Pizazz's Ravenloft and Beyond

(Meepo has a spell perfect for this, but it is not prepared. He took Arcane Eye at the level-up, but it is not something he prepares normally. We would need to have taken a long rest, which we did not have time for, so guess the familiar is our best option this time.)

"Rat go." Meepo tells his zombie flying cat, who flies drunkingly through the air as it follows after Mordekai. The familiar will stay back, and out of sight, just where it can see Mordekai.

     We don’t want to loiter outside the house, but is there a loitering suitable location closer to the house than the bar?  Though this REALlY shouldn’t come to fisticuffs...  Really.

((Does Meepo not have some Scrying uses remaining from the Amber Temple? Admittedly, I think that was from before he died...))

Mordekai raps on the heavy oak door of the mansion. It echoes within as if the place were an empty tomb. He waits. He glances back down the street. He sees Rat crouched on a house roof watching. The rest of the group is just a couple hundred feet away 'window shopping' two streets over, amidst the revelers. It would seem this festival includes a day of 'shopping' and everyone has been encouraged to purchase things.....the streets are quite full as they enter and leave shops, carrying small packages and bags and looking the most joyous the group has ever seen this town. Maybe this new Burgomaster is on to something.

Mordekai bangs on the door once more. Through the triangular cut glass in the doors window he sees movement from within. It takes a long time though, and finally their is the loud click of a bar being slid aside and the door swings open. Mordekai sees a haggard women, dressed all in black. Her hair is disheveled and tied under a black scarf. It takes him a moment for him to recognize the ex-burgomasters' widow.  The woman who had previously been very well dressed and cared for was now lacking her make-up, her fine clothes, and just wore black clothes with so much black lace that it seemed to hang like cobwebs from her. Her face was sallow, thin....and lacking color. The shrill laughter that marked her response to almost any of her husbands comments are gone. With red rimmed dull eyes she looks, unrecognizing, at the face of Dmitri, Burgomaster of Krezk. She forces out a thin, "Can I help you sir?" 

Mordekai gives her the eager look of a desperate man and holds her gaze for a moment, before looking down at the floor, in something reminiscent of submission. 

"My dear woman, I only pray that you can. Where to start... I'm not sure. An introduction first, perhaps. I'm Dmitri Krezkov, I'm the Burgomaster over in Krezk. I rarely set foot out of Krezk itself, I like to keep myself and my residents as secure as possible. But we do get wine shipments from Davian Martikov and his family, and they're not averse to a little gossip, so we do hear snippets of news from other places. My condolences on your recent losses. Truly, I understand some of your grief. In fact," Mordekai sighs at this point, a wistful, hopeless sigh of someone who has truly known loss, "in truth, it is this connection between us that had led me here. I believe you are maybe the only one who can help me in my plight... or, rather, in my late son's plight."

Mordekai casts his mind back to how the real Dmitri delivered this same appeal to strangers, hoping to at least replicate some of the desperation.  "Last week... last week, my son died. The last of my four children. He was fourteen, and was taken from us through illness a week past. Yet another thing ripped from us by this cruel world." At this point, Mordekai looks into her eyes again, partly to read her response, and partly in hope of drawing her further into his tale. "I don't know how much you know of Krezk, but we have an Abbey. Early this morning the Abbott paid me a visit and said he'd thought of a way to help being my son back to me. Steal him away from the death shroud. My precious boy. But he needed something in return. Just a wedding gown. I don't know why he needs it, or if it's even related to returning life to my sweet son. I can't see why it would be. But in my head, I remembered hearing of your loss, and... I know it's selfish of me to ask this of you in your hour of need, and for that I am truly sorry... but do you possess such a gown, and would you be willing to give it up to save the life of another son? I would be willing to compensate you, we could work something out in that regard, I'm sure, but time is of the essence. If the Abbott is to do this, I need to return this fine gown to him immediately. Would you please help another grieving parent?"

In this last moment, Mordekai will use his Fey Presence ability (DC16 WIS save or she's charmed).

Then, I assume you'll want either a deception or persuasion roll, both scores are the same. I'll roll without advantage first in case she passes the WIS save, and roll an additional d20 afterwards: 25 plus 1 Guidance. (Second roll in case of advantage: 22)

((Meanwhile Ketch sneaks up behind her and... no no no, kidding!  I kid!!  I'm a kidder...))

