Episode 42: Progress and Portents

Recovering from their confrontation with Baba Lysaga, the party explored the remaining ruins of Berez while Nestor contemplated the baby rescued from the old witch.

In a collapsed building near the now empty goat pen, a sentient ghast guarded a flooded basement where Bamya retrieved some old bottles of wine and a strange Blinksy doll with red hair. Stealing the items away enraged the undead creature, but it was unable to pursue them past the threshold of the building it seemed cursed to inhabit. Meanwhile, in the nearby ruined church, another ghastly undead being was found skewered to the wall above the altar. As it spewed filth and obscenities at them, Father Gus investigated the adjacent churchyard to discover the flooded burial grounds to be crawling with walking corpses. Before finishing off the hanging creature that called itself Brother Grigor, they uncovered that it and its “brother” Lazlo Ulrich were cursed by Bannoch to haunt this place when they denied him a local girl called Marina. Apparently, Brother Grigor killed the girl rather than letting her fall into Bannoch's hands. The party returned the favor and roasted the ghastly Brother Grigor on his javelin hangers before leaving Berez to return to the Martikov Vineyard.

HIking the road through a torrential downpour, they were stopped again by a trio of revenant knights and their attendant shadows. Weary from a long day of fighting, they unleashed what remained of their magics, and made hasty work of these undead warriors with their ominous dragon crested armor.

Back at the winery, a great celebration commenced as the Martikov gemstones were returned to Davian and his family. As promised, the old vintner gifted them with an ancient relic, The Holy Symbol of Ravenkind. In return for answering some questions, Father Gus gifted the family with the Black Gulthias Staff taken from the feral druids of Yester Hill as defense against future raids on the Vineyard. While the entire family shuddered at the presence of the cursed staff, old Davian shed some light on further rumors of the Valley:

The ruins on the bluffs near the Luna River is the stronghold known as Argynvolstholt, the former home of an order of knights that once protected the valley before Bannoch decimated them. The rumored temple of the Fangs of The Veil sits in the mountains above Tsolenka Pass, but appears to have been long abandoned. Additionally, reincarnation superstitions amongst the locals of the Svallich Valley seem to have a more sinister edge, as many believe to die in this valley means only to be reborn  in another wretched prisoner of the mists, for all time. And finally, the Martikov family themselves admitted to being shapeshifters, capable of transforming into Ravens - a secret the Party pledged to keep.

While Nestor made peace with the grim baby that haunted his conscience, Father Gus reached out to Van Richten again with his magic, but the response this time claimed that their new friend had been captured by Bannoch and held captive in the basement of the Castle. Unable to shake the feeling that his magic was somehow being eavesdropped upon, Father Gus urged the party back to Vallaki where a note from “Rictavio” at the Blue Water Inn explained he had travelled to Barovia with a local nobleman to obtain a new wagon for his circus act. Danika and Urwin Matikov relayed that the young Ismark Kolyanovich had taken shelter with the Wachter family here in Vallaki. Before leaving town, Vin's prodigious talents for impersonation unseated the pretentious Baron Vallakovich, claiming that the burgomeister was an imposter that had betrayed the town and given Vin-as-Mayor to Bannoch. The scandalized locals took the Vallakovich prisoner as the party left to investigate the ruins of Argynvolstholt, eager to eliminate one more potential group of foes.