's caught off guard when she makes eye contact and thanks him. "Uh.. your welcome." He replies hesitantly, as he is unsure what to make of her smile. Then he inclines his head to her, then heads over to his siblings and Madame Eva.
He's still not sure how he feels about Eva...she thought that fight was exciting? In his eyes, everyone standing here is lucky to have made it this far. He nods in agreement as Kora and Zathon speak. From what he saw of the other domains, Borca or I'Cath seemed the most hospitable. While he has a feeling I'Cath's splendid visage likely hides a much greater evil, he's not to comfortable leaving Ireena in a place labled as the realm of Desire and Deceit. Either way, it would be good to have Eva's opinion on the matter.
"Bastard stole my earring." Kora replies to Anthony's question and then attempts a smile looking at him and it wavers and her eyes tear up a bit. Looking away immediately, she clears her throat. "Yeah.. I shouldn't be surprised seeing he even warned me of what he had become, but still, I thought his resolve was greater? I really didn't expect...well this."
Once having control of her emotions again, she turns to face Anthony and really look at him. She never thought of herself and him as close.. who are we kidding, Jared was the closest one he was right and she barely knew him. She wondered if his concern was just him doing his job or if he really was concerned for his sister.
Insight 16
Aoufie waits in Madam Eva's tent and just nods when she is ready for her promised reading though wherever they go next it will surely be eventful and probably dreadfully dangerous.
What Kora is trying to read in Anthony isn't straightforward. In the couple of days they've been back together, he hasn't given off a very priestly vibe overall. He acts more like a blunt instrument than a religious man, and there's nothing disingenuous about his concern. He's always scanning and ready to step in to support, sometimes in little ways that aren't really obvious. What has been less sincere are the wall-eyed smiles and 'awe shucks' demeanor, for whatever reason. That tends to fall away quickly and he seems to reserve it for people he doesn't trust.
As for trying to pin down what motivates the concern for others he seems to have is a little more complicated. He clearly has some resentment toward Aoelwyn. He hasn't been very shy about expressing it, though it seems to run a little deeper than the current situation. While there's nothing in the way he treats anyone to suggest he extends that resentment to any of the siblings, It's not the same easy affection some of you share. Maybe because he's older, maybe there really is a layer of priestly obligation, or maybe that's just him. He lived a whole life after going back to his home town.
((Because Anthony isn't going out of his way to hide anything and Kora rolled a 16 there's an emptiness that he covers up with the dimpled smile and beginnings of crows feet.))
When asked for suggestions on which Domain to go to, Madame Eva shrugs and repeats that she doesn't know too much about the other Domains. With that, she departs for her tent to get ready to consult the future.
It a few hours for the Vistani to start settling down. During that time, Madame Eva hasn't emerged from the inner sanctum of her tent as she prepares herself to part the veil of the future. Those few hours were ones of mourning and celebration. Many Vistani were slain, but those remaining rejoiced in the fact that they were at least able to delay the end of the multiverse.
The thunderstorm conjured by the arrival of the Elder Tempest still rages overhead, though it seems to have lost some of its fury. The muddy battlefield eventually becomes part of the lake as it spills over its boundaries, washing away spilt blood. The Vistani separate their fallen from the motley forces of the Darklords into two separate piles. There's talk of burning them once the rain decides to let up and everything has a chance to dry out.
At last, a Vistani lass somewhere in her teenage years summons you to join Madame Eva in her inner sanctum. As you enter the inner portion of her tent beyond the veil of beads, you find yourself in that dark room you were in before. This time, the air is thick with the heady scent of burning incense wafting from hanging censers. Lines and circles of white powder mark the floor, forming an intricate geometric maze. Candles flicker steadily around the room, each deliberately placed within the nest of geometry. In the center of the patterns, Madame Eva sits cross-legged on the floor. She wears an elaborate dress comprised of intertwining strands of maroon cloth. A headdress with long tassels drooping down beside her face rests upon her wizened head, and a black veil similar to a wedding veil obscures her face. "Come, sit before me," she croons, gesturing with a gnarled hand to patch of ground bare of the white dust.
