Session 007 - Lady Wachter's Wish: Part I

The heroes are divided into various groups. Hephastus Heavyhide enters into the Blue Water Inn where he sees the bleeding body of Arabelle and begins to heal her with a mixture of magic and surgical removal of wooden splinters. While this is occuring Aurora Silverleaf, Selkis Netah, and Ash Lechbran are travelling from the St. Andrals Church to the Blue Water Inn.   Ava Reigh and Magnus enter the store Blinsky Toys which is a cramped shop with a dark entrance portico. Here they meet Gadof Blinksy and his pet monkey Piccolo. As Ava and Magnus explore the shop to purchase a gift for Arabelle, Gadof Blinsky cheerfully tells them about his inspiration for making toys. They eventually settle on a few toys for Arabelle, including a ornate merry-go-round with snarling wolves chasing children which caused Magnus Frostbane to chirp "I think she'll liike this one! It's like counting sheep, but she will count the moments until she dies". After purchasing these toys, Ava and Magnus leave the store and head towards the Blue Water Inn.   When all members of the group arrive back at the inn, Arabelle suddenly sits up and intones a foretelling in a voice that appears to echo with the sound of a second, far older woman's voice:    

In darkest night, the light shall flee,
No dawn to break, with no reprieve.
From the grave, the dead shall climb,
Their restless march a baleful sign.
At castle’s peak, a heart beats red,
Its hunger deep and ever-fed.
Should silence fall, the skies shall crack,
A thousand souls in torment black.

    The heroes then question the nearby Dr. Rudolph van Richten on his connection with Arabelle. Dr. Rudolph van Richten explains that he had been laying low in a tower at Lake Baratok when he saw a Vistana man bringing a wriggling sack to a golden-haired vampire spawn on the banks of the Luna River. Dr. Rudolph van Richten recognised the vampire as a man named Escher, a bard from Barovia Village who had joined the Barovians' revolt. Dr. Rudolph van Richten attacked the pair, killing the Vistana and scarring the vampire, who fled. Upon opening the sack, he found a young Vistana girl within, Arabelle. After obtaining supplies from this camp, the duo then travelled to Vallaki and Dr. Rudolph van Richten adopted the identity of Rictavio while Arabelle was concealed in the wagon. Arabelle pats the back of Dr. Rudolph van Richten's hand, and tells him that his son, Eramus van Richten had been keeping her safe in the wagon. She promised him that his son loved him very much, and shres her belief that he has been keeping Dr. Rudolph van Richten safe as well.   It is shortly after this that Urwin Martikov interrupts the discussion to inform the heroes that they have recieved a letter. Which contains a letter from Fiona Wachter for evening tea tomorrow evening. Magnus Frostbane gifts Arabelle her presents, and the heroes decide to rest for the night.   The next evening, the heroes arrive at a thick garden, filled with herbs and vines standing beside a wide, red-roofed manor, Wachterhaus. A slouching roof hung heavy over furrowed gables, and moss-covered walls sagged and bulged under the weight of the vegetation. When they knock on the door, they are greeted by a valet, who welcomes them warmly and leads them through manor into the parlor room. While waiting for Fiona Wachter the group notice that a young woman wearing slippers and a white nightgown, approximately sixteen years of age, was standing in the open doorway leading back to the staircaase and front entrance. Despite the heroes attempting to talk to her, the woman stared vacantly into space towards them.   After a few moments Nikolai Wachter stumbles into view from the staircase behind her, and greets the woman as Stella Wachter considered on how she go there. Noticing the heroes Nikolai Wachter apologises and assures them that he would get his little sister out of their hair. Before the heroes could ask questions Fiona Wachter arrives and scolds Nikolai Wachter asking for him to escort his sister back to his room. Selkis Netah offers to help and watches as Nikolai secures Stella to a bed explaining that its the only way to keep her safe.   Fiona Wachter then introduces herself as Lady Fiona Wachter and formally welcomes them to Wachterhaus. During the discussiono Fiona shares the following information:   The young woman was Stella Wachter, her daughter and youngest child. Stella suffers from a mysterious illness—one that has left her mind in a vegetative state for the past two months. Lady Wachter has tried every means available to her to cure Stella’s sickness, but none has succeeded. The man with Stella was Nikolai Wachter II, Lady Wachter’s eldest son. Nikolai is named for his father, Nikolai Wachter, who died of a wasting sickness three years ago. Nikolai and his younger brother, Karl, can be mischievous and troublesome louts at times, but Lady Wachter believes that they both have good hearts—if highly disorganized ones.   As the conversation continues, Fiona Wachter noted that she had heard of their actions and confesses that she found herself having grave doubts regarding Baron Vargas Vallakovich's fitness to rule. She is convinced that Izek Strazni needs to be assassinated which she wants to recruit the heroes for. The heroes agree to help her and ask her for more information, to which Fiona provided the following details:  