Wisdom save: 13

She listens to him, at first with glazed over eyes, but something stirs her soul inside her, and by the end she is ... more than intrigued....enthralled by his story. 

"This is no matter to discuss on a stoop....please come in."  She ushers him in, her eyes showing life once more...though Mordekai thinks that perhaps he sees a bit of something else there....something...unhinged. 

She welcomes him in. The house looks...shockingly...unchanged except for the lack of dead bodies. Someone has tried to clean the blood stains from the floor but not too hard....and the job looks quite unfinished. The rest of the house appears in disarray, and there are tipped over tables and shattered picture frames and ceramics on the ground. "Mind your step...no need to remove your boots.." she mutters as she leads him down the hall into a...ruined...dining room. The remnants of a tea party sit on the table...with small dishes, and food that's begun to mold on little platters. She pushes a bunch aside and wipes crumbs off a chair, offering it to Mordekai. 

Then she takes her own seat, and with an intensity stares into Mordekai's eyes, "Tell me...more about this Abbot. He can...he can bring children back from the dead?"  The question hangs there in the air. Mordekai shifts uncomfortably. 

At this Dmitri's face crumples. "Oh, My Lady, I do not know. Like many monastic-types, he is fairly elusive. Has been for a long as I can remember. I don't question it because I and all of our residents really take much the same approach as a town. But this is where my desperation lies. Tomorrow is when he tells me the window of success closes. I would not have you raise your hopes for your own family. Apologies to speak so bluntly. I only know I would not want my emotions toyed with because of someone else's vagueness, so I am trying to do you the same courtesy. Judging by the timing of me hearing from the Martikovs, my sweet, sweet boy was still bravely fighting this illness when we heard news of the events here at the hands of the...Wachter? woman. It would be too late for your departed husband and son. Please, I beg of you, one grieving parent to another, help me. Let me be on my way if you have such a gown, and I can return in due course if you wish me to, to negotiate fair compensation. And if you don't have one, please tell me. Show me that same courtesy of not raising my hopes."

Mordekai looks around, "If you wish to leave behind the memories of this place and start afresh, you would even be welcome in Krezk. But give me some time to set matters in order with my son, my only hope of an heir. But I understand if you would seek to remain here to challenge the usurper woman. I know i would want my wife to continue as Burgomaster if such events happened to me."

Her face screws up at the mention of the 'usurper woman', and she practically snarls her response, "There is nothing I care about in this wretched place. You have many fine words, so let me tell you. I will give you my gown, but you will take me to Krezk to see this Abbott. If time is of the essence, maybe there is something I can offer him, more than a simple dress, that can help him reach further back. Yes, very well, I will bring the gown, and you will deliver us both to this Abbott. I insist."

"Many thanks, my lady." Mordekai stands up. "If you're ready to leave, I'll wait outside whilst you fetch the gown. Please know my endless gratitude."

If he gets a moment outside whilst she gets the dress, Mordekai will try to catch the attention of one of the others. "She's getting the gown, but she's coming too. Make haste, get to Krezk before me, warn the real Burgomaster. I think tell the whole truth of what was needed to get him the gown, he may need to play along a little. But she wants to see the Abbott to get her own family back. Go, now, she can't see any of you!"

"Hm... I thought he will present us as bodyguards, but true, if the lady is coming to Krezk  herself, may be it's safer not to show ourselves yet. Shall we?" Lionel was ready to move on immediately, with the idea to stay ahead and clean up the road from potential danger. 

Meepo takes a moment to cast phantom steed as a ritual. He climbs atop his steed and will ride it as he and the others start back towards the other town.

((Not sure about double weight rules, but if we have two horses now, the group might just use them to speed up the journey. Though, Lionel's warhorse speed is 60 ft (Meepo's - 100) )

     “We could just disguise ourselves and set upon them on the road, stealing the dress and sending the lady back home,”Ketch points out grumpily but agrees to the plan.

Ulthan thinks outloud when no one but the group is around "hrmpfh everyone got carriages around here she got one probably hrmpfh". He thought about the horse then he thought about wanting arrows to stick into the vampire on a more permanent basis. Otherwise he stays completely silent trying and failing to follow through on the flowery speech with so many words. Reminds him of his kin who ended up with Lulu Petals, and that he did not like.

