Difference between revisions of "2018-04-22"

Revision as of 10:49, 22 April 2018

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Bony Hall Deliberations

Just as they were thinking to avoid going into the room, weird laughter is heard from the door beneath Argynvost's skull. Sardalis decides that it is now vital that they find out what's going on, and Pavel attempts to detect thoughts. Hearing nothing they move in further and he manages to pick up on weird erratic thoughts of hunger, missing toenails etc.

Opening the door beneath Argynvost's skull they find a corridor with a slightly ajar door, in which he spots a creature.

It stands about 4'9" tall but appears shorter as is hunched over. Left side of face is covered with lizard skulls and ears like a panther. Left foot is like a duck's webbed foot and arms covered with coarse fur like a dog. Lekki realizes that this is a Mongrelfolk.

It greets Pavel and he responds with a cautiously friendly attitude as one might with a simple-minded child. He thinks it mentions something about pottery and responds "Oh pottery that's nice can you show me your pottery?" and it nods enthusiastically beckoning him toward a cauldron of sorts.

As they enter the room and approach the cauldron, three zombies begin to rise out of the muck in the cauldron.

Pavel gets a sense that the Mongrelfolk is somewhat miffed by the appearance of these zombies, and they lurch towards it, two of them landing and causing the creature to squeal with pain.

Lekki smashes one of the undead, and significantly damages another, which appears to irritate the Mongrelfolk further and so Pavel pulls the creature away from the cauldron, stepping back himself.

After Sardalis "ruins" the meal by overheating it the creature gets a little more coherent, naming itself as Cyrus and advising that it works "beds". Pavel argues that they aren't to stay in the castle but Sardalis warms to the idea when Cyrus mentions taking them to a tower.

When they enter the corridor all three of them detect something strange about a section of the floor, Pavel thinks it likely a trap and investigates it, deciding that the way to disarm it is probably just to apply pressure to the floor. Luckily, Sardalis does this by walking forward.

Turns out Pavel was just doing a poor job of figuring out how to deal with this thing. When he and Lekki follow suddenly two portcullis drop, and though Lekki is fast enough to stumble backwards Pavel is trapped on the 10'x10' section of flooring. An instant later it begins to rise upwards rapidly, leaving a section of the wall of the corridor removed and exposing an open vertical shaft heading upwards.

Elevator Muzak

Pavel notices some kind of hatch in the ceiling of the elevator just as some kind of gas is emitted, but being a half-elf he does not fall asleep. He flips the panel open and sees a ceiling above which the chain is rapidly disappearing into and thinks it best not to climb out of the hatch until he knows where it will stop.

As it comes to a sudden halt he sees the mechanism that suspends the cage and tries to jam it solid with his hammer, then begins considering what to do about the portcullis.

So Many Scrolls Speedrunning

Sardalis casts Haste on himself and starts bolting up the stairs, followed by Lekki and presumably Cyrus.

Sardalis opens a door he has come to and finds a room packed full of scrolls, with a small figure crouched on a tall stool scribbling text onto an apparently endless sheet of parchment with a dry quill. They do not respond besides an unappreciative grunt when Sardalis makes an apology for disturbing them as he races by.

Opening the next door he finds himself in a corridor where he spots a skeletal figure dressed in the outfit of a guard, and attempts to conceal himself.

Around this time Lekki is just entering the room full of scrolls.

Sardalis realizes that the skeleton is held up by wires, and crosses to a hall.

3 Spooky 5 You

This twenty-foot-high hall has a dark, vaulted ceiling draped with cobwebs. A low moan seems to travel the length of the corridor as it rises and falls, intoning sadness and despair.

As he approaches a strange looking wall, Strahd swoops by looking directly into his eyes with a menacing grin just before Sardalis triggers a mechanism opening a secret part of the wall revealing Pavel who is feverishly working at weakening a section of the bars. Sardalis says to Strahd "Ah Strahd so good that you're here. I meant to ask earlier, have you seen Delg?". He gets no response from the vampire, just beady glowing red eyes glaring down at him.

At this time Lekki arrives in the room, flooding it with light. Sardalis readies his quarterstaff to hit the creature if it swoops again.

Lekki asks "So what's going on guys?" and gets no response.

Meanwhile Pavel has finally managed to wear down a bar of the portcullis enough to squeeze through and starts to try to work his way through.

Strahd swoops towards Sardalis again, staying out of reach of his quarterstaff, coming to rest atop the other doorway close to Lekki and they realize that there is a rope emerging from the back of the presumed vampire, and says "I don't think that's Strahd". They fire a bolt of magic through the rope, severing it and sending Strahd faceplanting to the ground, continuing to laugh and make swooping gestures like a broken animatronic.