As you comply and sit in a half circle in front of her, she waves a hand in a gentle arc before her. As the does, a stream of cards rise from a deck at her side. The begin to spiral around her slowly, each card rotating. Some of the cards have cheerful depictions of natural scenes, smiling masks, and grand castles. Others are more grim: a corpse hanging from a gnarled tree, a burning village, a grinning skull wreathed in shadowy flames. Despite their varied images, they all bear the same sense of ancientness.
As the cards swirl behind her, Madame Eva says, "It will not be who will be speaking to you, but rather, it will be the Future that will be speaking through me." She stretches a hand out in front of her, palm facing down, and the cards methodically form back into a deck floating in the air. It moves towards Aoufie, the person at one of the edges of the half circle. "Select a card, but do not look. Only I can reveal your fate." The deck obligingly fans out so Aoufie can make his selection easier. Once he picks his card, the deck drifts over to the next person in line, until eventually everyone has selected a card. Madame Eva makes a gesture, and the deck floats back to her side and rests upon the ground.
With another gesture from Madame Eva, the cards you each hold slip from your grasp and drift towards Madame Eva to form a cross in front of her, their faces down. The sounds of the storm outside seem to fade away, the world coming into focus somehow. "Let the Sight... begin."
The bottom-most card flips over. It reveals an armored woman clutching a gleaming longsword. It reads, "Avenger." Madame Eva begins to speak, and her voice takes on a rhythmic canter and husky quality.
"This card tells of history.
Knowledge of the ancient;
Understanding your enemy.
I see a sleeping prince.
a servant of light
and the brother of darkness.
The treasure lies with him."
The card on the left flips over. It reveals a woman with her hand outstretched over an injured man. It reads, "Healer."
"This card tells of a power,
a power of good and protection,
as symbol of great hope.
Look to the west,
find the pool blessed by light.
The white sun will guide your way."
The card at the top flips over. It reveals a robed man swinging a censer. It reads, "Bishop."
"This is a card of power and strength.
It tells of a weapon of vengeance:
a sword of light.
What you seek lies in a pile of treasure,
hidden away beyond amber doors."
The card on the right flips over. It reveals a bleak dungeon. It reads, "Donjon."
"This card sheds light
upon the one who will fight.
You have a great ally here.
Find a girl driven to madness,
locked in the heart of her dead father's house.
Curing her of her insanity,
this is the key to your victory."
Finally, the card in the middle flips over. It reveals a sleek raven perched atop something. It reads, "Raven."
"When the time comes and destiny arrives,
this card speaks of where the Devil hides.
Look to the mother's tomb.
There, the fate of the worlds
rests upon the one from the mother's womb."
With her last words hanging ominously in the air, the sound of the storm outside seems to return. The cards float gently back to the rest of the deck at her side. Madame Eva slouches and lets out a deep breath, looking suddenly exhausted.
DM- Azalin's Doom
DM- Surviving the Unsurvivable
Anthony hopes that one of the others has a good memory. These were riddles where both the clues and the answers were completely unknown to them. They have to hope that if they wander around Barovia long enough they'll stumble onto something that fits."Oof." Anthony shakes his head and scrubs his hair, looking hopefully at the others.
Kora admires the ritual and the cards themselves, the beauty of it all, the mystique. Until she realizes they need to make something of the cryptic words that were spoken. "We have to find five artifacts from that? How..." she trails off and nods to Anthony's sentiment. Their task was getting more and more difficult, how were they ever going to succeed? "Will there be a way to know what we have is the right thing?" She doubts they will even find what they need, but if they did, she would hate for them to toss it aside not even knowing it was what they were searching for.
Anthony scratched at the ever thickening sandy stubble on his jaw. "I think a sword and a symbol of great hope will be fairly obvious. But knowledge, an ally, and the last one sounds more like a place than a thing we can take with us.
"Well, at least we don't have to worry about it now, off to another domain? Before Strahd comes after Ireena again?"
Kora turns to Ismark, "Are you coming with us or staying here?"
