COS: Session 1: Unpleasant House

"Werewolves in the mist!" You've heard these dreaded words spoken again and again by farmers, merchants, and adventurers alike. The hamlets east of Daggerford have fallen prey to a pack of werewolves that spills out of the Misty Forest on nights of the full moon, cloaked in crawling mist that seems to follow them wherever they go. The beasts spread death and mayhem, slaughtering adults and stealing children before retreating back into the woods. Others have tried to combat the werewolf menace, with little success.

Having been informed about a group of travellers causing trouble amongst the streets of Daggerford, Mishka and Piran - an unlikely duo by all accounts, one a haggard and horror-stricken human, the other a... surprisingly energetic and charismatic Kobold - went to politely ask them to vacate the town, before the town guard were sent to aggressively attain the same outcome.

Upon arriving at the caravan they came upon a colourfully dressed troupe, dancing and drinking various kinds of alcohol. They all seemed to be having a fantastic time, but two individuals stood out in particular. Sitting around a fire alongside an elder, but similarly colourful old man was a large Tortle and quite well dressed looking man. The colourful old man smiled as the two approached, having expected them all along and allowed them to introduce themselves to the others who happened to be Ollabark, a Tortle whose dark past would soon be revealed, and Tobias Akamai, a man with a few gambling debts that needed to be paid off.

Ollabark, told the group of his dark past. Many moons ago he was reaching the end of his life and the age that all Tortles live for, the time for mating, a glorious time or love, happiness and hopefully, all things going well, children. Before he mated however his partner was brutally attacked by a monster, being left dead - ruined, distraught and barely recognisable. Ollabark, for some unknown reason was spared, and now a dark power seems to prolong his life. He pledged himself to rid the world of all evil.

After this, the old colourful man, revealing himself as Stanimir began to tell his story:

He filled his mouth with wine, spitting it into the fire. The flames turned from orange to green. As they danced and swayed, a dark shape appearing in the bonfire’s core.

“We come from an ancient land whose name is long forgotten — a land of kings. Our enemies forced us from our homes, and now we wander the lost roads.”

The dark shape in the fire took the form of a man being knocked from his horse, a spear piercing his side.

   Stanimir continued. “One night, a wounded soldier staggered into our camp and collapsed. We nursed his terrible injury and quenched his thirst with wine. He survived. When we asked him who he was, he wouldn’t say. All he wanted was to return home, but we were deep in the land of his enemies. We took him as one of our own and followed him back toward his homeland. His enemies hunted him. They said he was a prince, yet we didn’t give him up, even when their assassins fell upon us like wolves.”

Deep in the bonfire, they saw the dark figure standing with sword drawn, fighting off a host of shadowy shapes.

“This man of royal blood fought to protect us, as we protected him. We bore him safely to his home, and he thanked us. He said, ‘I owe you my life. Stay as long as you wish, leave when you choose, and know that you will always be safe here.’”

The figure in the dancing fire vanquished its final foe, then dispersed in a cloud of smoke and embers.

Stanimir’s face became a somber mask. “A curse has befallen our noble prince, turning him into a tyrant. We alone have the power to leave his domain. We’ve traveled far and wide to find heroes such as yourselves to end our dread lord’s curse and put his troubled soul to rest. Our leader, Madam Eva, knows all. Will you return to Barovia with us and speak with her?”

After much discussion in which Piran decided he quite like the idea of killing undead, Tobias figured it would be a good way to earn the money he needed to pay off his gambling debts, Mishka realising it was an opportunity for a great story and Ollabark realising the chance to rid a land of dark forces and evil, eventually agreed to follow.

The group proceeded to follow the colourful folk out of Daggerford and up the sword coast towards Waterdeep. After a while their way became enshrouded in mist, swirling and thick yet almost unreachable it almost called to them, sending them to a sort of trance. After snapping back, the group realised that those they were following were gone, a trail of paw-prints where the wagon they were following once was. Following this trail they eventually to a gigantic and imposing gate covered in mildew, moss and rust, impossibly tall with crumbling stone statues.

As they went through the gate, it slammed shut behind them, completely immovable. The continued on, one person catching the scent of death on the air and following into the forest surrounding them, found a common looking man, slashed and torn to pieces, clutching an envelope. Inspecting it they found a letter from the Burgomeister, warning people that their town had been beset by a Vampyr, and that they should surround it with priests to ward of evil.

