Episode 9: Only Lasting Death

**Act I.**

After their meeting with Vladeska Drakov, the party returns to the diplomat’s quarters for their last night of rest before the new moon. Nahara seeks out a comfortable, quiet space where she can reflect on what’s transpired. As she rests, Nahara experiences her familiar vision of running and falling, desperation and death. Then she feels a familiar presence in the room with her. She hears the voice of the hag she spoke with at the Litwick Market. She asks if she may join Nahara, and says she means her no harm. When Nahara invites her in, the door of a tall wardrobe in the room opens, and Granny comes out. She says every door is a gateway if you know how to access it.

Granny apologizes to Nahara for cutting short her reading at the Carnival. She says she allowed fear to cloud her duties and asks Nahara’s forgiveness. Granny says after Nahara left, she spoke with her sisters in the Hourglass Coven and came to understand how special Nahara is; there aren’t many who die and are reborn as often and as skilfully as Nahara does. She says there are many competing for Nahara’s attention and soul, but Granny wants her to know she has sisters and power, and Granny can help Nahara access it. She tells Nahara that there is power in communing with spirits and gives her a tarokka deck, telling her that it can answer many questions, past and future. Nahara asks if it really works, and Granny says it works if Nahara does. Then she asks to bless her on behalf of the Hourglass Coven. Nahara asks the price, and Granny says the price is she wants her to win, something they both want. When Granny touches her forehead, Nahara feels a shockwave go through her. Afterwards, she becomes aware of countless entities around her. Granny tells her in time, she will be capable of great wonders and warns Nahara to watch over her friends, many of whom have made certain agreements both consciously and unconsciously, lest they be torn apart. She warns that Valentine is just as terrible as she says she is and promises they’ll meet again at a later time to celebrate what Nahara has become. When Granny leaves, Nahara looks more closely at the deck and the images move slightly, making her feel like she’s gained a number of new allies.

**Act II.**

Before dawn, the party is awakened by the smell of burning flesh, and they know the talons are burning those impaled on the walls. Today the people in the city are still working hard to prepare for the battle tonight. A hospital has been set up in the bastion ward. Triage hospitals have also been set up in the shadow of the castle, with a separate one for the talons, supplied with stimulants and artificial limbs so they can keep fighting. The party is brought food and is allowed to visit any part of the city they wish. Nahara works with her tarokka deck. Uriah awakens feeling better after having spent the night distilling a cure for the zombie plague. He spends the morning administering it to the sick, as well as his friends who were infected yesterday. Valentine practices her combat spells and Tregrum shows her how to cast a twinned spell. She tells Tregrum she’s best at manipulating people, not magic. Tregrum shows her a worker who’s stopped working, suggesting she practice on him. Valentine uses Suggestion to force the man to begin working again, even though his arms are too tired to continue. When a talon thanks her for this, Valentine detects his thoughts and sees he is hopeful for the battle now they have the party’s help. She asks him what motivates him to fight, fear or glory? He answers that he only fears disappointing his people. Valentine reads from his mind that he’s sincere, and has unwavering faith in Vladeska Drakov. As he walks away, Valentine perceives he is afraid of losing another ward the way they lost the river ward in the last battle.

Fen spends the morning with the lycanthropes. Desmond splits his morning between training with Fen and the lycanthropes and learning the plague cure from Uriah and the other clerics. Brother Uriah offers him a drought to cure the taint in Desmond’s blood, and says he doesn’t understand why everyone keeps laughing when he says “taint”. Desmond says he doesn’t think Uriah’s old enough for Desmond to explain it to him. Tatyana wakes up and runs laps around the wall before seeking out Freyja. She finds her training by letting two men hit her with sticks while she stands still. When the sticks break, Tatyana asks to go next. Freyja tells her she’s strong but undisciplined; she has yet to access the beast in her heart. When Tatyana protests, Freyja signals the men with her to bring out morningstars and hit her like they did with the sticks. Tatyana is amazed and begs Freyja to teach her how to be that strong. The three warriors show Tatyana the bear tattoos on their chests, and Freyja says she will teach her how to be the bear.

Fen finds the lycanthropes outside the bastion ward. Jaeger is the wolf soldier, Katze is the tiger soldier, Ueber is the boar, and Unge is the rat. Jaeger and Katze are training for battle, but Ueber is painting and Unge is strumming a lyre. He tells her he’s enjoying the quiet moments before the battle and shows Fen his skill with dagger throwing, and that he can summon them back to his hand with a gesture. Ueber asks to paint Fen’s portrait, and she agrees. Jaeger shows her the claymore he inherited from his grandfather. Katze says she knows they seem strange, but they chose this. Fen says they’re not strange to her. The lycans admit they can smell that she, Nahara, and Valentine are different, and that Desmond is one of them, but they haven’t told anyone because the party was kind to them. Fen shows them her other form, and Ueber throws away his canvas and begins to paint her like this. They’re all impressed and ask how they can repay Fen for sharing her gift. She shows her fangs and asks if they can share their strength with her. Jaeger insists on being the one, and as Fen drinks his blood, she feels a wild, furious magic course through her, changing her a little. The lycanthropes invite her and Desmond to fight beside them tonight. When Fen flirts with Jaeger, both he and Katze invite her to find them after the battle.

