Ah yes, the Balinok mountains. Craggy, unsettled, warm, damp…nothing like my homeland. Winterhaven, how I miss ye’ sometimes.

Anyhow we’ve managed to travel through the guts of some such foul abomination of underground masonry which was actually alive and tried to eat us. Faced some sort of death giant and a creature that was more loud and annoying than my uncle Flintlocke, glad that’s all over. I managed a new hammer from the whole ordeal, the craftsmanship is immaculate and it hits like a bloody frost giant to boot! We finally found and reached the monastery that Isis had been telling us about and cured the little bligther of his werewolf disease which means he can bugger off now so we can get back to not babysittin’. Also means that useless cleric and his wife can scoot too, sick of hearing all their religious crazy talk.

Speakin’ of that hammer, I only found out just exactly how hard it hits because curing the kid of his disease meant a fight with some demons. The monastery is our newfound base of operations, finally nice to get some down time. Hopefully we can manage to get it well stocked with ale shortly, I’m sure Igor would accompany me in that endeavor. Not sure how I feel about staying in a place with such an evil history, but then again this whole damn world is, so if the situation arises I suppose i’ll be bashin’ more demon skulls. All in a day’s work.

Anyway, I think I’d like to head up whatever reconstruction work goes on here. The place could really use a dwarve’s touch as far as architecture and craftswomanship goes. I suppose I may help Amalia attempt to get some sort of garding growing in the meantime too, but I can’t settle for plants long. Strong dwarven ale and steak are at the top of my list of priorities, right next to ’ kill some damn vampires ’.

Until next time,

~Gimlina Winterhaven

I was standing over the last vampire with my foot on his chest ready to kill him when Tabarast and Amalia came over to try to talk to him. After attempting to talk to him they realized they weren’t going to get any information from him. I told them to stand back as I staked the vampire and killed him. He immediately turned to dust and blew away in the wind. All that was left were his clothes.

Tabarast inspected the cloak and realized it was bleeding through a hole from the staking. After using his wizardry he realized that the cloak was haunted and keeps the wounds from its wearer. Amalia decided to take it.

Meanwhile Igor and Diggles were checking out a nearby cave. Igor found a small satchel with a few healing potions and some crude skinning tools. Sadly, there was no ale inside.

We headed back to Chandra and she introduced us to Isis and told us we had one hour to get things ready to leave for Markovia. We went to the inn and grabbed all the ale we could carry and a little food too. We also hired another local villager named Fenthick to help us on our journey. He wasn’t very intelligent so Igor, Tabarast, and Isis easily convinced him into wearing the bleeding cloak.

We went back to Chandra and got Leisus and the little boy and headed for Markovia. After walking for a few minutes Amalia and Tabarast got tired and had to rest being the wimpy elves that they are. They went inside the wagon and rested for a while and I guess they had some bad dreams because Amalia was acting really weird when she woke up. She decided to walk in the swampy muddy grossness instead of sitting next to Isis on the wagon.

We all started to get hungry so Tabarast held some fire while Igor used his magic hand to float some meat through it. Tabarast got sick and told us it was the raw meat by his face. (I swear that elf gets weaker by the day.) So then Igor and Tabarastmessed around with their magic for a bit. I wasn’t really paying attention to them because I was focused on the beastmen that we were coming up on.

Isis used her magic to turn into a dark cloud so she could check out the beasty guys. Tabarastfinally stopped playing with Igorand came up with a plan to ambush the beasts. I tried to convince Chandra to help us fight the beasts but she refused. Amalia, Igor, and I all hid behind the huts and Tabarast rode up on his horse and pretended to fall. Then for some reason that drunk Fenthick ran up and yelled at the beast men challenging them. (Some people just can’t handle their liquor.)

