In the land of mists, mysteries rule. None knew that better than Darya's father, a man of magic who spent years and years pouring over the magic scroll of the missing man Mordenkainen. The old mystery to Darya is how she and her father came to be here in Barovia.

A new mystery is born as Darya and her father are suddenly attacked by vampire spawn of that Devil known as Strahd von Zarovich. Her father dead and Darya somehow twisted as not quite vampire and not quite human, she must learn more about this affliction which causes her to crave blood, yet allows her to walk in the day. And what of her father's mysterious magic scroll?

▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄

Dramatis Personae 

Darya Trakev (Dhampir Wizard) portrayed by DarthDrizzt

(AVAILABLE)Parriwimple (Human Stockboy) image     
     HP 60 (-13), AC 14 (Studded Leather)
     STR 18 (+4), DEX 15 (+2), CON 16 (+3), INT 6 (-2), WIS 12 (+1), CHA 15 (+2)
     Skills: Athletics, Intimidation
     Spear, range 20/60 ft., + 7 to hit, 2d6 + 4 piercing damage or 2d8 + 4 if two-handed.
     Special Notes: Parry (reaction, add 3 to AC against an attack that would hit, only applies to that single attack), Brute (deals an extra weapon die of damage, which is already included), Brave (Advantage on saves vs frightened)

Ireena (Human Scamp) image
     HP 16, AC 13 (Leather)
     STR 11 (+0), DEX 14 (+2), CON 12 (+1), INT 11 (+0), WIS 13 (+1), CHA 11(+0)
     Skills: Medicine + 4, Nature + 4, Perception + 5, Stealth + 6, Survival + 5
     Shortsword, + 4 to hit, 1d6+2 piercing damage
     Longbow, range 150/600 ft., + 4 to hit, 1d8+2 piercing damage.
     Special Notes: Keen Senses (adv on Perception for sight and sound), has the Healer Feat, Healer's Kit [10]

Ismark (Human Slacker) image
     HP 24, AC 15 (Breastplate)
     STR 14 (+2), DEX 12 (+1), CON 12 (+1), INT 14 (+2), WIS 11 (+0), CHA 8 (-1)
     Skills: Athletics + 4, History + 4
     Longsword, + 4 to hit, 1d6 or 1d8 + 2 slashing damage
     Special Notes: DM has a secret about Ismark...

Maps 

Barovia

Village of Barovia

E1. Bildrath's Mercantile (Notes: Bildrath is an *******, but his nephew is kind... if not a bit stupid.)
E2. Blood of the Vine Tavern (Notes: This is the only place to eat out in the entire town. Run by 3 Vistani sisters.)
E3. Your House
E4. Burgomaster's Mansion (Notes: The burgomaster, which is like a mayor, lives here.)
E5. The Church
E6. Cemetery
E7. The Moaning House (Notes: You have been frightened of this house since you were little. You've seen ghostly visages of two children playing, but all the village adults chided you that no one lives there anymore. You believe it must be haunted.)

/--Morning, Second of the 6th Moon, 735 BC, Village of Barovia--/

You awaken in your room in a cold sweat. A nightmare again has plagued you in your restless sleep. You dream of that night when you and your father were departing to head to Vallaki. You weren't sure why, but your father was secretive about it. You left in the dead of night, and your father was convinced he could handle any trouble on the roads. Wolves, highway men, or the damn blights that prowled the roads at night. Your father didn't account for vampire spawn.

Strahd had been asleep for ten years, maybe longer. The people of the village rumored that the Devil, as they call him, sometimes seems to be busy and cooped up in Castle Ravenloft which overlooks the village from a cliff overhead. Your father, however, taught you better. He explained matter-of-factly that Strahd von Zarovich hibernated much like you expect a bear to do from time to time. He never explained how he came by that knowledge, but your father being the intelligent man that he was had never steered you wrong before. You understood that you came of age during a relative time of peace.

When you were a child, monsters roamed freely and killed as they pleased just as equally. Disappearances were commonplace. Whenever you saw the face of adults, they were simply drained of life. They lived, but they did not seem alive. However, something happened 10 years ago. Adventurers came, as you sometimes knew them to do, and the Devil had his playthings. Satisfied with the game he played, a deadly game that never quite seemed to have any survivors, he went into slumber. That is what your father taught you. It came at a dear cost, your father said, but he never explained what he meant. 

Whatever it was, it appeared that Strahd was once again active. Burgomaster Kolyan Indirovich has instituted a curfew after your father died and you returned some days later. Of course, by that point, you had transformed and sated your thirst on the beasts in the wild, and having no where else to go, you returned to your home to gather your thoughts and plan. The goal you have set for yourself in the more immediate future was to learn: what are you now? How can you go back to being normal? Why were vampire spawn out? By your father's account, vampire lords should sleep for decades... not just one.