Leaving the man, they proceeded further down the path eventually reaching a small town, the windows blacked out and the streets deserted... there were sounds of life however, if only from the smoke rising from the occasional chimney... and, they discovered, the crying of a young child. Following this sound they met two, quite opulently dressed children who informed them there was a monster lurking in their house and they had heard the howls. They begged the group to go in and save their baby brother Walter on the third floor, and their parents who had locked the monster in the Basement. Sure that this monster must have been a werewolf, Ollabark decided they just accept these pleas with gusto and that he must kill it! After Tobias asked the children if it was alright for himself and the rest of his companions to enter the house, they proceeded in.

Upon entering the main hall the heard the sound of a Harpsichord, it was not impressive, but upon ascending the stairs it stopped. They ignored this and proceeded further up, coming to the third floor which, compared the first two - which were opulent and absolutely spotless - was hideously dusty and looked as though people hadn't trodden in it for centuries. The wailing of a baby could be heard from another room, and deciding that this was potentially the child they had come to rescue, proceeded to investigate, but not before being startled by a suit of animated armor. After swiftly dispatching of it they proceeded in the same direction as the wails, coming upon an empty room, a large mirror in the side and the wails seemingly coming from a room to their right. Upon getting closer to the door, they heard the sound of woman singing a lullaby to try and usher the baby to sleep:

"Hush little baby," the woman sings, "don't say a word. Mama's gonna buy you a Blinsky toy... And if that blinsky toy don't work... Walter, stop crying. Please, stop crying. Morninglord's light, please just stop crying".

They proceeded into the room, but found no one, and nothing but a crib covered in a shroud, the baby's wails coming from within. Piran approached and seized the shroud, pulling it off and finding nothing inside but dust and cobwebs. Then all of a sudden, on the bed from the room he just entered from came a weep, as he turned he saw a woman, skeletal-thin, dressed in a soiled, white gown. She looked straight back at him, he hair hanging over her shoulder like rotted vines. Her face stretched impossibly far into a ghostly visage and she screamed!

She started towards Piran, but halted for a split second, sensing something... off about him before turning to instead attack Ollabark instead who deftly dodged out of the way. Taking advantage of the surprise she lashed out again, this time at Piran once more, managing to battle past the feeling of oddness she felt before. She struck him, draining the lifeforce from his body and causing him to fall... lifeless and irrecoverably dead. The group jumped as soon as they saw this, desperately trying to strike her down. It was Ollabark who, channelling a crimson rite into his battle axe, landed the final blow, tearing the spectre from this mortal coil and having the miasma that formed her body dissipate into the air around them.

The party remarked that the death of Piran was unfortunate, but nonetheless pressed on and searched the rest of the floor. Decided to search through the master bedroom on that same floor, they found a number of treasures, and, more disturbingly a mirror. As Ollabark turned away from it he noticed his reflection did not turn with him, and turning back found it grinning and impossibly wide grin back towards him, as the reflections flesh slowly started to shed.

"This mirror is obviously haunted, I suggest we shut the door and leave it be"

The group found a dumbwaiter, which after calling it raised and offered in it's care an awfully rotten plate of food. Suddenly they heard noises from downstairs. Tobias called down, querying the source of this disturbance and discovered that it was Wernher and that he brought Helm's Blessings!

Everyone introduced themselves once again, with Mishka really wanting to know if Wernher had heard of her grandfather, bard to the great dragonking himself! No one had really heard of him, but Wernher had other things on his mind... such as why the Kobold wasn't attacking him... or anyone else for that matter, it's pretty weird for Kobold not to attack on sight! Mishka was somewhat perturbed by this and retorted that it was just as weird that the Human's weren't attacking HER on sight, as they are so want to do when storming a Kobold lair or nest, even when the rewards of doing so were never worth their while. She did conclude however, that the companions she now kept seemed far nicer than most human's she knew!

After introductions, they proceeded to search the house once more, finding a study! With another dumbwaiter! There was switch for this one, and Wernher concluded that "Dumwaiters are dumb". Exploring the study they found many books amongst which were: "Destruction of the Dusk Elves", "Alchemical Secrets Best Left Unknown", "Blades of brass by Walt Whitdwarf", "Ways of the Wildfolk" and "Political Theory in Dismal Days".