Tabarast made a huge smelly cloud that basically killed everything except for the one beastman that I saved to interrogate. Sadly, Tabarast’s horse died in the cloud as well. He will be greatly missed. We also lost Fenthick but we did retrieve our money and our bloody cape. Next time we should choose our hireling more carefully. I’m sure if Chandra wouldn’t have been so stubborn we wouldn’t have lost our beloved horse. I don’t think anyone could have save Fenthick though, some people are just beyond help.

After the battle we attempted to talk to the beastman and realized it is going to be very difficult to communicate with him. We argued back and forth about what we should do with the seemingly useless beast and finally decided to keep him for now. I’m sure we’ll find some use for him. Oh well, I suppose its about time to pack up and get moving again.

Turns out, Igor had scrawled a map of the entire Vistani camp while he was away. His reconnaissance mission turned out to be a success after all, he’d procured a map and some shiny objects to further line his pockets.

After departing the graveyard, the troubadours headed back to speak with Chandra and Liesus, Chandra warned everyone that the werewolves were nearby and on the prowl – time was of the essence and Sir John’s son was only getting worse! Of course this meant the party quickly ran to the blood of the vine and attempted to procure a guide to lead them into the Svalich Woods in search of the host werewolf’s den. Mallein was his name, and torch holdin’ was his game.

Quickly heading back into the darkness at the heart of Barovia, the party found themselves in a canopied clearing of trees, moonlight pierced through the top like shafts made of pure ivory that dug deep into the grassy floor. Mallein was sent off to inspect the lights and told there was surely treasure to be found. While he did find something of value (a small common ring), he also found himself held tightly in the gaze of one of Strahd’s lackeys…he then found himself smattering the vampire’s fine clothing with blood as his juggular was slashed.

An ambush was sprung from behind the party as a small halfling ran out into the moonlight, muscles rippling and fur sprouting from every pore – he quadrupled in size and took the shape of a werebear! Meanwhile another man turned werewolf made it’s rounds attempting to find the weakest prey amongst the adventurers, while all the others focused on the beasts – Tabarast immediately began to engage the vampire in a battle of will and domination.

Igor, who was watching from high atop the trees swung down on his trusty whiphook and hogtied the bear with the length of it’s chain – riding the werebear in a blur of wild thrashing of fur and flames as he smashed alchemists flasks onto it’s head, repeatedly. Unfortunately, that night Igor was the only one to not become bitten by a werewolf. Gimlina did make time to pick up some teeth she’d knocked out of a werewolf’s mouth and taunt it with it’s own discarded bones which she’s now fashioned into spikes on her gauntlets and craghammer.

Using the power of the nature that surrounded her, Amalia turned the tide of the battle by insuring her comrades swift healing and primal protection. Tabarast whirled the vampire high into the air with arcane winds which fed from the druids natural grace, and though the vampire tried to escape – he did not fare well for that night would be his last.

The party stood over him as they cleaned their wounds, rid themselves of flames and assessed the situation. Gimlina had plans to make this abomination talk – those plans started with a steel greave pressed hard into it’s chest.

With the aid of the Vistani, the heroes of Igor’s Traveling Troubadours (is ITT for short) set out through the choking fog and toward the Vistani camp and circus. During their journey through the lands that hung thick with strahd’s breath, faint shapes and swhorls of the dark smokeilike mist formed into visages of dead travellers and tormented adventurers, reaching out toward them and waving their arms in warning.

Tabarast remarked that travelling through the fog was similar to the description given by those who have travelled through the veil and into the the shadowfell. Igor quickly remarked about him being some sort of unholy necromancer again and the party fell quiet, until arriving at the camp.

The vistani woman who was driving the Vardo gestured toward the camp and told them to partake in all they had to offer. They found many delicacies to enjoy such as finely roasted and spiced meats, Vistani tea and breads. The bizzare itself had a lot to offer. While the heroes browsed around and took in all there was to offer, Igor had other plans. Sneaky plans. He skirted around the outside of the camp and went on a reconissance stint to map out the entire vistani camp, should the party decide to make use of such knowledge at a later date. Igor wasn’t wasting any time however, as he managed to lift quite a small hoard during the day hours when the vistani camp was mostly unoccupied.