Anthony chuckled mirthlessly. “Yup. If we’re lucky we’ll be dead long before then and it will be someone else’s problem.”
He raised his eyebrows at Ismark and Ireena. They couldn’t lug them around like furniture indefinitely, or keep protecting her like she was some priceless artifact in her own right. As much as he didn’t wish a dark fate on either of them, she was only important here because Strahd wanted her. Otherwise she was an ordinary woman, no more or less valuable than the Mary and Gertrudas of the world.
Standing, he gathered what little he had to leave. “Any last things we want to do here before head out? Anyone need healing?” To Madam Eva he asked, “Any parting wisdom or useful gear you can offer?”
Aoufie mulls over the vague riddles or clues. "I agree that we probably know won't until we stumbled upon it and spark some epiphany. Yep, I am ready to go" He stands ready to depart.
Ismark, who had been standing quietly towards the back of the room with Ireena, responds in an adamant voice to Kora, "I go where Ireena goes."
To Anthony's question, Madame Eva wearily responds, not rising to her feet, "Unfortunately, I'm fresh out of both." She looks up to meet your eyes. "I can only offer my sincerest wishes for your welfare."
With the reading over and with you armed with cryptic clues about the future, it seems the next best step is to escape Barovia.
DM- Azalin's Doom
DM- Surviving the Unsurvivable
He was still wary of the woman's overall intentions, but there was no denying that she'd helped them when she could easily have turned them over. That had to be worth some benefit of the doubt. "Thanks. Hope your helping us doesn't completely upend the peace your people have here."
Anthony looks around at the others. "Guess we head to the border, we can discuss where we're going on the way?" He didn't really have a strong opinion one way or another. The would all be horrible in their own ways he was sure.
Akyan ponders the reading as Anthony and Kora talk. A sleeping prince, who is a servant of the light and brother to darkness... Sounds awfully similar to Strahd's brother. And if that's the case, it sounds like they'll be visiting more than one grave if they do decide to hunt for these artifacts.
The elf stands and prepares to depart with his siblings. "That's a good enough plan as any I guess." He replies to Anthony.
The decision to leave was made and Kora was itching to get out of there. As they all leave the Vistani camp, Kora steals a brief look back. Things had changed so much in the time they had arrived till the time they were leaving. From dancing and joyous meetings to this? And they were leaving them all, she shared Anthony's hope, which was a strange feeling for her.
As they run towards the mist, she turns to Aoufie. "I have no idea how any of these talisman work and I know Madame Eva just said they would, right? Well, yours seems the most intuitive to just start playing? So would you mind playing that lute as we run towards the mist and see what happens?"
"I will give it a try Kora though this is a first for me as well." says Aoufie. When they approach the mist, he starts playing a song he learned about a journey to far off unknown lands. The song has deeper chords of certainty of looking forward and not wavering. A tone of a seasoned traveler who may not know where he is going but has to confidence to reach such a destination.
He also looked around at the others. They seemed to be holding up well enough, but no one was really talking. It was hard to say. "I know we were all planning a short visit. Does anyone have anyone waiting on them that we should try to get a message back. Maybe thought the Vistani."
Once they were all gathered up and begin the trek back to the nearest border, Anthony is lost in thought, pondering the riddles, doing his best to commit them to memory, though they were impossible to solve with such little information to go on. They would just have to hope it would all make sense with more context.
Akyan raises an eyebrow at Kora as she makes her suggestion to Aoufie. He would have suggested I'Cath or Borca anyway, though he leans towards I'Cath simply based on the titles of each domain. Well, it seems he doesn't need to voice his opinion.
When Anthony asks his question, the elf briefly thinks of the guild. However, he shakes his head. This isn't something they need to get involved in.
As they continue towards the mist he speaks up. "Since none of us really know how this works, perhaps we should move as a tight unit. Ireena and Ismark don't have mist talismans, and with Azalin in control of the mists, we can't know what he can do with them. That said, I suggest you two travel towards the middle of the group." He looks at Ireena and Ismark as he says the last sentence.