• Izek was orphaned at the age of ten, losing his younger sister and arm in a wolf attack, and both of his parents to grief not long thereafter. His sister’s body was never found.
• Izek was often mocked for his disability, but after several of his tormentors went missing, the laughter abruptly stopped. No bodies were ever found, but rumors persist that Izek—a large and frequently violent child—murdered them himself.
• Approximately a year after losing his parents, Izek was arrested by the town guard and brought to the Vallakovich mansion. No one knows what crime he committed or why he was released soon thereafter, but Valentin Vallakovich’s twenty-five-year-old son, then-Baronet Vargas Vallakovich, all but adopted Izek and took him into their home.
• Izek served the Vallakovich family faithfully for the next five years. When Izek was sixteen, he somehow obtained a new arm to replace the one he had lost—though his new limb more resembled a devil’s than any human form. (Curiously, the day that Izek regrew his arm came the same day that Baron Valentin Vallakovich was announced to have passed in his sleep. Lady Wachter is confident that the two events are connected.)
• Izek’s fiendish arm allowed him to wield a proper weapon—but, more significantly, magically gave him the power to conjure fire. Vargas soon put both of Izek’s skills to work, designating Izek his personal enforcer and a ranking member of Vallaki’s town guard. As time passed, Izek became a terror throughout Vallaki, committing wanton acts of battery, arson, and extortion both at the Baron’s command and to serve his own diabolic whims.
• Many of the townsfolk hate and fear Izek—a sentiment that has slowly spread to Vargas as well in the wake of Strahd’s revival. However, Izek’s strength protects them both, swiftly dispatching any person who dares defy them, and intimidating those that don’t.
• Six months ago, against her advice, Lady Wachter’s daughter, Stella, began visiting Victor Vallakovich, the Baron’s son. Lady Wachter warned her against entanglement with the Vallakovich family, but Stella ignored her pleas.
• Just over two months ago, Izek Strazni returned Stella to Wachterhaus in her current state: mindless and speechless, unable to walk, eat, or even dress herself without another’s assistance.
• Baron Vallakovich has refused to discuss the matter in depth, suggesting only that the girl’s fragile constitution and her family’s exposure to the Devil were to blame. Victor Vallakovich himself has refused to speak to her at all.
• Fiona is convinced that Izek or the Vallakoviches did something terrible to Stella—and that, even if they did not, their cold refusal to assist or even commiserate with her illness proves their unfitness to rule.

  After finishing their tea, the heroes leave Wachterhaus and head towards St. Andral's Church to pick up Ireena Kolyana. When they arrive Father Donavich informs them that Izek Strazni had entered into the church and kidnapped Ireena. The heroes then rush to Burgomaster’s Mansion. At first they attempt to do it covertly with half of the heroes knocking on the front door while the other half attempted to enter the manion via the backdoor. The front group are escorted into the mansion where they meet Baron Vargas Vallakovich and Magnus Frostbane jumps onto his shoulder causing the Baron to run and cry for help.   Meanwhile the group in the back open the back door into the kitchen and scares the chef. Ava Reigh climbs up the side of the house and enters through a window looking for Ireena Kolyana. A fierce battle occurs between the heroes and Izek Strazni who brings his power over fire to a white hot intenesly. Izek Strazni kills Hephastus Heavyhide, Aurora Silverleaf and Baron Vargas Vallakovich during the battle, but is eventually defeated.   Hephastus Heavyhide feels his soul rise however it meets the barrier around the Domain of Barovia and he cannot move on. He does see his mentor Ingrid Boulderstrike who forgives him and tells him how she was murdered by Strahd von Zarovich. Hephastus Heavyhide then hears a cry of a newly born babe, and his soul is attached to it somewhere in Domain of Barovia. Aurora Silverleaf at her death feels her concious shatter and she becomes aware that she was the Lady of the Thanes, a group of powerful fey creatures that once ruled Domain of Barovia before Strahd von Zarovich had destroyed them long ago.