Mishka found one that, unlike all the others had no title on it's bindings, and upon pulling it out, opened up a secret passageway in which were more books, these ones covered in eldritch runes, and a chest, the skeleton of a man found halfway inside. Upon examining the man, Tobias discovered he had been killed by a poison dart and found a number of items within the chest, including a deed to the house, a few magical scrolls and a letter, written in flowing script reading:

*My most pathetic servant,*

*I am not a messiah sent to you by the Dark Powers of this land. I have not come to lead you on a path to immortality. However many souls you have bled on your hidden altar, however many visitors you have tortured in your dungeon, know that you are not the ones who brought me to this beautiful land. You are but worms writhing in my earth.*

*You say that you are cursed, your fortunes spent. You abandoned love for madness, took solace in the bosom of another woman, and sired a stillborn son. Cursed by darkness? Of that I have no doubt. Save you from your wretchedness? I think not. I much prefer you as you are.*

*Your dread lord and master,*

*Strahd Von Zarovich*

"Well he doesn't seem nice... rather miserable actually." remarked Wernher, "Helm is far better... but perhaps the illegitimate son mentioned is the baby supposedly on the third floor"

They decided to divvy up the possessions, Tobias keeping the scroll of bless and Mishka taking the others. Wernher passed however, stating that he wasn't interested in worldly possession and lives the life of Helm.

Before leaving the study they decided to search the desk, where they found a small iron key.

There was some discussion, sparked by Tobias, as to whether Wernher belonged to a holy order

"I'm not, but after letting Helm into my life I decided I no longer needed to gamble or Carouse... in fact I would say my life is brilliant and not a single thing is missing"

"Ah well, a man such as yourself could become a prime target in a place such as this" Remarked Tobias "It's a shame that you don't have a holy order that could come and avenge you, should you happen to fall that is."

"Aha yes! You're right! In fact, if I were to fall here I would dare say no one would even know! I'm the last of my line!"

After this they decided to take small break, but not before fetching the body of Piran and dumping in the small secret passage way, Wernher saying some funeral rites

“What was his name? Kieran? Piran… so Piran! Taken too soon from this earth, clearly some kind of fighter or warrior he apparently fought nobly against the forces of darkness.. May he move forward into Helm’s embrace and live his next life. Go now and seek not the dark arts and may your body lie undisturbed next to some books and things we didn’t take with us. Amen”

After this was finished, Wernher raised his mace and bopped the lifeless body of Piran on the head with it, concluding his funeral rites.

Ollabark spent this time studying one of the books with eldritch symbols adorning the cover, finding nothing of interest and deducing that all of the rituals within were complete nonsense! Except for the one about rubbing two orphans together to make more orphans, which to Ollabark sounded perfectly reasonable! He decided to keep the book

After their rest the group found the room with the Harpsichord. Tobias did a waltz across the floor while Mishka played the harp with grace and aplomb. Tobias then decided to try playing the Harpsichord, but after playing a pretty awful tune gets up and loudly states that it was obviously out of tune, just before Ollabark raised his axe to completely RUIN the harpsichord.

* Is this house trapped in time?
	+ Would the wolves have been cleaning the house? Nonsense they don’t have hands!
	+ Maybe they’re weremen? If that’s true they won’t live long
	+ Werewolves are a terrible evil and a plight on the lands.
* Ollabark RUINS the cabinet
	+ What a mess we’re leaving? What of the children!? This is their home!
	+ Maybe they’re already dead
* Verna was a really bad gambler and lost a lot!
	+ Ollabark likes the ace up his sleeve, a battleaxe
	+ Tobias has a literal ace up his sleeves
* Ollbark kicks the stuffed wolf
* Tobias ate some Jerky and find out it was human flesh that was stale
* Ollabark RUINS a cask of Ale and it starts spilling onto the floor
* Mishka takes all the silver
* Ollabark RUINS all the silverware on the table. Curse this illusion, this trickery!
	+ If we could see beyond this illusion this table would be as dusty as the rest!
	+ He decides to pick up a goblet from the floor and licks it to see if it is dusty, it seemed fine
* Lets look around the outside
* Go up to the mirror in the bedroom and Ollabark finds another cursed mirror
* Verna takes Ollabarks crowbar and attempts to rip open the mirror
* The group enter a dusty storage room
	+ Ollabark reveals a mirror and a coat rack
		- He kicks over and RUINS the mirror and gets 7 years bad luck
	+ They open a chest and find the skeletal remains of who they can only assume is the handmaiden from downstairs!
* Verner scoops the two childrens remains to in a rolled up bedroll, Ollabark helps
* Strahd might not be happy if we bury the man downstairs, should we bury him?