Pizazz's Ravenloft and Beyond

It stands there, "This is my home. Please leave me be. All I have left is my solitude....pleease..."

The group leaves the ruins, unable to reason with the spirit, and setup camp just on the road in front.  It's a bit exposed, but the ground here is drier.  The ghost doesn't seem to bother you.  The occasional bleating by the nearby goats is the only sound as you settle down for much needed rest.  Meepo pulls out a sleeping mat, laying it on the weedy ground and laying down his head almost immediately. Ismark, still clutching has side, digs through his bag and pulls out a poncho. He sits his back to the tree, with the poncho hood pulled up, and closes his eyes. Mordekai looks around for a good spot to rest, tossing a folded shirt on the ground for a pillow, and lays on the firm ground. Olin digs out a sleeping mat from his bag, laying it down on the ground.  Lionel pulls out his bedroll, finding a dry place near a tree to rest. 

The fog is cold and seeps into your bones, and now that you're settling in the cold and damp is making for an uncomfortable rest. Ismark mutters, "I'll take first watch...."

That seems fine with folks, though getting to bed, no matter that you're exhausted, seems to be a challenge for everyone except Meepo who appears to be fast asleep within moments. 

With the dark and fog your world closes in.  The limbs of the trees are like dark shadowy claws, almost formless in the mists. Soon the bleating of the goats is gone as they also settle down, until it's strangely silent. The others turning, trying to get comfortable, their sighs as they try and sleep, are the only sounds.  Your injuries, aches, and resistance to pulling off your armor makes the rest miserable. 

Does anyone do anything to try and improve the situation? 

Campfire still would be a must - warmth is important and anyway, not everyone has the benefit of darkvision, no reason to stay blind. If the ground is drier here, Lionel will try to find some suitable relatively dry piece of wood to start the fire (all that you need, really, later fire can dry the rest of the wood). He would volunteer for the second watch.

Meepo would tell Rat to help keep watch just before going to sleep.  This would not be abnormal sleeping for him, as he was an urchin, sleeping in places nearly this bad most of his young life.

(Gonna try and be a little creative with spells and abilities in ways they aren't intended to work. If you're OK with this sort of thing awesome, if not just let me know and I'll not try again!)

Hoping nothing nasty comes to visit them, Olin will cast his last 3rd level spell, plant growth, making the trees under where they're sleeping grow much thicker foliage. Then, will use Channel Divinity: Charm Animals and Plants, to try and coax the branches to layer over them in such a way that would protect them from the rain.

Whether that works or not, Olin will put his experience of spending most of his nights on the road to creating a shelter for himself and as many others in the group as he can.

With a crackling fire, and the added shelter from the sudden burst of growth that Olin coaxes into place, the group slowly fades off into a fitful sleep. 

Meepo dreams of an abandoned shop full of knicknacks. There are so many items of interest that his disc is soon overflowing. No matter how he tries to pick things up, the lost things seem to continue to tumble free and drop everywhere.  Soon he notices his own personal items are mixed within the lost things and he tries to place them in his pack where they belong, only to find his bag full of other lost stuff, too full to fit anything else in.  The seams on the bag begin to rip and then the bottom gives way.  As he attempts to pickup the piles his belongings now all over the floor he hears laughter.  He glances up to the balcony in the store above him where Strahd stands.  Strahd is smiling at him, laughing.  "These have also been lost...do not leave them behind...."   Off the edge of the balcony he kicks some goods.  You see Olin's spear, spattered in blood...Lionel's belt with it's belt pouches, and then other goods, each belonging to your allies begin to tumble down from above.....along with more mocking laughter....the goods around you starting to press in on your sides as it threatens to bury you. 

Your eyes crack open. The fog hangs above, glowing orange from the fire.  You mutter unhappily to yourself about bad dreams and close your eyes to get back to sleep. 

Olin. It's later that night and its your watch. As you wait, you begin to notice the leaves of the plants around you begin to brown and curl in on themselves. Death seems to eat at the life. Worms and bugs crawl free from the ground beneath you, making the whole place squirm with movement.  You try to wake the others immediately, but one by one they each sink into the loam, to be burying by squirming masses.   He tries to draw upon his magic to help...but...the power of the earth can't be found....it's blocked away...and he finds his own legs sinking into the loam, he's unable to escape. As the first bugs begin to crawl into his mouth as he's submerged, he awakes.  He quickly swipes a spider from his body and looks around at the ground.  It dances and moves in the firelight, but moments later he realizes it's just his imagination.  Ismark looks over at him.  He turns his back to get back to sleep. 

