TLDR Mists of Barovia

## Synopsis

The Mists of Barovia are the events and adventures that happen to Reffins, Brig, and Equuleus shortly after the events in Vorgshire.

Our trio are approached by Arrigal, and Vistani man claiming to be the squire of his Prince Strahd in the land of Barovia, who's seeking adventurers to help him in his rise to prominence. They are intrigued by the proposal and decide to set out in the morning. During the night, each member has a dream and wake to find a blank card in their possession.

Pocketing these, they make their way north to the Svalich Woods and quickly become lost in the mists. A hunter introducing himself as Davish guides them through the woods and into a Vistani encampment.

Here at the encampment, they meet Stanimir, the patriarch of the caravan who gives them food and drink, and entertainment with his son Radka. He tells them a few stories, the story of the mage who challenged Strahd and their own story with Prince Strahd as well, pleading for them to help break the curse on their prince. He tells them to go see Madam Eva, who will give them advice.

At Madam Eva's tent, she ushers them in and reads their fortune via Tarokka Reading. Revealing the cards one by one, she eventually goes to finish when the blank cards obtained by the party a few days prior join her cards and unveil themselves. She reads these as well, then dismisses the party as she needed time to think on these readings.

The group return to the bonfire to find that most of the Vistani have taken to sleep, Reffins decides this is a good time to flirt with Radka and gets utterly rejected. Brig pulls Reffins away and takes a short rest, waking to successfully steal from a wagon under the guise of having to use the bathroom. After doing his deed, he returns to sleep and in the morning the trio make their way north out of the encampment.

Getting lost fairly quickly, they eventually stumble across Davish once again, who escorts them out to the road. They make their way along the road and come across a barn in ruins. Brig collapses the building, almost bringing it down upon the three. Continuing their journey, they run into two children standing along the road in front of a house, who claim that their parents are inside the house fighting with a monster.

Going forth, they enter the house start ascending the stairs in search of the parents. They eventually come across Laila the dog, who helps reveal a hidden storage room in the library, granting them titles, deeds, healing potions, and spell scrolls. Proceeding further up the stairs, they end up being attacked by an aggressive animated armor, to which Reffins dropkicks off the balcony.

Continuing their search, they come across the hanging corpse of Gustav Durst in the master bedroom, with Brig reading the suicide note and Equuleus finding both Gustav's Journal and Elizabeth's Journal scattered around the room. Moving on from here they find Nursemaid Anya in her nursemaid's quarters and a hidden staircase leading to the fourth floor. Reffins and Brig remember from adventures and research past that specters such as she must be reunited with their remains to regain their power and memories.

Up in the fourth floor they find the skeletal remains of Thorn and Rose locked in their room. Equuleus searches the dollhouse within and find that it's a replica of the Durst Manor. Checking the house, she pulls apart the dollhouse to reveal a hidden staircase that leads from the fourth floor to the basement. Allowing them to be possessed by them, Equuleus and Brig take them with to try to let them rest in peace. The trio eventually find the storage room with drapes covering all the furniture in the room. Coming across the remains of a skeleton in a bloodied nursemaid outfit, they deduce that it is Anya's and bring it to her. She regains her memories and tell the group to find and bring Walter's remains to her.

The group then returns upstairs to search for where they think the hidden staircase is and find it in the storage room. Going downstairs, they hear incessant ghostly chanting and search the basement, finding the crypts that belong to the Durst family. Using their combined strength, they manage to pry open the stone slabs for Thorn and Rose and lay their bones inside their individual coffins, allowing the spirits to leave Brig and Equuleus and finally they are able to rest.

After laying the children to rest, the group goes on to explore the dungeon and spend time to unlock chests and footlockers around the cave. They find several jewelry and a silvered weapon. Taking this time to rest, they sleep in separate alcoves in individual beds. As they sleep, Brig’s entity comes to him in the night and introduces himself as Dagoth, as well as shares more of his power.

Equuleus dreams of old lessons with her master and adoptive father, Grandmaster Kane, and remembers how to use her Ki. Reffins is inspired by recent events and retains the knowledge and experiences, gaining proficiency in all skills.

Continuing forth, Reffins and Equuleus go to search the other crypts while Brig explores the southern path, triggering but managing to escape a hidden pitfall trap. They meet again in what appears to be a dining room, as Reffins notices a snakelike creature coiled up in a defensive position in an alcove.

Brig attacks it, and the grick retaliates with a deadly strike, but Brig manages to decisively cause it to levitate where it remained suspended while the group slew it. Equuleus motions during combat to see if it was protecting anything like a nest but couldn’t find anything, and spends time praying for it as Brig collects it’s beak.