"That's good thinking. We could easily get separated. Might not be a bad idea to tie off even." He gives a light chuckle, "Or hold hands even."
Armed with clues about their future, the siblings set out to the south towards the frosted mountain peaks and foreboding pine forests that lie before the inscrutable walls of fog surrounding the Domain of Barovia. As they trek through the sodden groves of solemn trees and across rain-slicked meadows, they can’t help but think back on the past three days. These were probably the most action-packed three days of their lives. It’s not everyday that someone learns that an evil entity of almost unparalleled power wants to bring about the end of the world.
The dark, stormy sky overhead seems to match the oppressive mood that settles over the group as they trudge onwards towards the Mists, invariably getting soaked to the bone by chillingly cold rain. Despite only spending two days in Barovia, you will never forget your time here. Some of you would bare scars from the skirmishes you fought. Others would perhaps bare mental scars from your experiences here. Even if the siblings managed to escape mostly unscathed, one of their brothers was lost to them, perhaps forever. Jared, with his constant friendly teasing that always bordered on being annoying, had been claimed by Strahd. Hopefully, Jared would be able to resist being corrupted by the influence of the Domain until he could be rescued.
After a few hours of marching in the rain on a forested slope of a mountain, you finally come to the border of Barovia. About 30 feet ahead of you, a curtain of impenetrable fog looms in the air. Unlike normal fog that drifts about, the fogbank hangs in the air like a wall, wisps and eddies curling around the trees near it. It looks particularly ominous in the encroaching dusk.
Having decided to try to travel to I’Cath, Aoufie pulls out his ornate cittern and begins to strum its strings. As his fingers strike the first resolute chord, the wall of mist shivers as the thick notes run through it. Yes, the instrument did appear to have some influence over the Mist. Emboldened, Aoufie starts to play his traveling tune, and the Mists respond to his song by slowly parting to reveal a path.
With Aoufie’s tune filling the air, you enter into the Mists. The Mists obligingly give Aoufie a wide berth, forming a sphere of empty air about 30 feet across around Aoufie. As long as he plays his song, the Mists stay away from the group as they march on. Underfoot, the forest floor gives way to sodden grass, and then bare earth. Thankfully, Aoufie’s instrument seems to tug him along gently, guiding him towards I’Cath. As such, he’s able to lead the group to their new destination.
As you march, you occasionally see flickers movement and misty remnants in the Mists about you. Sometimes, you pass near an area where the fog seems thinner, and you can faintly see what you assume to be other domains, though the images are always distorted and the sound muffled. You also pass… things that move in the mist. Several of them are humanoid in shape, and they just watch you silently as you pass, their forms obscured by the swirling Mist about you. Other times, you pass by alien, twisted creatures of immense size that lumber about. Thankfully, they don’t seem to notice you, though Aoufie’s cistern urgently tugs him away from them
Finally, after a few hours of walking through the mists, Aoufie leads the group to one of those thin patches of fog. Through the thin curtain of mist, you can faintly make out a pond and maybe some buildings. It was hard to tell with the distortion the Mist made. The cittern continues to tug Aoufie towards the image, and deciding that this must be I’Cath, you each step through the shimmering veil one by one.
To anyone that may have been watching, they would have seen several people one by one materialize from the faint mists hanging in the chill night air. To the siblings, as they step through the fog, they find themselves in some sort of garden. One of the first things they notice is the sudden shift in temperature. Even though it’s night, it is considerably warmer than the cold, forlorn Mistlands you just traversed through. It’s also much more humid.
The garden you find yourself in is dominated by a large, glasslike pond in the center. Flowering lily pads and other aquatic foliage clog the pond, and carefully arranged, almost tropical-looking plants and stones rest around the pond. The garden is enclosed by a low stone wall, and beyond the wall, you see several large, wooden buildings with strange architecture. Cobblestone roads separate each imposing building, and you assume that you must be in some sort of neighborhood. At the corners of each building, you see strange lanterns hanging from the roofs that bathe the area in a gentle, orangish light.
DM- Azalin's Doom
DM- Surviving the Unsurvivable