Nahara asks her tarokka deck for more insight on Vladeska. She draws the Darklord card, indicating Vladeska will do anything to defend Lekar, and she will never surrender. Her greatest flaw is that she will let everyone in the city die before she admits defeat. The second card is the Avenger, indicating that Vladeska believes she is doing the right thing. She wants to make Lekar better for everyone, and she truly believes that only she can turn the tide and beat the undead. The last card is the Illusionist, which speaks of those plotting against Vladeska. This makes Nahara happy. Horstman interrupts her and asks if Nahara has gained any new insights into how they will be victorious in the battle tonight. Nahara says she’s sure everything will be fine.

**Act III.**

The party is gathered and escorted to the lycanthrope training area. Uriah gives his plague cure to Fen and Valentine. Seeing the painting Iber did of Fen and the four lycanthropes, Desmond is impressed. Katze invites Desmond to fight by their side when combat begins tonight. He agrees. Glancing around, Fen notices that barrels of flammable material and explosives have been hidden at strategic points throughout the district. She shares this with the party, and Fen, Desmond, and Uriah become concerned Vladeska is planning a strategy that will involve sacrificing everyone fighting in this area. The explosives are being hidden from the living, not the undead. Valentine notices Tatyana has many new bruises, and she asks if they’re good or bad bruises. When Tatyana answers that they’re the best bruises, Valentine asks no more questions. Desmond notices a change in both Tatyana and Fen. He tells Tatyana he wants to speak with her about it later. Desmond can tell Fen smells more like him now and asks about it. She says she made friends and shows off her longer fangs. Tatyana says Fen is looking quite lovely. When Fen starts to talk about what Jaeger’s blood tasted like compared to Valentine’s, she has to explain to Tatyana that she didn’t bite Valentine; she tasted her blood by accident.

Valentine and Uriah both notice that there’s something different about Nahara now. She has a far-off look in her eye, and Uriah can feel something around Nahara that wasn’t there before. He asks if she’s alright, and Nahara says she feels great. Valentine notes that the city is having a strange effect on a lot of them. The party returns to the subject of explosives and agrees that Vladeska would be willing to sacrifice whole sections of the city to achieve victory. Ultimately, everyone is expendable to her.

Horstman arrives and asks to walk the city with them and talk tactics. As he points out areas of interest, Horstman does not mention the explosives. Fen asks the party if they should bring it up, and before they can decide, Tatyana asks why Horstman is hiding things from them. When she points out the explosives, he seems not to have seen them, but takes the revelation in stride, trusting Vladeska’s tactics. Fen and Tatyana think Horstman is lying about not having known, but the others can tell he was being honest. He’s escorting them back to the diplomat’s quarters so that they can rest up for tonight when Vladeska butts in, demanding they come with her.

**Act IV.**

Vladeska escorts the party to a cathedral where the pews inside have been pushed aside to make room for a central slab. She removes the shroud from the figure there to reveal Nahara–or a body that looks exactly like Nahara except that her wings are white and she’s wearing white robes. Tatyana tries to put Nahara in a headlock, calling her an imposter, but Valentine makes her stop. Vladeska accuses them of coming here the night before the battle to distract her with this trick. Nahara begins to goad and taunt Vladeska again, telling her she can’t get rid of Nahara so easily. While Uriah tries to play off Nahara’s taunts as a joke, Desmond explains that this is some trick of the Mists, not anything the party planned.

Valentine asks Vladeska why she kept this body of all the people she’s killed, and Fen asks why the body isn’t decomposed. Vladeska says the clerics could preserve the body but they were unable to bring her back to life. She tells Valentine that when this woman died, everything went wrong for her. The next new moon after that was when the undead armies came. Vladeska suggests maybe the solution to her problem is to kill Nahara again. The party gets between them, but Nahara continues to goad Vladeska. As they argue, Strahd speaks in Fen’s ear, telling her that he is the one who cursed Vladeska. When Fen asks what he wants her to do, Strahd says to let Vladeska suffer. Fen shares this with the others.

Meanwhile, Uriah is trying to calm Vladeska down, when Azalin Rex takes over his body again. He convinces Vladeska that his envoys were sent in the spirit of cooperation, and reveals that Strahd von Zarovich is responsible for her torment, not Nahara. He says they share a common enemy and asks that she not kill his envoys for their insolence. Vladeska agrees, and Azalin says they will both have words with Strahd once the plague has been dealt with. While the party turns on Uriah, thinking he was play-acting as Azalin, Vladeska tells them they are free to leave Falkovnia if they survive the night.

Left alone in the chapel, Nahara demands they do something with her body. Uriah points out the other Nahara looks like the portrait she got on the Mourning Rail. The party accepts that Uriah was possessed by Azalin against his will, and Nahara asks him to give her body last rites. With Horstman watching, mouth agape, they set about holding a funeral for Nahara and burying the body. When asked to say a few words, Nahara says she doesn’t know why she’s here again but she has to believe they were brought together for a good reason. Tatyana says she bets the other Nahara had many beautiful memories, and they will make more. Once the body is buried, Horstman escorts them back to the house to rest up for battle.