The rest of the party had their fill of all their was to see and decided to head back to Barovia with or without Igor. He’d turn up sooner or later, as he always does. Purchasing another dosage of the potion to make the choking fog survivable, they returned swiftly to Barovia. They spoke with Leisus just before he was about to turn in to sleep for the night, still greatly shaken, he told the players that he should be well rested and mentally prepared by friday and hopes to cure the boy of his lycanthropy…but there was only one problem. Leisus had lost his holy symbol somewhere in the graveyard the night he had to flee and refuses to go look for it, actually refusing to possibly never re-enter the graveyard entirely.

ITT told Leisus they’d look for it immediately and brave the church ruins and graveyard themselves, for it was time to take charge and show this town what real heroes are like. While exploring the dusty old church of Pelor they did not uncover much, though it was a very unsettling place to be inside. Desecrated symbols and a statue of pelor himself half demolished and blanketed in dust. Rahvi raided what was left of the church’s coffers before they proceeded into the graveyard.

From inside the church they could see shapes mingling about the shadows and one particularly small set of eyes that darted from behind one headstone to another, they bolstered themselves and walked out prepared for battle. A thick red mist sank upon the graveyard that night, seeming to throw the undead into a fervor most unlike tales of legend describe the mobility of the unliving. Tabarast was swarmed by the undead immediately, a small halfling skeleton gnawed at Gimlina’s ankles to no avail and was soon met with a swift crushing blow to it’s skull from her craghammer. Amalia, standing at the side of tabarast the entire battle fended foes from him and aided him with healing magics to instantaneously regenerate his torn flesh.

That is not to say that Tabarast did not hold his own on this evening, using the elements of the storming skys around them to electrocute and blast the fiends who swarmed he and his comrades. Rahvi swiftly dispatched a skeleton or two by plunging her dagger into the base of their skulls, working in tandem with the unearthly creature Xarlazxz.

Shortly after battle had subsided our heroes began looking for Leisus’s missing holy symbol, they searched for at least half an hour before a soft, subtle voice and a glint of ivory in the moonlight interrupted them. Igor tossed a small sun shaped pendant, towards Gimlina “Looking for something?” he said. Gimlina smiled, and then Igor pulled from his pouch, a map…

So, as I can see from my carefully crumpled notes, a lot of things happened. Diggles insists that I am forgetting the important details, so I have told him to scribble in whatever he wants between the lines. You might need a magnifying glass to read the rat sized handwriting.

Why bother to write down anything about the dimension traveling and Hierarchy of Evil Lords and Vistani Troupes and cheese wheels sitting collecting dust in the bar… when you can continue the quest for ale? I, Diggles shall attempt to relate what I saw or heard during the adventure in these little gaps on the parchment between Igors scribblings -Diggles

Hey did you guys see those drunks rebuilding the town temple? I suggested that they rededicate it to Olidammara, and of course everyone agreed immediately. The problem is, well they have a bunch of drunks with rocks wandering around as the crew, and they need Wood, good oak and some granite to try and rebuild it. Hmm, now that I think about it, they might need a foreman, cause in my experience drunk plans dont always work out so well. The Beauty part of it though, is all those drunks, working and sweating, will get more thirsty, and keep coming to Igors Bar! More money for us, and then we can try and get some of that premium ale imported in, maybe from the gypsy caravans.

The temple, Pellar. They agreed to a side chamber for Olidammara, not a rededication. The bar, Blood of the Vine (for now at least). Vistani Troupe, 10-50 members per. -Diggles

But back to the beginning. The others looted a bunch of dead guys and fought over eyeballs and guts and stuff. I didnt bother with it. If there is something I want I can always get it later when they arent paying attention. That reminds me, tabarast should probably get a better coinpurse, the rope on his feels kind of frayed, and it gave me a splinter the other day! How rude of him.