They move southward and ghouls rise through the earth below. They quickly dispatch them as they hear shuffling coming from the westward path. A small group of zombies appear but are also dispatched fairly quickly, but not before taking down Reffins. Brig manages to stabilize Reffins then takes a healing potion from his body and feeds it to him, bringing him back to consciousness.

They continue to explore and come across a wooden statue of a pale man with an orb in his hand. Equuleus reaches for it, the entire party being wary, and manage to summon some Shadows. They fend off the shadows and continue to explore, finding a big bedroom. Inside they attempt to loot the items as a monster emerges from the wall.

Fending off the ghast, it manages to bite down deep into Equuleus's shoulder and manages to use it's poisonous breath to knock her unconscious, but is swiftly dealt with after. Laila alerts the group to a approaching group of ghouls and zombie, as the party stabilize Equuleus with a potion and then moves to engage the new enemies. They fumble quite horrifically as Brig does down from a ghoul as they are all quite injured, but manage to slay all of the monsters. Just as it quiets down they hear a voice come from the room the ghast was in.

They investigate the room and Reffins finds a sentient cloak that has been imprinted on by someone from before, and it whispers to him. It's then that the smokey grey orb is drawn to a shell in the footlocker and combines to create a driftglobe, which belonged to the cloak before. They rest and continue to descend, carrying Laila in Reffins arms.

Entering the lower part of the basement, they enter the wide room where the chanting stops until Equuleus climbs the middle stone dais where the chanting comes to again. They group attack the apparitions that appear to no avail, and as they investigate the rest of the room, Reffins notices the pile of refuse and bodies at the southern part of the room begin to animate as he grabs a femur and Equuleus steps off the platform.

The fleshmound begins to attack the group, as it swallows Brig. Reffins and Equuleus go to help Brig, but Equuleus critically fails and is swallowed up as well. Reffins almost is swallowed up but is pulled back suddenly by his cloak. Within the fleshmound, Equuleus spots an infant corpse and relays the information to Brig who's babbling nonsensically, but manages to turn and blast a path towards the baby with his eldritch energy.

Reaching the baby, Equuleus grabs it and goes begins to cradle the baby and sings a old lullaby to it, causing the fleshmound to dissolve and die. Taking the bones back up, they see the Nursemaid Anya at the bottom of the stairs before ascending to the attic and return the baby's bones to her as they fade from existence.

Reaching the top, they begin to make an escape through the house that's begun to transform; Poisonous smoke billowing, windows bricked up, doors morphed into scything blades. Reffins and Equuleus make their way perilously through the doors as Brig tries to blast the windows and walls open, causing rats to pour out and combat him. Reffins and Equuleus barely make it out through the front door with the help of Nursemaid Anya and Brig barely manages to deal with the rats as the smoke closes in around him, but manages to make a hole through a window and begins to escape off the balcony, when a giant hand appears and attempts to grab him.

Thorn and Rose appear and stop the hand, allowing Brig to make his descent safely. At the ground level, they see the house is catching fire, to which an astonished Davish appears next to them. He takes them off the trail a bit to a clearing where they can rest while he keeps watch. Here, the team have another vision, Brig waking up with an imp from his, Equuleus astral projects and sees a spirit world and her mentor, Kane, and learns to control life force. Morning comes and they make their way to the road again and Davish departs. They make their way to a snowy village of Krezk, who aren't welcoming visitors, but task them with finding their shipment of wine and checking on their scouts, their shipments of wine, as well as people to the south at the Wizards of Wine Winery.

Following a crudely drawn map the guards tossed down, the group departs and follows the map, encountering some Twig Blights and Needle Blights along the path and engage them in combat. After dispatching them, a man, Adrian Martikov, and his family emerge from the tree line requesting help. They exclaim their father, Davian Martikov, stayed behind at the winery to stave off the attack. They're taken to an overlook and plan their approach to the winery. Explaining the exterior, Adrian and his family also count the blights guarding the perimeter. Brig takes this opportunity to send his imp in to scout the estate, being sure to relay the information in real time to the party.

Not finding Davian, they then decide to approach the winery, when Dag Tomescu, a member of the Martikov group, suggests they use a decoy to lure blights away and make the approach easier. Dag and Adrian go back and forth, offering themselves up as volunteers until Brig convinces the other man, the younger brother to Adrian, Elvir Martikov, to volunteer himself. The group, Adrian, and Elvir then go to a clearing closer to the winery to set their ambush up. Elvir successfully manages to lure several small groups of blights at a time as the party slays and hides the blights.