Episode 11: Return to the House of Lament

**Act I.**

While the party sleeps, safe at the Carnival, Tatyana feels a cool breeze on her skin and hears a voice telling her to wake up. It’s Laurie Weathermay-Foxgrove asking Tatyana to bring her friends back to the House of Lament to rescue her and Jennifer. The twins used much of their power so that the party could escape; now their strength is failing, and they’re trapped. At the promise of combat, Tatyana agrees. Laurie asks if Tatyana still has the axe, because they’ve been having difficulty subduing the warlord. After Tatyana says yes, Laurie says “they’ve found us” and the connection is broken. Tatyana immediately takes up her axe and begins packing to leave.

The movement gets Nahara and Valentine’s attention. Tatyana’s conversation with Laurie was telepathic, but she assumes everyone heard. After some comedic banter about whether or not Valentine is jealous that Tatyana has another friend or now has a voice in HER head, Tatyana conveys Laurie’s message to Nahara and Valentine. Then she bellows to wake the rest of the party, but ends up waking the entire Carnival in the process. Uriah notices that Fen is missing. They come to the consensus that Fen must have spent the night with Isolde, and it’s best not to disturb them. Nahara realizes she needs a token from the house in order to get back to its special pocket domain. She thinks she could use either the axe or the planchette, but after some discussion decides on the planchette, which should take them back outside the house. Everyone expresses concern about Tatyana’s issues with the axe and Uriah warns Nahara and Valentine that it will be difficult to avoid them when he casts Turn Undead in such close quarters. Valentine notes wryly that they’re going to a place where they’ll likely kill each other.

**Act II.**

As the sun rises over the Carnival, there is a good mood over the camp. Hermos walks by with Hildi on his shoulder, and everyone claps and cheers for her. Desmond and Uriah take a moment to appreciate Hildi’s experience of joy after what she went through in Lekar. Nahara asks if they should find a caretaker for Hildi while they’re away, and the others say the entire Carnival will be taking care of her; she’s in good hands. Uriah asks if they should go to Isolde’s tent and get Fen to join them. The others think this is a bad idea. Finally they decide to leave her a note, and Uriah leaves a message for her with Hermos as well. He thanks Hermos for taking care of Hildi, who has been declared the Queen of the Carnival. Hearing that the party is going somewhere dangerous, Hildi takes up her sling and asks if she should come along. Uriah tells her that the Queen of the Carnival must stay and rule over her subjects. Hildi declares Uriah her Knight of the Carnival. Valentine leaves a vague note for Fen and Tatyana leaves a rock with a heart painted on it outside Carrador’s tent.

Valentine asks to stop by the ring toss before they leave to see what new toys have shown up. There is one anomaly: a prize that looks either like the twins, standing back to back, swords drawn or the two vampires Valentine saw before. It’s the same prize but looks different depending on the angle. Valentine concludes that the Weathermay-Foxgrove sisters might be vampires. The duergar points out that Litwick Market has now surrounded the Carnival on three sides, which means they’ll be leaving soon. He notices something different about Nahara and gives her a doll that’s just stuffing with soot on it. When Tatyana asks what it is, he says it’s supposed to be an invisible doll. It should help them get back to the Carnival even if the Carnival has moved. Nahara pulls a card from her tarokka deck to get information about the near future. She pulls the Trader, which indicates they will be given an opportunity to make a trade that is not at all fair. Watching her, the duergar says the cards don’t always give that much information. Before they leave, he asks if they’d be interested in trading Stewart. Nahara says he would have to make it worth her while. He tells Tatyana that he wants to talk to her about Jibaku when they return, making it clear to everyone that he can read their thoughts, and has been watching all of them.

Nahara asks Valentine for the planchette, and Valentine doesn’t remember taking it from the house, but finds it in her pocket. As Nahara focuses on the planchette, she can feel that it is capable of taking them several different places, but she focuses on the house, and they arrive back at the crossroads where the party first met. They have some trouble determining which way the house is, but when Uriah uses his Eyes of the Grave, it’s clear which way they should go. He can feel one very powerful malevolent presence and dozens of smaller entities.

**Act III.**

Uriah reaches into his pocket and finds the feather the wereraven gave all of them on their first visit. Desmond finds one in his pocket as well, and he’s sure it hasn’t been there since. As they walk toward the house, Valentine has a telepathic conversation with Tregrum. She asks them who the voice was in her head the last time she was here. Tregrum refuses to tell her, but says she’ll be summoned home by “the authority” soon. When she asks who that is, Tregrum refuses to answer. Valentine asks Tregrum to keep the duergar out of her mind; she doesn’t like that he’s been reading her thoughts. Tregrum says it will do what it can, but it has limits.