Mordekai. Its your turn on watch. Ismark rests over to one side. The fire is getting low, the cracks more occasional, the light coming from it a ruddy glow. The fog seems to thicken over several minutes, until the mist even drifts between you and the nearby fire.  Your thoughts drift back to the battle with the witch, then to the various events of the past days, the tree of blood that you fought. This place is cursed, and it isn't subtle about it. If this whole place belongs to Strahd, then clearly he knows all and sees all. You feel like you hear something in your mind...something that whispers, "Yes....everything."  He tries to shrug it off. A voice right next to his ear says, "Everything."   He spins his head, glancing around, but there's nothing but the fog and the dim fire.  

?

Mordekai isn't content to just assume it's in his head. "Ismark!" he whispers, not wanting to rouse the rest of the group yet, "Did you hear that? I heard a voice. Probably just in my head, if I've worked out anything of this land's tricks already. Help me check the area, would you? I just want to make sure."

Mordekai gets up, and casts Guidance on himself. He'll spend the next five minutes searching around the camp for any sign of an intruder, or anything living or undead that's moving nearby.

Perception: Unable to parse dice roll. + 2 Guidance. 

Ismark rubs his eyes, and pushes himself up, still favoring his left side.  "What? Sure..sure..."  Mordekai looks around.  Just six paces from the camp he spots a wet footprint in the muck.  The print is still slowly seeping full with water....less than more than a few seconds old.  Ismark approaches from behind him.  "I didn't see anything...." He looks down at the print, examining it, before glancing around in the fog.  He quickly taps Mordekai's shoulder and gets him back to the circle of the group.  

They take a dozen paces back towards the group and find the undead flying cat's form, laying in a heap in the middle of camp...torn in two.  Meepo's familiar.  Meepo appears to still be sleeping.  

Ismark scowls and mutters, "I wasn't sleeping well anyway....I'll stay up with you for a bit..."  He adds wood to the fire and the two of you stay awake in relative silence, eyes alert. 

The evening passes, dark, oppressive, and the group is awake, groggy, sore, and barely better for the rest. Meepo awakens to find the news of his dead familiar.  The body vanishes as he vanishes the mystical creatures body. 

Long rest achieved.  Its 6am.  Foggy, though it's starting to lighten somewhat.

As the group gets ready Meepo takes an hour to resummon his familiar.

Lionel, who slept ... "like a stone" probably would be the most correct expression - he did not see any dreams and was way too tired to feel anything - listened the news about night visitor with expected reaction: "Why did not you wake us all up? We could catch ... whoever it was." But after initial surprise and reassurance in a form of Meepo calmly re-summoning his friend,  the paladin had to admit companion's wisdom - nothing truly bad happened and they all needed some rest. Lionel even volunteered to cook something eatable from standard rations (should the company trust his abilities) and busied himself with just that, whistling some popular melody and slowly getting in better mood - what's not to celebrate? The witch is dead, the place is a bit cleaner for that, and Strahd's turn will definitely come, he was sure of it!

(OOC: I mis-read 'Ismark resting' as taking watch with Mordekai, or at least, not being properly asleep - hence waking him rather than anyone else, if that seemed weird!)

"Meepo, I'm sorry.  I didn't see anything at all.  I heard a whisper in my ear, turned around and there was no-one there.  We found the footprint, but no-one to be seen."

As they all wake and prepare for the day, Mordekai spends ten minutes to recount the events of the battle against the witch and the house, embellishing certain parts to paint each of them in a heroic light, and making their adventures sound increasingly more inspirational.  Everyone (including Ismark) gets 11 Temporary Hit Points.

Disturbed by his dreams, Olin spends the morning in prayer, focusing on maintaining his connection with Silvanus. Prayer, breakfast and Mordekai's encouragement help him feel a little brighter, but it hard to shake the feeling from his dream. "Meepo, what happened to rat last night?" he asks his friend.

As they finish their morning routine and start packing up camp, "So back to the winery to return the gem, I assume? Where do we go after that?"

The group makes there way from the flooded empty shell of a town and head back down the road. You leave the village ruins behind. About thirty minutes later, the area is still thick with fog. As you walk, you being to hear sounds of battle, but the fog has grown so thick that you can barely see more than sixty feet in any direc­tion. Suddenly, the fog takes on the forms of soldiers on horseback charging across the field. They collide with armored pike-bearers wearing devil-horned helms. As each soldier falls in battle, it turns to fading mist. Hun­dreds more soldiers collide in a storm of screams and clashing metal.  You hear a thunderous roar, and seconds later a huge dragon made of silver mist glides overhead, dispersing enemy soldiers with each flap of its mighty wings. Its long, reptilian tail slices through the air above you as the dragon carves a swath through the fog, affording you a fleeting glimpse of a dark mansion overlooking the valley.  The dragon, men, horses, and all seem to be made out of fog. A fog arrows whistles into Olin, evaporates on him.  A fog man runs right through Mordekai.  Everything seems to be harmless phantoms, but the break in the fog was real enough, and the fleeting view of the dark mansion overlooking the valley, up the hills to the west, was very real. 

