2017-10-18
RAW NOTES
The group agree to wake around 7:30, collect weapons and aim to head to Bonecrusher around 10.
Decorating for the new festival is in progress, small wicker balls with some kind of magic causing a glow from within.
About 20 minutes walk down the road towards Bonegrinder Pavel notices a couple of quadrapeds eating something on the side of the road about 100ft ahead.
About 70 feet away Sardalis can make out that their meal appears to be the corpse of a human, with two wolves eating it.
Pavel puts an arrow in one wolf's eye and Delg follows up with Acid Splash, killing it. From the bushes another wolf bounds up to Delg, followed by a wolf twice it's size. As they swarm around our protagonists the smaller creatures are quickly downed but their larger companion puts up more of a fight, only going down after a severe clubbing, its fur smouldering from Sardalis' fire bolts.
90xp
Pavel investigates the corpse 8 sp 22cp 1 silvered shortsword with an half-moon crescent insignia on the hilt indicating likely worked by the same blacksmith. There is also a piece of parchement with a well-drawn picture of two 9-10 year old children.
Pavel makes a point that they should return his belongings to his family if they can find them in town.
As they proceed Sardalis asks Ismark "What exactly is the clam that Strahd holds over Borovia"
"He claims to be lord over the entirety of Borovia, some don't agree with that. Some think he's long overdue for eternal rest, but there are some who are loyal to him. He has many servants and minions in Castle Ravenloft." He also advises NOT to wander into the thick fog surrounding the land as people either die or are greatly exhausted. He feels sure that the Strahd has something to do with the fog.
Ismark asks them how they came to be in Borovia and they explain that the Vistani tricked them into coming in requesting help to cure Strahd.
Ismark advises that most of the Vistani are definitely working for Strahd, bringing people in to entertain him.
When they discuss the prophecy given to them by Madam Eva he doesn't have a lot to tell them. Possible the knights are located near Luna Lake at Tsolenka Pass. He guesses that the best lake to check for a wizard's tower would be near Lake Zarovich.
Bonecrusher
The Old Svalich Road transitions here from being a winding path through the Balinok Mountains to a lazy trail that hugs the mountainside as it descends into a fog-filled valley. In the heart of the valley you see a walled town near the shores of a great mountain lake, its waters dark and still. A branch in the road leads west to a promontory, atop which is perched a dilapidated stone windmill, its warped wooden vanes stripped bare.
As they get closer the onion-domed edifice leans forward and away, decrepit wooden platform encircles the windmill.
The onion-domed edifice leans forward and to one side, as though trying to turn away from the stormy gray sky. You see gray brick walls and dirt-covered windows on the upper floors. A decrepit wooden platform encircles the windmill above a flimsy doorway leading to the building’s interior. Perched on a wooden beam above the door is a raven. It hops about and squawks at you, seemingly agitated.
Near the windmill are four ancient-looking stones covered in moss. On each stone are crude carvings of different cities, each appearing to be in the midst of a different season. Snow, flowers, sunburst and leaf motifs. There are several ravens circling over the top of the stones, and another raven pecking at something on top of the autumn stone. On the ground in the centre of the stone circle there is a small pile of children's teeth.
The ground floor has been converted into a makeshift kitchen, but the room is filthy. Baskets and old dishware are piled everywhere. Adding to the clutter is a peddler’s cart, a chicken coop, a heavy wooden trunk, and a pretty wooden cabinet with flowers painted on its doors. In addition to the clucking of the chickens, you hear toads croaking.
The sweet smell of pastries blends horridly with a stench that burns your nostrils. The awful odor comes out of an open, upright barrel in the center of the room.
Warmth issues from a brick oven against one wall, and a crumbling staircase ascends the wall across from it. Shrieks and cackles from somewhere higher up cause the old mill to shudder.
3 small elixers in the painted cabinet.
Youth (Golden syrup) (magical) Laughter (Red tea) Mother's Milk (Greenish milky liquid)
Small human bones littering the flagstone floor.
Sardalis detects the croaking is coming from the chest. Pavel is by this time frantically gesturing that they should ascend the stairs.
Youngish looking hideous girl dressed in a bloodstained flour-caked apron and long sharp bodkin impaling her gray hair.
Pavel dashes out and stabs her with his rapier, following up moments later with another slash as the others pour into the room, Sardalis clambering over the ballastrade awkwardly.
The hag turns to Pavel, staring at him with dark eyes of the void but he manages to choke down his panic. Another hag starts down the stairs and Pavel feels his muscles seize momentarily but fights that off also.
Ismark drops his shortsword and chases it down the stairs.
More damage is incurred by the hag, and Pavel hexes her.
She fires a ray of sickening greenish energy towards Pavel which hits but the poison which courses through him doesn't take hold.
Pavel and Delg both miss but Ismark comes running back up the stairs and neatly slices her throat.
As she crumples to the ground her sister causes Delg to be confronted by his worst fears, rooting him to the spot as she retreats upstairs screeching "Stay back or I kill the children."
Sardalis moves to the rear of the stairs, out of sight from upstairs as he says "We'd better stay back!" as he gestures to Pavel to come towards him.
He casts invisibility on the half-elf as he comes by and Pavel sneaks upstairs to find the hag standing almost beneath a ladder where he can hear children crying. He runs the hag through with his silvered blade as he calls down "I'm between her and the children!" becoming visible to her as he does.
He is repayed for his heroism with a large dose of electricity
Sardalis runs up to stand above his fallen comrade, and slashes at her with his dagger and is soon joined by Delg and Ismark and the three of them assault her with vigour. When she casts magic missile at Delg only to have him completely negate it with Shield she screeches in rage and dives out through the window.
Sardalis rushes to the window and flings bolts of arcane force at her, tearing at her body as she shudders under the barrage. Delg flings himself from the window in pursuit but overshoots, plummeting down and smashing through the wooden flooring surrounding the windmill.
A beam of multi-coloured light streaks out at Delg. He is transformed into a frog. A tiny beast.
As Sardalis sends more arcane force streaking towards the hag he does not see Delg. He does see the dwarf as soon as the hag dies though.
900xp each.
Some kind of gemstone had fallen out of the bedding as they were crashing around the room which Sardalis pockets and Delg finds another under a pillow.
They open the chest where the sobbing seems to actually be coming from and discover two girls who they recognise from the picture though they have put on significant weight, apparently having been force-fed.
The girls tell them that they were given to the hags by their mother who turned out to be addicted to dream pastries. They make mummy and daddy have nice dreams and escape the harshness of life in Borovia. They were holding out hope that their father might come and rescue them.
200xp for successfully saving the children from the hags.