There are a few leads for you to take, which I will list here:

✪ You heard rumor that Ireena Kolyana is no longer allowed outside the mansion. This apparently began the very next night of your attack... suspicious in that you had not yet returned to warn people about anything. There has been relative peace in the village. So what reason does the burgomaster have to hold his adult daughter in house arrest?

✪ The priest of the church, Donavich, is a holy man and follower of the Morninglord, a masculine god whose domains include light and life, and who is represented by the sun. There is a chance he may know something about your affliction. However, since your return, you learned that he has completely closed the church off. He has claimed he is ill and unable to give sermons at this time. However, you know that this is about the time of year when his late son, Doru, was born. Doru died a year ago after a small band of peasants decided to storm Ravenloft and kill Strahd as he dreamed. Apparently, it didn't go well.

✪ Not exactly a lead about your current situation, but you have recently spotted a cloaked man outside your window one late night when you were struggling to rest. He faced the house opposite of you and seemed to be looking at a young, red haired woman in the building next to you. However, the thing is... that young woman should be dead. You remember her from your childhood, Gertruda. She died some ten years ago at the tender age of 8. The only woman in that house now should be her poor mother, Mary.

Darya, how do you wake up, how do you get ready, and what do you plan to do?

Darya wakes with little fanfare at first, starting what had once be3n her normal routine of going to check on her father to make sure he had not fallen asleep in his makeshift study. Pausing mid step she shakes her head and takes a deep breath to calm herself. Turning back to her room she changes from her night wear and pulls on a a simple dress and a pair of well worn boots, only stopping long enough to manage her long and somewhat unruly hair in am attempt to hide bite mark on her neck.

Once dressed Darya takes a few steps towards the aged desk where she keeps her most valued items. Inside of a drawer and underneath a false bottom are a spellbook, an opaque orb that glows when she touches it and last a plain but well made dagger. With practiced ease she opens the book and begins the process of memorizing spells, her eyes scanning the arcane sigil. Her magic now prepared for the day, the newly made dhamphir stashes these items in a small bag she slings over her shoulder, the orb being placed in a hidden pocket for quick assess.

Wanting to learn more about what has been done to her, Darya quickly makes her way towards the chapel in hopes of Father Donavich being able to help her. While not religious she knew that her father held respect for the priest and with little else to go on that would suffice for now.

The church shows signs of having been attacked in recent days. It's position on the edge of town has left it largely undefended, and fresh scratch marks leave a stain on what used to be an immaculate building. You try the doors and they open without any problems. The whole church seems quiet, but you know Father Donavich lives in this very church.

You step into the small entryway. It leads to a long hall. There are two doors on the right and one door to the left. From your memory, you know one door is Doru's room (his late son) and one door leads to the father's room. The third door you aren't sure of. Further down the hallway it opens up into the pulpit of the church.

Darya reaches for her arcane focus as she sees the clear signs of attack on the church, grasping it firmly in her hand as she steps further inside. Not wanting to pry or upset the priest, she moves post the doors and further to the pulpit, finding her new ability to see in the dark overwhelming at first.

"Father Donavich are you able to speak. I know you have said you are feeling ill but I have something of great importance to speak with you about." Darya calls out as she continues forward, ready to cast a spell if anything seems hostile.

The fresh dhampir creeps towards the pulpit. Each step creaking with each step. At first, Darya doesn't quite see anyone in the pulpit.

Then.

A sudden scream draws her attention to the front pews. She sees the leg of someone laying on the ground. It doesn't move. For a time, it is quiet and the air is deathly still. 

Darya pauses and pulls the small orb free at the same time she begins to crouch low. Seeing the leg she will do her best to move quietly in order to hopefully not be attacked if that is what happened.

(Going to roll for Stealth as she is trying to sneak ahead.)

Stealth: 11

The dhampir creeps along the pews, each step preciously placed, avoiding spots where she could hear creaks or see the wear of time betray the wood that might squeal. As she approaches, it became more and more clear to her -- this is Father Donavich. Surely, he isn't -- another scream comes. This time it sounds much closer and Darya can't help put put her next footfall down more suddenly and forcefully than she would have liked to do. The creaking of the wood beneath her boots moans loudly... and the body on the ground seems to stir.

The body sits up and looks right up at Darya, who managed to come within view of Father Donavich. He looks dazed and bewildered to see her. He squints at her and says, "Little Darya, is that you..?" His expression clearly portrays the confusion at seeing you standing there before him.

Darya winces when she hears the sound of her boot hitting the floor harder then she would have liked, pausing to quickly make sure nothing was going to attack her. Stepping closer to the priest she leans down to be face to face with him.