You cautiously proceed, but the ghostly battle is harmless and soon it fades away and you continue on your way, finally emerging from fog into an overcast but dry day. You reach the crossroads and take a left towards the west. As you walk along, you once again pass a path on your left that leads south. Its a good bet it leads to the mansion you saw in the hills.  You save your curiousity and return to the winery. 

As you eventually walk down the lane to the winery, you receive an almost here's welcome from the murder of crows that fill every tree and grape vine. Davian and his son Elvir come out to greet you.  "Our brave saviors!  It is good to see you!  I am impressed that you have returned and look mostly unharmed..."  he looks closely as their mud covered boots and clothes, the mess in their clothes and hair from the swamp battle, the bruises and cuts.  He perhaps is trying to be nice. 

Meepo just shrugs at the apology from Mordekai.  "Rat fine, just need bring back."  He assures him.

"No know."  Meepo tells Olin when asked about what happened to Rat.  "Meepo sleep."

Once Rat is resummoned, Meepo would move with the others down the road.  He would jump and dodge as the fog arrows and warriors move around and through them, always trying to not be in the path of any that got close to him.

Back at the winery he would not his head at the man's words.  "Meepo no sure come back either."  He says, knowing they had barely managed to defeat the witch.  "Meepo no like witch."

Olin approaches Davian. "The witch is dead, her body and her home have been burned to ash. She was in possession of this." Olin pulls the green gem from his pack and presents it to the man. "I believe that makes your set complete once again?"

"Should you let us to stay in your welcoming house - we might look even better," Lionel smiled. "If I am not mistaken, even you do not know where the third stone is? Do hope, though, your wine is safe from now on." "Where there some news from Valaki? Something is very wrong with that town, if you ask me. Can not put my finger at exact problem, but people sound bitter there."

Davian nods, "There is indeed something wrong with the town. It's the same thing wrong with this entire land. People live in fear, people go missing, children go missing, strange things happen to folk, and nobody knows who to trust. Those who speak up about Strahd tend to vanish. Neighbors eye each other with suspicion. And the mayor turns a blind eye, having festivals every few days, hoping that these festivals will cheer up the people and make everything better. Meanwhile, if anyone says anything bad about him, they get arrested.  As for the gems, I can not thank you enough. Indeed, the land of Barovia can't thank you enough. The wine we make here is what keeps a glimmer of hope alive, without it, I fear our souls would crumble in the darkness. And I don't overstate it just because I make the wine!"  He smiles.  "Though one gem is missing, I know not where it is....but.....I do know that the wine will continue to flow thanks to you...." 

They invite you and give you a place to rest for a few hours. His daughter and their kids take your boots, and clothes and armor and do a full wash of everything. A bath is prepared to remove the stink of battle, swamp, and sweat. By 3pm that day you're well fed, clean, and practically sparkling.  You've had close to six hours of additional downtime here to do as you please.

Ismark looks immensely better, much of his bruising just greenish brown stains on his skin.  His cuts scabbing up well.  He looks around, "Well folks, where to now? Or are we going to stay here until morning?" 

(OOC: Can you confirm, did Meepo or Mordekai end up with the luck stone?) 

(I believe Mordekai did.)

Meepo would be asking around for the location of close-by cemeteries.  he would leave his reason for asking out of it though.  If any are within easy walking distance of the winery, but are not full of winery ancestors, Meepo would go to check it out.  Pretty much looking for a place he can use animate dead

Olin takes great pleasure in being clean, warm, and well fed. As he sips his tea he goes from person to person, mending any damage to their clothes or belongings. As he does this small work he says "I suppose the last thing on our list is to find this holy symbol. Though the only clue is to 'Find the mother--she who gave birth to evil.'" Olin rubs his temples. "I can only assume that 'evil' refers to the master of this realm. But the mother... does that mean the woman who gave him birth, or did a different woman make him who he is?" Sipping his tea and frowning, "Say, Davian, do you have any insight into what this card reading might mean, or at least be able to guide us to someone we can trust that might?"

Davian shrugs, "I mean, it's hard to imagine such a nightmare having a mother, but...geez, you think she's alive? I assume she'd be at his castle with him...Castle Ravenloft?  The closest graveyard? I mean, that one up by the big tree you killed.  That's a giant graveyard.  Otherwise...probably back to Vallaki.."

(OOC: I wasn't sure we'd finalised a decision on that.  Thanks Meepo.)

Mordekai will spent some time to attune to the stone. Other than that, he'll spend the time playing wiith minor illusions, creating illusions of commonplace items in very out-of-place locations, and watching people around him to see if they notice anything amiss, or double-take at his creations.