We got back to town, and I was so happy to see the bar, that I teleported straight behind the counter and took over tap duties from the barkeep. He had acquired that ALE we paid for, so we all started drinkin. We bought a round for the bar, and Sir John said a toast to the new heros, Igors Traveling Troubadors! The roars of the crowd lasted a while, and gradually became chants of IGOR IGOR IGOR IGOR. This lasted perhaps an hour, maybe 2. Afterwards, I begged them to stop as I was getting embarrassed.

Do I need to write something here?-Diggles

Lots of rumors and tales swirled around the bar, as my performers worked the crowd! The party was busy drinking people under the table, cheating some poor drunks at cards, and pumping people for information. Never had I felt so proud of my troubadors! Rumors and other info we gleaned that night: We heard about the attack by a vampire and two werwolves on Sir Johns son. The priest Leisus (his wife is Chandra) is missing too, he went to a funeral and wandered off never to return. To kill a werewolf infection, find and kill the host werewolf before its too late. The gods hid a piece of the sun under castle Igorloft and if found it could lift the mists from the lands. The Vistani band leader is Lady Ravinnia, she plays a mean harmonica. The Elder, Lady Gabriel sells stuff and buys stuff.

So afterwards we saw a bunch of horses, and decided to tail them. I hopped onto their wagon all sneaky like, and the rest of the party followed my breadcrumbs that I dropped. The Vistani use a runner to bring cash to and from a meet for each transaction and also have 2 men making any hand off— damn them and their security. They travel in 2 wagons, gold and purple colors and set up camp southwest of castle Igorloft. They had a bear with them too, he looked sad all locked up in chains and reins. I wonder if the druid might want to save him? I would help! Anyway, we traded a bunch of junk for a pile of cash. That reminds me, I better see if the party wants me to be the treasurer, they dont really know how to count money at all and never even notice when some of theirs goes missing! Oh, and that new pet Beholder of Tabarasts said he might like to be worn as a hat! I think Tabarast should try that, just let the beholder settle down right on the ole noggin for a while, maybe as he sleeps. Yeah, like a night cap to keep those pointy ears warm!

Assurak is a demi lich, he is the boss of the Jackal, and is trying to reach the party. The eye is from the demi lich. The beholder was the thrall of the Jackal, and is now temporarily controlled by the elf necromancer Tabarast, however given the chance the beholder wants to absorb his powers and knowledge.

Anyway, thats about it! They say magic isnt very common around here, and that we are trapped in a misty dimension of never ending night. But thats just a bunch of drunk talk, people will stop being so depressed once we get this bar and church going again. Maybe Olidammara will teleport us back to the real world once we rebuild his temple? In the meantime, the quest for ale continues. Hmmm, I should ask the dwarf if she knows how to engineer a still, maybe we could get some gnomish Moonshine brewin while we wait for the good stuff to get shipped in!

Until next time, Yours Truly,
Igor Nappovich

PS Send more ale, whoever is reading this!

I awoke in our dirty hay filled sleeping quarters only to find Tabarast obsessing over some scroll he’d found and apparently didnt sleep all night. Do elves even do that? Apparently he’d gained some sort of knowledge from it, and was now able to see what the dead saw just before they died. There was a skeleton in the room we were in, so he gave it a go and told us that the vision he saw was a robed vampire killing another vampire with a steak, only after tearing out his fangs…

Amailia decided that she wanted to go back to the magical fire braizer where we fought all of those minotaurs and have her weapon imbued with flame. I wasn’t too keen on the idea of going back into the room with that fountain though. Meanwhile, Igor attempted to make a healing potion but instead wound up made poison, I swear I’m never going to drink a sip of anything that little blighter offers me. So i decided it was time to sit down and finish off the rest of the ale in my pitcher, it might not be cold and probably a little stale – but it least it wasn’t poison.