**Act V.**

As the party enjoys one last fitful sleep, Tregrum expresses their confusion to Valentine at what Nahara is and why the party was sad at her funeral when she’s alive again. Tregrum asks Valentine if she feels a sense of loss for what she was. Valentine tells him she thinks Nahara was brought back with feelings but no memories, and she’s the exact opposite. Tregrum says Valentine got the better deal. They ask her if she would like a memorial if the unthinkable were to happen. Valentine says she does not want a bunch of strangers who met her at her worst to stand over her corpse and lie. Tregrum reminds her that Tatyana truly cares for her, and it has observed that the others seem to feel a true kinship for Valentine, though Tregrum doesn’t understand it. Valentine promises Tregrum to do her best not to die again, for Tatyana and so that she can find out what happened to Voronika. Tregrum asks to return to thinking about how best to help her survive the night.

The party is awakened by Hildi knocking on their door, coming to wish them good luck. She gives Fen her boneless doll to keep her safe. When Fen is incredulous that Hildi will be fighting, she tells them she will be jumping from roof to roof in the northern ward, and she’ll try to leave some undead for them. Seeing how thin she is, Fen gives Hildi some extra rations to eat before the battle. Uriah gives Hildi a flask of holy water and instructions for how to use it. Hildi promises to meet them again at the carnival, flashing her ticket. When they compare boneless dolls, Fen reminds Uriah that he owes her a talk after what happened yesterday with Azalin possessing him. Their conversation is interrupted by war horns. The party goes outside to hear Vladeska’s pre-battle speech to her people. The Falkovnians respond enthusiastically.

The party is escorted to the bastion ward and given their choice of position. While Desmond, Fen, and Tatyana choose to fight on the ground near the lycanthropes, Valentine chooses the highest vantage point from the roof of the governor’s mansion, taking Uriah with her, and Nahara chooses a spot high on the wall. They note that most of the children are positioned on roof tops, and the elderly are also up high or behind supply lines. At exactly midnight, they hear the moans of the undead from all around, and Uriah’s undead sense goes off. The archers on the walls begin to fire. Valentine sees two on the north wall suddenly disappear over the edge, pulled off by something. Fen takes stock of the battlefield and notes that the undead are attacking from all directions except the river ward. As she looks up at Nahara on the wall, Fen sees the undead mold together to form a ramp to climb up the wall. As the talons pour hot oil over the wall, Nahara lights it on fire with a torch. Seeing the undead begin climbing over the walls, Fen takes on her second form to fly close enough to warn Nahara. As the undead begin attacking the commoners, they scatter and flee, and some of the talons turn to fire on the commoners for running. Nahara takes on her form of dread, and Valentine begins casting firebolts on the undead closest to Nahara and Fen.

Seeing the talons shooting arrows at civilians, Desmond goes into a rage, shouting for them to keep firing at the undead as he transforms. He leaps at the zombies and Unge joins him. Katze taunts Tatyana for not having attacked yet, when she’s already slain many undead. They run into battle together. In a moment between zombie attacks on the wall, Nahara casts Protection from Evil and Good on herself and asks Fen if there’s a better vantage point, seeing that they’re being attacked on all sides. Beyond the wall, all she can see are waves of undead. Fen flies higher to look and says the center of town is the only better vantage point. She sees the ramp of zombies begin to move as one. As Stewart Mind Blasts many zombies, Fen sees the mass of zombies form a giant hand that crashes on top of the wall. Uriah sees it, too, and casts Guiding Bolt on the mass, which blows a hole in it, but it still comes forward. From below, Desmond and Tatyana see it, too, and it smells so bad, Desmond vomits. He sees one of the talon casters panic as the hand comes over the wall, casting firebolt blindly at the undead and setting some of the commoners and their houses on fire in his panic. Desmond howls and leaps at the undead. Vladeska comes up behind the party, saying they are good shots, but she will show them how to deal with this. She and her talons run across the roofs and begin attacking the mass of zombies point blank with their swords.

**Epilogue:**

After the day of her wedding, Voronika finds herself in a cold nothingness. In this timeless space, a face appears to her, asking if she knows where she is. Voronika says she wants to go back home, and the voice informs her that she is dead. She doesn’t believe it. Strahd von Zarovich introduces himself. Voronika doesn’t believe him, saying this is a name from fairy tales. Strahd tells her that there are many exits from the place she currently finds herself, where she is only a ghost. Voronika says she doesn’t want to be a ghost, she’s supposed to be married to Armand, living at home, making things better. Strahd asks if she misses Desmond, and Voronika asks what he knows of Desmond. Strahd says he doesn’t want Voronika to be a ghost but he can’t send her back. Instead, he offers to release her from this place in exchange for a favour later. As Voronika reluctantly accepts Strahd’s terms, B. Dave tells us it’s a good place for us to stop.

**Previous Episode:** 8 - For Here the Lover and Killer Are Mingled

**Next Episode:** 10 - A Symptom of Man's Failure

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