Session 10: Escape from the Castle

General Summary

Escaping the Castle

The Tell-Tale Heart

• After a very brief breather, the party notices that the staircase they're in has a faint red glow emanating from the top of the staircase...
• Garreak sends roach to scout and as he flies up the spiral staircase, a reddish light flares high overhead, then settles into a dull, pulsing red glow.
• The spiral staircase circled up the tower’s full height. The tower, sixty feet wide at its base, became narrower as it climbs.
• At the pinnacle of the hollow tower, a large crystal heart pulsated with red light. Above the heart, the stairs continued upward.
• It appears the crystal red heart was floating on its own and was magical in nature, for some reason Roach didn't want to stay near it.
• The party decides to file this info away for later...

Into the Catacombs

• Escher and the party descend into the catacombs, the smell of stale water and decay is heavy in the air.
• Murky, still water has flooded the ground and for most it was impossible to see without a light source.
• Somewhere south, a voice is faintly calling for help.
• Escher leads everyone through the corridor, taking care to avoid certain floor tiles...

It's a Trap!

• The party gets through the traps without incident, except for Kerberos who throws Maisie to safety before he is teleported elsewhere.
• He ends up in a cell with the skeletal remains of an adventurer with surprisingly intact loot.
• Escher, Madame H and Everdeen all go to free Kerberos, as a voice calls out for them.
• Escher grabs the key and frees Kerberos while the gals follow the voice...
• It belongs to Emil Toranescu, who claims to be a prisoner of Strahd. He had stood up for the rights of "his people" and was thrown in the dungeon.
• With some pressing it is uncovered that he is a werewolf, and his clan is having a power struggle.

Freedom!

• As the party presses forward, they arrive in a flooded torture chamber with several bloated, water logged corpses littered around. These corpses then rise as zombies and attack.
• You all fuck them up, Madame H even gets to destroy some!
• Its also at this point Maisie's paralysis wears off.
• Escher leads the party to a room where a stone brazier burned fiercely in the center of the room, but its tall white flame produced no heat.
• The rim of the brazier was carved with seven cup-shaped indentations spaced evenly around the circumference. Within each indentation was a spherical stone, twice the diameter of a human eyeball and made of a colored crystal. No two stones were the same color.
• There was the following inscription in common...

• Escher informs everyone that Green will take them to Vallaki, while Indigo will take them to Krezk.
• Since everything you guys want to do is in West Barovia...You choose Indigo!
• The stone is cast into the flames and you, escape.

The Madness of the Abbey

A Familiar Face

• The party finds themselves in the loft of the Abbey of Saint Markovia.
• They see a squat creature that has two heads playing a viol; with a crustacean, clawlike appendage, it grasped the neck of the instrument while running a bow gently across its strings with its human hand.
• Skeleton Archer recognizes this creature as Clovin Belview, one of the inhabitants inflicted with the Mongrelfolk Corruption.
• Clovin seems friendly enough, saying everyone should meet The Abbot...he offers to lead the party to them.

Twisted Grace and Minds

• The sounds of sheer madness, pain and depravity echo from the halls; leaving all with a growing pit of dread inside them.
• The gang is bought to a humble hall where a tall, pale figure stands in all white vestiges. The Abbot's features are too perfect, its unsettling.
• The Abbot welcomed you all graciously and introduces you all to his ward Vasilka.
• Maisie and a few others quickly make the connection that this amalgamation of body parts is meant to resemble Tatyana Federovna, but is more a cheap (if not insulting) intimation of her.
• Any attempts to talk to Vasilka are met with simplistic, childlike responses; its clear this is a creature with very limited agency and sentience.
• The Abbot also seems pleasantly surprised to see Skeleton Archer back at the Abbey so soon, but the party is welcomed to shelter there for the night. There was a fresh couldron of turnip and...rabbit stew.
• It is at this point the purpose of the Abbey is revealed, The Abbot believes himself to be a healer.
• The residents of the Abbey came here for healing, and decided to remain; all are afflicted with an intense madness though. They spend their days doing tasks around the Abbey and are locked in dorm rooms during the night for their safety.
• We also learn more about Skeleton Archer, his remains had been recovered from the uprising that took place a year prior (the same one that resulted in Doru becoming a spawn).
• The Abbot had raised him from death in his current form, sensing that the soul bound to the remains was not at peace but still sought to do good.
• It also comes out that experiments have been taking place here, well meaning but ultimately twisted with malevolent magic. Skeleton Archer was one such experiment, but had a different outcome.
• Tensions rise as Kerberos becomes deeply troubled by these experiments, the Belview Family is summoned to speak on behalf of the other Mongrelfolks as their madness is less severe.
• For many, this existence is better than death and they feel at peace.
• Maisie reads the thoughts of one Mongrelfolk in the dorms; the swirling void of pure madness, despair and the faint hopes for death or bloodshed seems to affect her a lot.
• Tensions reach a breaking point, as after repeatedly stating that he would put the patients out of their misery, Kerberos storms out the entrance of the Abbey.
• Before the others follow him, The Abbot transforms revealing his true celestial nature; demanding they leave at once, and expressing deep disapointment at Skeleton Archer.
• You all wisely decide to gtfo.

Session ended at 3am 19/9/735; 19th of Sintavr, 735