We decided it was time to go check out the door with the all of the magic ingrained into it, so Tabarast spent a few moments examining it and said it was no longer sealed. Naturally I was the first one to traverse into the next room with Amalia at my side, the “men” are always lagging behind because I suspect all of the folk from the feywild are afraid of doors.

Beyond this big scary door there was a long hall and two big burnin’ fires. Burned up papers littered the floor. Everyone decided to panic and get all worrysome, not sure what about. I’ve spent more time underground in stone corridors than any of these fey have spent wanderin’ around their magical forests talking to badgers an’ what have ye. The little one was most certain there were no traps around which seemed to ease everyones nerves a bit.

Tabarast and Amalia argued about which way we should go first for quite some time. Amalia wanted to go left and Tabarast wanted to go to the right. It sounded like a two field mice sqeaking over the last piece of cheese. Both of them were too stubborn to agree so they chose to split up. Igor flipped his coin and the results were to go with Amalia. I didn’t want Tabarast to go alone so I went with him to protect his frail backside.

I told Tabarast to stay back since he’s squishie as I led the way, at the end of the hallway we found a another fire brazier in the corner and a stone archway. The portal whirled with blue black clouds that spun into darkness. Tabarast spent a few minutes inspecting it and told me that he thinks it is a portal that leads deeper into the castle and looks to have been created recently. And so it was time for me to step in once again, testing the portal with a rope and a tied off throwing hammer, I gave it a toss through and nothing happened…(for now).

So we doubled back to the other side of the hallway to see what Igor and Amalia were up to. There is another portal on their side with elven writing on the archway. Amalia told Tabarast and I that the words said “Turn Back This Wall is Trapped.” So we decided to try the other side that the mage and I had investigated first.

After much bickering and lamenting about how the portal might blemish their sun kissed hides I just decided to give it a go. I remember walking through the portal only for a moment, and that’s where I draw a blank. I have a flash in my memory of Tabarast clutching his stomach something fierce and stairing at me as if I’d just killed his familiar. I told myself that my ale probably had gone a bit strange in my pack and was messing with me, I need to get some fresh when we get back to Barovia.

But then it happened…I knew it wasn’t some tinged ale anymore after my second go through the portal left me with a thick beard and calloused hands…I had been transformed into a man!

AND SO, we went back to the other side of the hallway, AGAIN. I swear I’m going to have a drinking contest with that gnome when we get back to town, all this trapsin’ about’s got me needin a swig of some strong dwarven ale. We noticed that a stone block was loosened from the floor and found a small bronze key beneath it. There was a small keyhole in the stone archway, to be safe the mage used his magic to create a floating hand that he used to turn the key.

As soon as the key was turned the portal went out and there was nothing left but a stone wall. We were all pretty baffled at this point. Well, all of us but one. While Tabarast was distracted conjuring his mage hand I noticed Igor stole one of the scrolls from his robes and threw it into the fire down the hallway. He clapped excitedly and I could have swore I heard him murmur something about a ‘blue light special’ as the braziers changed to a magical blue flame. Quickly re investigating our surroundings showed that the portal that had turned me into a man was now changed…

I decided what the portal had to offer me couldn’t get much worse than it already had and decided to go through first again. As I passed through the darkness I could feel life being drained from me, I saw long dead adventurers and stretched, ghastly faces and frail hands reaching out towards me as I passed. Time seemed to slow, if only momentarily. I dropped with a clang as my armor hit the ground from an empty space about 3 feet from the ground, I saw the rest of them drop in through temporary whisps of portals from the ceiling as well.

This room had no exit, and only one direction to head – through giant iron doors lit bright by flame light from the other side, the heat drifted from under the door and warmed my boots for the first time in a while.