Sardalis utilizes his quarterstaff as a lever to provide Pavel with enough room to squeeze out. As Pavel leaves he picks up his hammer and pauses to flip the lever on the wall, confirming his suspicion that it sends the room downwards again.

Backtracking

They work their way back through the path Sardalis and Lekki took, investigating the throne they found facing the windows in a previous room. Lekki does note that there appears to be another secret door in the corridor immediately outside the room with the faux vampire.

Accounting

While Pavel hovers by the door the others enter the room full of scrolls and finally Lief Lipsiege, Strahd's accountant acknoweldges their presence. Lekki attempts to flirt with the grumpy accountant who seems to be surprised by this and opens up a bit. He advises that there is a maid who works here also and that Cyrus was the one who crafted the "Bony Hall". Besides that there is Rahadin who is often off on expeditions to the amber temple.

Lief advises that he doesn't get out much, raising his leg to reveal a shackle around his ankle. When asked how long he tells them to fetch a book for him so he can check and it turns out to be approximately 70 years.

He advises that he has managed to figure out the location of a few things over the years.

When asked about what Strahd might have to fear, he mentions the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind is a unique symbol sacred to the good-hearted people of Borovia. It is based on the design of a particular item, an amulet delivered to a Paladin called Lubdana by an angel in the form of a giant Raven.

He believes it to be in the crypt of Gralmore Nimblenobs on the lowest floor of the castle.

Sardalis asks if he knows anything about Strahd's possessions, which Lief takes to mean Strahd's Brides, all three of which are apparently located in the crypts below in a similar undead state to Strahd.

He is aware of a magic mirror having been delivered and taken to the King's bedroom as a gift to Strahd's latest bride, Gertruda. She is apparently still living and Lief suspects doesn't understand what she is getting into.

He tells them that the carriage is kept in the north-east corner of the castle courtyard.

As Sardalis and Lekki are looking through the books and scrolls they find one that is lighter, seemingly hollowed out.

Altogether they find:

• 20,000 copper pieces between two of the chests.
• 1,000 gold pieces
• 500 platinum pieces.

At the bottom of the chest of platinum there is a really nice looking tome which Lief identifes as a Manual of Bodily Health. Sardalis slips this into his backpack for now.

As they are discussing the option to mess with Strahd by absconding with Strahd's collection of cash they hear footsteps from the stairs heading up from this room, and Cyrus the Mongrelfolk enters the room and begins babbling about them being supposed to be in their rooms and yells about room service before making towards the tassled rope hanging beside Lief.

Lekki grabs the rope and attempts to hold it upwards out of reach, Pavel attempts to tackle him but the strange creature ducks out of his way. Sardalis closes on him and smacks him with his quarterstaff. The creature begins to let out a keening wail and then yells "Master" before tearing off down the stairs with our heroes in hot pursuit.

Getting in front of Cyrus Lekki and Pavel both get in front of him and a swing with the flat of Pavel's short-sword stops him instantly.

Sardalis arrives and removes the necklace the creature is wearing with a strange varnished eye attached as well as an iron key. Lekki advises that this is a Hag Eye and should be destroyed.

Sardalis asks what it does and Lekki advises that it is a scrying device, and that it should be easy to destroy. Sardalis shrugs and pulverises it with his quarterstaff, taking the key and examining it. He decides that it is finely crafted and therefore likely for some interior chamber of the castle.

Cyrus' New Digs

Pavel raises the issue of the unconscious Mongrelfolk, opining that though he took the creature without killing it he's not sure that was the right thing to do knowing now that it created the Bony Hall full of desecrated ground. They agree that they should restrain the creature and hear Lief calling from upstairs "What happened to the good old days of using rope?" and after a short exchange Pavel begins dragging Cyrus up the stairs into the accountant's chamber.

He tells the accountant "I think I've figured out a good way to restrain this guy" and flips open the lid of a chest, dumping the Mongrelfolk inside and tearing up enough of the rags the creature wears to stuff it's mouth and tie off a gag to keep it in place. Then he cuts 10' of silk rope and hog-ties the creature for good measure, closing the chest and locking it.

Will our heroes brave the crypts in search of Gralmore Nimblenobs and the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind? Will Lief Lipsiege prefer to kill himself rather than leave Castle Ravenloft? Find out all this and more (maybe) in the next thrilling instalment of The Curse of Strahd

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