((Ulthan with Meepo and Lionel with Ketch - a warhorse can carry 540 lb, Phantom Steed most likely even more. Should work?))

((Or we could buy a carriage to attach them to and some of us could ride in comfort!))

After a while as they walk (assuming they're successfully on their way, and that Mordekai did get a moment to tell the others to hurry on ahead to brief the real burgomaster in time?), Mordekai will turn to the woman and try to discreetly fish for what she knows and believes about the events of her family's death. 

"Forgive me for bringing it up," he says gently, "but it was awful to hear the news of the events that happened in your home. My deepest condolences again, and I pray that the Abbott can indeed help you as he claims to be able to help me. I have known grief of my own, losing four children. But they passed of natural causes, if anything in this land could be described as natural. To hear of the violence that could beset a fellow Burgomaster. Nothing is sacred in these forsaken lands, it seems. It makes me all the more grateful for the selflessness you are showing to me. If you don't mind my asking... and I would understand if you find it too painful to talk about - my hope is that it could prove cathartic in some way... if you don't mind my asking, but what actually happened? All I've heard are conflicting rumours. I didn't pay them much heed as they weren't my business and I dislike rumours at the best of times, but I fear I would be doing you a disservice to simply believe common prattle. One of the most troubling tales was that the Wachter woman had managed to turn your husband's personal guard to her service, and that he'd found the opportunity to murder your husband while pointing blame at some outlanders? Is that true? Would that even be possible? The thought that something as crude as gold could betray something so precious as loyalty... well, for people of our status, the thought is abhorrent, is it not?"

(Two can ride the warhorse, but the Phantom Steed can only carry one, as specified in the spell.  (you or a creature))

Mordekai is able to check in on the group, and, making haste, they quickly get ready and head out of town, hoping to get a head start on Mordekai and the woman. The guards at the edge of town say, "But...tomorrow is new beards eve celebration!  It sounds quite good, you'll be missing a fun time!  All the men hafta shave and then they make fake beards outta the hair and the women hafta wear it.  Sounds hilarious!"  The group returns their red hats and heads out of town, sad to be missing such a fun time. Especially Lionel, who remarks he could probably make quite a nice beard for someone, given his wealth of face hair. 

Mordekai waits for the lady. It takes....several hours for her to get ready. She agrees to meet you at the Inn to depart, and eventually, four hours later, shows up in riding boots and wearing a nice dress and a jacket over it. She has a servant with her who is carrying a large backpack.  She has her own smaller handbag over her shoulder...and a long dagger on her side. 

She looks about as Mordekai makes to leave...."Uh...we are to venture out on the roads with no guards? Would you like we be eaten by wolves...or worse? We must hire some soldiers for the road or become victims in moments."  She sighs heavily. "I'd thought you would have had some with you already...very well, I will hire some, and return in a couple of hours." 

She makes to depart with her servant to find some guards.  (She will respond to your inquiry after you make your way out of town....)

Mordekai is quite happy for the first short delay. At least it will give the others more time to let the real burgomaster know what's going on. He figures if the real burgomaster gets his son back, he's not going to care about being impersonated.  And presumably he's able to take a short rest at the Inn whilst waiting? Still in disguise, so just at a table in the main room, with a drink and probably some food. 

When she makes the point about the guards, he explains, "Forgive me, I made the journey with the Martikovs' wine cart. In my desperation and grief, I didn't really think about the perils of the return journey. Thank you..." He pauses, and has to resist the urge to smirk to himself as he continues, "In fact, if you're going to find an escort for us, perhaps you could seek out one with a carriage? We've delayed already and I'm very keen to make good time back to the Abbott. I'm sure you can understand my wish to make haste."

He spends the time waiting as she's gone the second time, reflecting on the nature of this haughty woman who was very quick to declare that there was nothing left for her here, but who took 4 hours to pack a bag and also managed to bring a servant. He couldn't resist the request of a carriage, which he assumes riled her, but he'd been nothing but humble and gracious to her so far, and found her arrogant and self-obsessed, and enjoyed the opportunity to innocently annoy her. Besides, a carriage genuinely would help matters.