Listening at the door Amalia heard shuffling feet but when we looked under the door we could only see that the room was very large. Igor set up a trap to trip anything that entered the room and then crawled up like a monkey and hid up in a corner. Tabarast cast invisibility on himself, and just like every other door I’ve opened in the past week – I had a bold woman at my side with her trusty wolf, with our two “strategists” cowering somewhere in the shadows. If you ask me the best strategy is a good offense, anyway it was time to kick in this iron door and see what awaited us…

There he was, a twisted machination of a man, or an elf, or a clown…something awful for certain. He had a beholder gauth at his side, the room was surrounded by magical circles and swirling black portals. The portals began to pour skeleton soldiers from them faster than the ale spigot in my fathers Inn!

Igor climbed across the wall stealthily waiting for the most opportune moments to strike, while Tabarast was attempting to manipulate and subdue the magic that infested the chamber and put a stop to the skeletal hordes. The Jackal immediately went straight for me, and things felt rather grim at first, evil words ran through my head causing my mind to wrack with pain. Amailia had used one of the blue circles on the floor to teleport on top of the stairs aside me and come to my aid.

At this point Igor finally comes out of hiding and uses his grappling hook to swing over to the east portal messing up some of the runes and deactivating it. Tabarast is working on deactivating the west portal with his fancy words.

I managed to reach the Jackall and hit him as hard as I could, my craghammer splintered his leg like a tree branch in the dead of winter. Amalia stepped in to aid me and try and gain the beholder’s attention, I could hear tabarasts arcane prose in the background and in the corner of my eye eruptions of flame sent dozens of them backward into piles of ash and bone.

Before I could deal another blow to the Jackal, a whir caught my ear just before the sound of splattering blood and rended flesh – Igors dagger was lodged firmly in the jackal’s back, his veins coarsed with black poison and his skin erupted with blisters almost immediately. He fell dead to the floor while simultaneously the remaining skeletons clattered to the floor in a mess of bones and steel.

Meanwhile, without skipping a beat the boys took an immediate interest in attempting to convince the beholder to bend to their will. Tabarast seemed to be successful after speaking in some horrid tongue with the creature, all I know is I’m sleeping with one eye open from here on out. I’ve gotta admit though, the beholder is kinda cute. I sketched him out on a piece of parchment with charcoal. We leave this place as soon as possible tonight though, there’s no time for sleep, not here at least – it’s not safe. We must return to Barovia, hopefully some of the shadows have been lifted from this sad oppressed little town.

I feel as though our adventures have not been logged with total accuracy in the past. I’ve taken it upon myself to log the series of events this time. I figure Igor could use a break from logging. And, in all honesty, I think he’s remembering some details a little, well, wrong.

So I’ll start off with the group of us following a child. We’ve seen him before and decided he may need our help. We followed him into a room only to find ourselves caught in a trap. As the ceiling lowered onto Gimlina and myself we braced ourselves and held the ceiling as Igor disarmed the trap. I suppose he has his uses… occasionally.

As we moved past that little “set back” we found an interesting iron door. It was a double door with five sphere shaped insets. The largest inset with no symbol was centered over both doors with half on the left door and half on the right. The other four insets had symbols: cloud, flame, skull, and droplet. After some thought we decide to open the door. I gave it a good push, but only managed to fall to the ground. No luck opening it.

Moving farther into the room we found another door. It’s locked, but nothing Igor can’t take care of. Upon opening it we find that it leads to a hallway with glowing blue floor panels. Tabarast realized those tiles are a trap. They’re electrically charged. Gnome tossing seemed like our best option for getting to the other end of the hall, but instead Tab decided to use his Mage Hand to test which tiles we could safely pass over. We moved on and Igor took care of that trap too.

At this point we reach a door with similar symbols to the iron door only this door has a key hole. Gimlina sees light through the hole. I listen and hear fire, wind, and something… organic? We get the door open and I enter. The room has four brazers and a fountain in the center. As Gimilina checks the fountain we notice four skeletal minotaurs. We attack and soon realize that as they get to the brazers they turn to nasty fleshy, bloody minotaurs.