As they emerge from the woods and see the house, it looks undamaged from their earlier adventure, and the Weathermay-Foxgrove sisters’ cart is no longer in front of the house. Tatyana tries to use Speak with Animals to find out more, but there are no animals in the woods. She tells the others, and Desmond and Uriah are disturbed. Nahara asks why the sisters’ belongings are gone if Laurie asked Tatyana to come. Tatyana questions if their experience last time was real. Uriah suspects that the house might be able to heal itself, like a living thing. It begins pouring rain, and the party makes their way to the porch. The door opens easily. Uriah casts Protection from Evil on himself before crossing the threshold. Inside, the sculpture of the peryton they fought last time is back in place as if nothing happened. Nahara checks the parlor to see if the spirit board is still there; it is. When Tatyana calls for the twins and gets no answer, Nahara places the planchette on the spirit board and asks where the Weathermay-Foxgrove sisters are. The planchette spells out “evict the chimney witch.”

While the party looks for the nearest fireplace, Tatyana goes exploring and enters a room because the door shut in front of her. Inside, she finds the largest, best-smelling muffin she has ever seen. She brings it back to the parlor to share with her friends. Tatyana tosses a chunk to Desmond and takes a big bite of the muffin. It tastes wonderful, but there is something chewy inside. When she spits it out, it is a human toe. Tatyana and Valentine do their best to get Tatyana’s tongue clean. When she throws the muffin against the wall, it has more toes, rats’ tails and lizards’ claws inside. Tatyana is sick. Nahara, Tatyana, and Valentine all suspect the chimney witch may have baked the muffin. As they discuss how to get back to the room where Tatyana got it, a long, clawed arm with too many elbows reaches out of the fireplace and snatches Nahara into the chimney.

**Act IV.**

Seeing Nahara get grabbed, Desmond casts Protection from Evil on himself. Nahara is dragged by her ankle through a surreal network of chimneys, banged against the walls, and finally dangled over a huge fire. She casts Protection from Evil on herself, and the hand drops her into the fire. Desmond hears Nahara screaming and can smell something burning in the kitchen. When the party arrives, they see Nahara fall into the hearth, and Desmond runs to pull her out, badly burning himself in the process. All of the doors to the kitchen slam shut and the house groans. While Uriah heals Nahara and Desmond casts Cure Wounds on himself, the house growls for them to “get out.” Tatyana tries a door and finds it locked, so she takes out her axe. A shadowy form emerges from the hearth, saying Tatyana will die first. Aggravated that the house told them to get out after locking them in, Desmond transforms, ripping off his skin to allow his muscles to get bigger and his fur to grow. He attacks the specter, but his claws go right through it. The specter’s claws rake through Tatyana, using Life Drain and greatly reducing her hit point total. It says it will make him suffer by killing her.

Tatyana asks who “he” is. Guessing that “him” is the warlord, Uriah tries to reason with the hag’s specter, telling her they are not on the warlord’s side. The specter asks why Tatyana has his axe if they’re not working with the warlord. While Uriah has her distracted, Valentine considers casting one of her charm spells on the specter, but realizes it will be immune to those effects. She asks Uriah telepathically if she should not attack the specter, and he says no, it’s beginning to listen to reason. Instead, Valentine casts Mage Hand between her allies and the hag’s specter, just in case. The specter reveals that it’s trapped in the house, and Nahara begins to negotiate with it. They can help it escape if it stops attacking them. The specter wants to leave and destroy the house. Feeling she’s losing her, Nahara takes on her Form of Dread. Tatyana loses her wisdom save against the berserker axe and charges at the hag’s specter, embedding it in the spectral body. Desmond tries to attack again, but his claws don’t seem to do damage to it. The hag’s specter tells Tatyana she’ll keep her soul here, and attacks again, draining Tatyana’s life and maximum hit points again. Seeing things going downhill, Uriah casts Sacred Flame on the specter and misses, losing its trust. The specter says Uriah will be next. Valentine twinspells Arms of Hadar, then casts Firebolt at the specter. It grabs Tatyana’s face as it burns away, cursing her and leaving an ashy handprint behind. With the specter gone, Tatyana’s rage turns on Nahara.

**Act V.**

Tatyana swings the axe at Nahara and misses, embedding it in the wall instead. The wall bleeds and the house laughs. Desmond casts Zephyr Strike and pushes Nahara through the nearest door, shattering it and getting them both out of Tatyana’s sight. Uriah casts Protection from Evil on Tatyana, and she’s able to snap out of it. As she runs to Nahara to apologize, Stewart Mind Blasts both Tatyana and Uriah, stunning him and knocking her unconscious. Valentine has had it with Stewart at this point. Nahara scolds Stewart, but tells Valentine he’s only there to protect her. Valentine tries to throw Stewart’s jar through the nearest door, but finds herself unable to do so. She can’t even set his jar over the threshold and close the door. Tregrum speaks up, telling her the brain is still useful and that it will give Stewart a stern talking-to. Valentine doesn’t want to keep carrying him around and letting him hurt her friends. Finally she gives the jar back to Nahara for safekeeping. Stewart apologizes to Valentine, promising to be more precise with his attacks in the future.

