COS II Session 13

place your bets

## Starring...

* The Barovian Freedom Fighters
	+ Red, normal guy under abnormal punishment
	+ Xadriel Maverran, lumped in with the rest of them
	+ Tokili, withholding information
	+ Stone, watching from a safe distance
	+ Galia Trey, not all there
	+ +2 shortsword, cooperating at gunpoint
	+ Twiggy, doing a bit of redecorating
* The Van Richten Society
	+ Amelia d'Avenir, daycare manager
	+ Belasco Tabasco, giving his job 110%
	+ Doven, using a rifle. He has always used a rifle.
	+ Reginald Van Richten, smelling foul
* The rat population of New Barovia

## Escape from Delvana

Picking up where we left off last time in Session 12, Tokili had just gotten done distracting Amelia and escaped through a window (as was typical of session 12), and Stone had blended in with the leaving masses earlier. The remainder of the party was backstage in varying degrees of handcuffed, formulating their escape.

As the clock strikes midnight, Red is the first to make a move; jumping out the ever-popular shattered glass window and turning invisible while flying through the air, Red takes a bullet to the back of the head from his personal Foil, Doven. Despite dealing 33 damage and ruining Red's *invisibility*, Doven has to take the stairs in order to continue his pursuit, giving Red ample time to continue his bird impression and fly away from Castle Delvana.

Following closely after Red is Al, who dives out the very in-demand window exit. Unfortunately, following just after him is the famous Belasco Tabasco, who runs a grand total of 5ft per round faster than him. Al cushions his fall on the soft concrete car park down below, being eerily mirrored by the equally-reckless Belasco Tabasco. When Al realizes he's running slightly slower than Mr. Tabasco, he attempts some on-the-fly negotiation, which goes about as well as the negotiations attempted by Al last session⁠—which is to say he ends up handcuffed (note that he never got out of the handcuffs applied hours ago) and surrounded by VRS agents. Soon after Al is taken to a VRS holding cell and eventually to a maximum security prison.

Watching their companions bolt off stage, Xadriel blinds the guards still paying attention to him and Galia. Galia takes the time to requisition her items that were so rudely stolen from her hours ago, including the crucially important *Helm of Teleportation*. She does just as the name implies as she teleports back to the sewer where the party abandoned Twiggy. Upon arrival, Galia is laying unconscious on the dank sewer floor, having been the victim of 4 gunshot wounds earlier in the night and now having her cells ripped apart by a teleportation mishap. Fortunately Xadriel heals Galia for an entire 16 health, surely that's plenty as there's no chance the VRS finds them now! They retrieve the now vermin-infested Twiggy from his teenage caretakers and set off for the time machine.

While the rest of the party fumbles their way out of the castle, Stone sits quietly on the train to Vallaki, keeping her head down among the frightened masquerade-goers. Likewise, Tokili *polymorphs* into an eagle and gets a great view of Red and Al's escape. He flies over the city, fruitlessly searching for a magic item shop, then travels to the presumed residence of Strahd Von Zarovich. No one answers the front door, and according to Tokili's *scrying*, Strahd has settled in his coffin to cry about the latest Tatyana death. After contemplating breaking and entering, Tokili instead finds an inn for the night.

## Ambush and Altercations

Red, Xadriel, Galia and Twiggy meet at the time travel platform to discuss what went wrong and talk about Al behind his back. Stone is also there, but excluded from the festivities as she popped into the ethereal plane to avoid detection. In order to include her in the festivities, Galia activates her *truesight*, which allows her to see not only the ghost of Stone, but an unsolicited *scrying* sensor hovering mere feet above her own head. Galia announces the presence of the sensor, which does the trick to scare away Stone, but seems ineffective at warding off the scrying sensor.

Before Galia can fathom the possible consequences of a *scrying* sensor looking over the party's biggest secret, the sensor conveniently disappears. Shortly following the disappearance of the scrying sensor, arcane fire flies through the alley's illusory wall and lightly toasts the party. While dealing very little damage, it is only the beginning of the VRS's assault. Xadriel gets punched in the face. After only two rounds, the party decides they are in no shape to fight. Twiggy briefly contemplates burning, crushing or freezing the attackers, but in the end decides to surrender with the rest of the party. Negotiation ensues, offers of reduced jail sentences and flowers are exchanged, and everyone eventually concludes they should all cooperate to find the murderer - on the condition that the party leaves immediately once the artifact is recovered (and there is NO jumping out windows allowed anymore).

Reginald Van Richten jumps out of his trash hiding spot way too late, barely getting the satisfaction of an "I told you so" before being reprimanded for abandoning Strahd, who he is supposed to be babysitting. Amelia draws up a teleportation circle, transporting the present BFF and VRS (excluding Van Richten) to the VRS headquarters for a restful night's sleep.

(Red has a nightmare in which he is chased endlessly down a hallway by Amelia D'Avenir.)

## Further Deliberation Between Friends and Foes

In the morning, sending spells bounce around distant party members like pinballs, catching Tokili and Stone up on the exploits of the captured party members. Twiggy decides the Van Richten Society did a shitty job decorating their headquarters, and plants an 80m redwood in the middle of the main hallway. VRS members quickly escort Twiggy away from his handiwork to an interrogation room while they figure out what the fuck.

Xadriel is approached by the man who punched him, now revealed to be named Belasco Tabasco, with a proposition: talk down Alucard, who had been pouting in his jail cell all night. Xadriel politely declines, and calls Belasco a "piece of shit scumbag idiot who only apologizes for his own gain and probably likes punching orphans".

Belasco decides to talk to Al alone, laying bare all of Alucard's terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad actions at the masquerade; to which Al responds, "how is that my fault". The *+2 shortsword* is returned to Al, who gives the most polite "I told you so idiot" possible before being transported to where the rest of the party is being held.

The captured party members are brought together in a comically cramped room (Stone, though free, attends virtually), where Amelia gives an order of events of the masquerade. She explains that magic items were most definitely used in the murder, which almost exclusively come from an underground Vallaki black market, and there is one elusive man who knows of all trades in the Vallaki underground. Stone tells Xadriel to tell Amelia that "oh by the way Stone committed the murder!" then wonders why everyone makes such a big deal about it.

Having worked out a deal and a plan, Red, Xadriel, Galia, Al, and Twiggy prepare to head out to search for a way home, while Tokili and Stone rapidly approach one another in order to cause more chaos.

## Developments

* Belasco and Doven have been introduced.
* Twiggy can now summon rats.
* Red, Xadriel, Galia, Al, and Twiggy have partnered with the Van Richten Society.
	+ Tokili and Stone are still at large.

## Trivia

* Alucard Bingo achieved twice this session! Congratulations to our winners, and we'll see you next dream session!