We also found out the hard way that the water in the fountain puts you to sleep and heals you. Gimlina showed us that. We killed all the minotaurs. They were tough, but no match for us. Gim, Tab, and myself did a good amount of damage, but I didn’t see much of Igor. It turns out he was checking the sarcophagi where he found a lever to pull. I found another tooth. We also found out we can enchant our weapons with the fire brazer. We’ll do that later.

We headed upstairs after all that and found a room with multiple cells. There was also a skeleton with a hole in his head. We heard the kid crying in the corner. I asked him his name and he says “The Jackal is using him. We can’t help him. This will be our tomb.” Then he flew through me like a ghost, leaving a trail of leaves. He’s fey. Elf or eladrin. And not the most honest.

-Amalia

As your fearless ringleader, I shall tell the tale of our triumphant first show!
Hmmm.. lets see, how did it all happen? Well, lets start with the important facts. One, I have an order for some decent ale placed with the bartender at the tavern. It should be of higher quality then the regular swill- which is fine for an elf, but not really suitable for the refined tastes of humans, gnomes, dwarves, orcs, or goblins, dogs and rats.

Two, we found an ancient gnomish King’s sarcophagus! It proves, Im pretty sure, that I own part or all of castle Ravenloft. I took a charcoal rubbing of the stonework on the sarcophagus, then redrew it to be more realistic on a separate parchment. My drawing looks like it could be my great grandgnome! So, as soon as I figure out who to present these compelling legal documents to, I shall claim the castle and rename it castle Igorloft.
Whats that Diggles? My rat is reminding me that I skipped the exciting parts. So lets go back to the beginning…

We were exploring down some passages, deep under castle Igorloft, when I smelled some gold. The odor was faint, but unmistakable. I boldly led the party into a darkened chamber, challenging any nasty dragons that might be lurking about with my fierce gnome battle cry. But the room looked empty, if memory serves, so I started looking for that shiny gold that I smelled earlier.

Once again, our crazy mage Tabarast thought it would be funny to use his necromancy to summon up a bunch of undead all around us. I need to remember to ask him why he keeps doing that. Anyway, I decided to make a strategic withdrawal and wait to deliver the crucial blow from my hidden vantage point.

While I was busy calculating the optimal grappling hook angle to use, our mighty dwarf charged into battle, supported by our fearless druid and her pet. Tabarast decided to play fireball catch with one of the undead he summoned, nearly singing Diggles’ whiskers!

I could see it was going horribly, so I made my move. I swung across the chamber on my circus grappling hook , launching boot first into the skull of the Vampire Emperor! He fell back, shaking one fist while screaming, “You have defeated me for now, Igor Nappovich, but I shall return!” Or something like that, I cant recall. I think someone accidentally hit me, because I vanished from sight and decided to start collecting those shiny things I smelled earlier. After all, I had already saved the party, again.

Afterwards we journeyed on and found that sarcophagus that I was talking about earlier! Lots of talking happened, and at the end of it all everyone decided that the coffin was for an ancient gnomish King, probably descended from the Nappoviches of Deglos originally, back generations ago. King Thelios Nappovich, I think was his name. I have already sewn a patch with the Igorloft Crest on it, inspired by the design on the charcoal rubbing. Perhaps I will sew it onto Tabarast’s backpack next time he falls asleep drunk in his chair.

Oh, and … the ghost appeared again, and said that it is good luck to buy a gnome an ale. Spooky, how ghosts know all sorts of interesting and TRUE facts, isnt it?

Diggles, quiet! Ok, yes, then Tabarast had his ventriloquist show! We were returning to the bar, when we came across two giants in the forest arguing. I snuck up to see what was going on, and the rest of the party followed at a safe distance. I started in with a bit I learned back in pre-school, using ventriloquism to start acting out a scene within a cave beside the giants. Tabarast jumped right in, provided character voices of his own and improvising the storyline! Our audience loved it! If I recall, they applauded so loudly that the cave collapsed on their heads. Thats a real shame, they could have provided some good word of mouth advertising for Igor’s Travelling Troubadors!