"Yes Father Donavich it is little Darya. I came looking for you. I have questions and must arrange for the burial of my father. He has recently passed from this world...." As she spoke she moved her hand to pull her hair over the marks on her neck.

"I had thought... that you both died." The father scoots back on the ground and rushes to stand. Darya, you can smell alcohol on him at this range. He looks like he could even be sweating it through his skin. (Insight: 10) You noticed he recoiled from you. Why? He seems... afraid. "Yes, yes, of course... we will arrange for your father's... burial." At this point, you realize... he seems to have looked ever so quickly at your neck. Almost as if he is looking for bite marks. It occurs to you. He knows.

(I will roll for you from time to time to make sure things keep moving along, let me know if actually you don't like that. I rolled insight for you here for example.)

"No alas my father was slain by the things that attacked us. I was merely beaten and left for dead or perhaps they assumed me to no longer breath. The man that attacked me bit my neck and left me with the marks you saw. Do you know what that did to me?" Darya asked as she moved to show her neck where several marks that were slowly healing showed. Some looked as if they were from someone grabbing her neck in a tight grip while the ones he had noticed were what looked like something had bit and tore some at her neck.

(I am fine with you doing that from time to time.)

"You were bitten... how did you come here, child?" Father Donavich looks concerned and still confused. A piece of the puzzle is missing here. "If you are here... you should have turned. But how could you.."

A shout escapes from beneath the floorboards. A desperate cry. Father Donavich looks at you, Darya, with begging eyes. "I think we have much to discuss... could you trust me for a moment and listen to my story?"

"I do not know what was done to me but it caused a strange hunger. It went away after I lost track of myself for a time." Darya explains as she winces from the sudden screaming that has been filling the chapel. She watches the priest with a curious look as she nods and motions for him to tell her his story.

(This post is just the father speaking. Decided not to format it since he's speaking for a long time to you.)

Young Darya, you were quite lucky to grow up when you did. While things were dangerous, they got better. The Devil was sated by the blood of strangers and he slept as he was rumored to do. I've only known two ages of peace. I was born in the previous era and it lasted quite a while. When this second peace came on quickly, sooner than we expected, I was so happy for all the children... Including my own. 

I am sure you remember Doru. He was so kind, generous, and always did the right thing. One day, some of the villagers grew nervous, as they often did, about the Devil and when he would awaken. I tried to stop Doru, but it was too late. He has already made up his mind. He would go with the villagers as a healer. Doru was kindhearted and so, so brave. He went with the villagers last year... And we never heard from any of them again.

Castle Ravenloft has defenses even when the Devil sleeps. I hoped they would return even if they had to run for their lives. With that, I thought Doru dead. 

You may wonder what this has to do with your affliction... It is directly related, I fear. Doru died... And has become a vampire. He became a spawn of the Devil. And you... You must be a spawn as well... Yet you walk in the day... Something happened when they bit you, Darya. You did not become spawn... You are something else. 

Throughout the story Darya stays quiet and listens intently to Donavich, finding that it made sense. As the truth of what happened to Doru hits her she feels panic welling up as she moves go grab at the wounds on her neck. As he finishes though she pauses and nods, moving to sit down on one of the benches in the chapel. "It has only been days since this happened to me. I looked through my father's books for an explanation with little success...."

A shout breaks out between you, but this time, its saying something. Not just screaming, but... begging. The pleading voice begs, "Please feed me!" It occurs to you... Doru must be here locked away beneath the church's floors. Father Donavich gestures a holy symbol and prays for Doru's soul. 

"Darya, I must tell you something more... please have mercy," Father Donavich looks ashamed. "My son Doru... he's the one who told me you died. You and your father... I believe he was with those vampire spawn that attacked you."

A feeling of rage fills her as Darya hears this, her heart pounding as the hunger from before rises with her rage. Before she loses herself and attacks the priest she instead digs her hand into her arm until blood is nearly drawn. "I did not see Doru there but it is possible. If he was one of I will not forgive him there is little I can do to stop him. You know as well as I do that if a wizard as powerful as my father could not defend himself then there is little I can do...." She says before looking Father Donavich square in the face.

"For the sake of yourself and the village I think it would be best to send Doru to your god...."

"Yes... but that is a problem. I can't kill him. He's my son. I will keep him locked up until a solution... presents itself."

"I think that is a foolish idea but I can do nothing to stop you. But remember Father Donavich if Doru ever escapes then the lives of those he takes in his endless hunger will be on your hands." Darya says giving the man a harsh glare before shaking her head as it slowly turns to a look of pity. Not being a parent herself she has no idea how the priest must feel, part of her wondering if her father would be the same if he were in a similar situation.