Still stunned, Uriah asks who ordered the veal cutlet, making Desmond laugh so hard he transforms back into his human form. Nahara cures Tatyana’s wounds, bringing her back to consciousness. Coming back to himself, Uriah asks if Stewart did that, pointing out that he waited until Tatyana had freed herself from the axe to blast them. Valentine can also discern that Stewart could easily have missed Uriah with that blast, but he chose to hit Uriah as well. Tatyana says they should leave before they kill each other, and Valentine points out they still haven’t found the sisters. The party agrees to stay together and not eat anything else they find in the house. Before they leave the kitchen, Uriah finds a vial of assassin’s blood poison in the pantry and takes it for later.

Everyone wants to rest before they move on. When Tatyana bemoans the chimney witch stealing her soul, Uriah tells her she will regain her vigor with a long, uninterrupted rest, though he doubts they’ll get one in the house. He also reminds Tatyana that she’s cursed. Valentine examines Tatyana’s mind and finds part of it she can no longer access. They talk about leaving the house to take shelter in the woods, but when Desmond opens the porch door, the storm is raging so hard, it pushes him back inside the house. Tatyana suggests they could barricade themselves in a room for the night, and Nahara asks that it not be the kitchen. Desmond sees Tatyana’s shadow move and look at her when she’s not looking. He points it out. As they discuss which room to move to, the porch door slams shut. They try moving to the dining room, but the child-sized figure under a sheet, sitting at the table, gives them all pause. The party decides not to chance crossing the dining room and they return to the parlor. Tatyana barricades the doors and watches the fireplace like a hawk. Nahara places the planchette back on the spirit board, and it spells out “evict leaper next.” Desmond asks who they’re speaking to, and it spells out “knight.” B. Dave reminds them of the vision they had of the knight charging toward the castle. They ask where the leaper is, but the spirit makes no response. When they ask if they are safe in this room, the knight spells out “no.”

Tatyana asks everyone to watch her shadow for her. While she walks around, trying to get it to act up again, Tregrum tells Valentine that it has been ejected from Tatyana’s mind. She asks if they can fix it, but Tregrum is not sure how. They say if they go home, they might be able to help Tatyana there. Valentine asks where home is again, and Tregrum says it will have to show her, it can’t tell her. She asks Tregrum if they can stay here and rest or if they need to get out of the house now. Tregrum says the house isn’t going to let them leave, so Valentine tells the others they should all get some rest. She says she and Nahara can keep watch, since they don’t sleep. Tatyana misses Fen. As she settles down to sleep, Nahara sees Tatyana’s shadow look up with red eyes and move on its own. Valentine surrounds Tatyana with candles to keep her shadow at bay. Uriah finds a book on Ezra that seems heretical. Desmond tells him not to trust any book in this house, and Uriah takes his advice. Tatyana falls asleep quickly, exhausted, and Desmond eventually finds sleep as well.

While the others sleep and Valentine meditates, Uriah speaks to Nahara in private about Stewart, asking her if she can advocate for Stewart not to catch Uriah in his blasts anymore. When Nahara tells Uriah anyone can talk to Stewart, he explains that he can’t help Valentine or the other party members if they get injured if Stewart has knocked him out. Stewart tells Nahara telepathically that he’ll try to spare the others, but if they’re so fragile how much use are they? Nahara argues that they’re not fragile and they were all brought together for a reason, so please don’t harm the others anymore, especially Brother Uriah. Stewart makes her the same promise he made Valentine. When Uriah asks if Stewart had said anything, Nahara tells him Stewart has agreed in his own way. They all rest.

**Epilogue:**

As soon as he falls asleep, Uriah finds himself somewhere else, facing a man he only recognizes from Barovian coins. Strahd asks Uriah where Nahara is, and Uriah asks Strahd what he wants with Nahara. Strahd says they both know that Nahara is important. When Uriah looks blank, Strahd is surprised Azalin did not tell him. Uriah says Azalin didn’t mention Nahara to him, but Strahd must know that Nahara was just with him before he was called here. Strahd guesses that Nahara failed to mention Azalin to Uriah as well. Uriah says he doesn’t want to betray Nahara’s confidence, and Strahd is amused. He says Uriah doesn’t know, which Uriah admits, as he has no idea what Strahd is talking about. Strahd tells Uriah to pass a message to Azalin for him: Check. As Uriah tries to understand what this means, B. Dave tells us it’s a good place for us to stop.

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

**Next Episode:** 12 - Return to the House of Lament Part 2