After that, we made it back to the bar, which is where I started this tale. And I am not going back to Castle Igorloft until I get some better hooch! Barkeep!

— Igor Nappovich’s Account of the Adventure

Precursor of note prior to reading this adventure log, Igor was a bit predisposed for the entirety of this exploration as he was searching for the now suspected ‘ghost boy’ in the strangest of places (wine bottles, the ceiling, inside his shoe, etc.) so the details of his actions are somewhat vague, perhaps even to him.

After a short rest, the party decided to venture forth and attempt to gain entry to castle ravenloft. Igor had to be rustled violently awake that night, as he was talking a lot in his sleep – something about chickens or a frying pan…something. Igor crawled his way through the crack in the castle foyer and raised the porticullis. Before them stood the massive walls of Castle Ravenloft, as forboding as it was imposing the castle’s walls stand some 40 feet high.

Short inspection provided they would not be gaining entry through conventional means, to the east was a cellar with it’s door hanging open, howling loudly as the wind passed over it like lips onto a bottletop. Tabarast had noticed some claw marks to the west, deep and massive claw marks in the cliffside, after some careful inspection and help from Amalia he was convinced the marks had came from a Dracolich.

As they entered the cellar door above them slammed shut, perhaps just from the wind, however none bothered to check if they were sealed in because immediately after entering were alarmed by distant child-like cries for help echoing through the corridors. They found themselves in a wine cellar and soon discovered not only was wine being bottled and stored here, but perhaps blood too…at least at one point in time.

Proceeding onward and inspecting what once was a functional kitchen area both Gimlina and Amalia both found themselves swarming with rats and spiders at one point in time or another. Luckily they were more of a nuisance than a threat.Tabarast, blasted each of his comrades with ice in order to “help” defeat the swarms, a dark grin spread across his lips if only for a moment.

Soon after, they found a secret passage behind one of the tables in the cooking area which lead down a short and narrow hall that opened into a crumbling, gaping chasm that seperated them from the other side of the path. After much deliberation, testing, and scepticism Tabarast took a leap of faith and walked onto the nothingness – it was just an illusion. However it’s not to say that his cockiness did not get him burned as he proceeded down the next corridor only to be struck by a gout of flames. The illusion proved especially cumbersome to Amalia as she was the most hesitant to traverse it.

Soon after disarming the trap via an invisible lever, the party met a dead end. An iron door, very polished and smooth, bearing the embossed depiction of a skull stopped them, the door was magical and if they wanted to press on any further, they’d have to find some sort of key.

The next area they would explore used to be a small barracks and training area, hay from target dummies and old crumbling weapons littered the room. A draft was coming from behind one of the weapon racks, however after all manner of pushing, pulling and inspection they could not manage to gain entry, which mean it was time for Gimlina to step in and perforate steel with her fine dwarven weapon as if it were mere foil.

Inside they discovered a chest, and a finely crafted suit of magical full plate armor. The chest piece of the armor was detailed in solid gold which definitely caught Igor’s eye as well as Tabarast’s however upon even touching the suit of armor, a visage would appear and attack, only momentarily before receding back into the walls. This man is suspected to had been the captain of the Ravenloft guard, inside the locked chest was a locket with an engraved “V” on it and upon touching the locket, the same ghostly visage attacked and once again left as quickly as it came.

After breaking yet another lock due to Igor’s hang ups with finding the “ghost boy” and other shiny things, they found themselves in a small living quarter for soldiers. They did not find much aside from disheveled and rotting old beds and an old bath area. However they did find a love note under some of the bed sheets. It was from a woman named Veronica and addressed to her lover “Abdel”, it outlined plans to elope. “Abdel” is believed to the captain of the guard, as when this note was read – the same visage that once was attacking the players could be seen sobbing to himself only for a moment, before disappearing…

Check the Session Loot page for details on items and points of interest.