March of the Dead
Last time we parted the misty veil of the Domains of Dread to peer with trepidation into the shadowed vale of Barovia, our haunted heroes were about to meet Madam Eva at the crossroads cemetery (the customary meet-up spot for midnight transactions of fates and fortunes).
The ancient Vistana seer beckoned the heroes to join her on the soft cemetery earth, but not before she confirmed their identities and ensured they had not been followed by the “Shadow” servant of Strahd (a title they strongly suspect applies to Eliza).
Drawing near to Madam Eva, They beheld a phantasmal procession of ghostly heroes emanating from the morbid mists. Eva, speaking with a curious candor that could only be born either of profound wisdom or profound madness, asked the party if they knew the wraiths’ identities and whether they could guess their destination.
While motley wraiths continued to emerge in scores and scads, apparently oblivious to their surroundings, Fig correctly surmised that these were the spirits of other adventurers who had tried, and failed, to oppose the Dark Lord Strahd. As the last of the ghosts walked past them and away along the western road, Eva confirmed Choppy’s guess as to their destination: Castle Ravenloft.
Each night at midnight, she said, the spirits of those would-be heroes slain by Strahd would march on the castle, climb the highest spire, and launch themselves from its parapets into the crypts beneath—seemingly trapped in an eternal reenactment of their demise at the Devil’s dread hand.
Eva warned the heroes and confirmed their resolve, explaining that there would be no shame in backing down from a fight with a foe felled by no one before them, and extracting from each of them a solemn affirmation of their intent to depose Strahd or die trying.
The Tarokka Reading
Satisfied with their mettle, she bade them sit with her and withdrew from her cloak a magnificent deck of rune-backed cards, a small velvet pouch jingling with coin, and three candles that she drove like stakes into the graveyard soil and lit with a wave of her gnarled hand. Amid the diffuse tallow light she asked the party to take the coin pouch with them to Vallaki, find the workshop of Blinsky the toymaker, and use the pouch’s contents to procure a toy for her great-grand-niece, Arabelle. In exchange for “reading the cards,” the party agreed to deliver a toy to Arabelle by noon on the girl’s name-day, a mere two days hence. (As an aside, Eva added that the party was likely to enjoy making Arabelle’s acquaintance as well as that of her father, Luvash, and his brother, Arrigal). Arabelle lives at the Vistani encampment southwest of Vallaki, and Blinsky’s Toys can be found within the town walls.
Proceeding with the Tarokka reading, Eva muttered mystic invocations while she placed 5 cards on the cold earth. The air stilled, the night quieted, and the very shadows huddled close as she drew the cards and read them one by one.
The Tarokka Reading
Below are the cards and their readings as delivered by Madam Eva to the Haunted Heroes at midnight at the crossroads.
The first card - History
“This card tells of history. Knowledge of the ancient will help you better understand your enemy”
Interpretation
“I see the ancient foe of an old and noble house. The lost soul will lead you to him.”
The second card - Holy Symbol
“This card tells of a powerful force for good and protection, a holy symbol of great hope.”
Interpretation
“Look for a den of wolves in the hills overlooking a mountain lake. The treasure belongs to Mother Night.”
The third card - Sword of Sunlight
This is a card of power and strength. It tells of a weapon of vengeance: a sword of sunlight.
Intepretation
“What you seek lies in an amber prison, where the devil fears to tread. This weapon is long hidden. The house of the fallen dragon can lead you there.”
The fourth card - Ally
“This card sheds light on one who will help you greatly in the battle against darkness.”
Interpretation
“A Vistana wanders this land alone, searching for her mentor. She does not stay in one place for long. Seek her out at Saint Markovia’s abbey, near the mists.”
The fifth card - Enemy
“Your enemy is a creature of darkness, whose powers are beyond mortality. When the hour of judgment arrives, this card will lead you to him!”
Interpretation
“Look to great heights. Find the beating heart of the castle. He waits nearby.”
Link to original
With the reading complete and the atmosphere returned to “normal”, Eva bade the adventurers return to camp and “tell no servant of Strahd of what they just heard.”
Leaving Camp
The next morning, Arden found himself awake before the others, including Stanimir, so he built the fire and put some coffee on. Upon awakening, Stanimir thanked him for the coffee and got to work on breakfast—though he noted with a grimace after his first sip of coffee that the brew tasted a bit like dust, prompting Arden to wonder if he’d gotten his pouches mixed up and accidentally steeped the ashes of his murdered family or if, like so many other small things these days, the Barovian mists had siphoned the life from his coffee grounds and left him with only a soulless husk.
The unpleasant thought was driven from Arden’s mind by the awakening of his companions and the arrival of Arturi, who had managed to survive yet another night beset by undead assailants by climbing a big tree. Some time later, breakfast’s pleasantries were interrupted when a flustered and somewhat haggard-looking Eliza sauntered up to the fire and offered Fig a cup of lavender chamomile tea. Amid palpable tension, Eliza strained to maintain a calm, positive demeanor under the withering weight of Arden’s damning gaze—although, with some mediation by Arturi, the party was able to avoid a direct confrontation with the suspected “servant of Strahd.”
The Skeletal Rider
Shortly thereafter they left camp headed for Vallaki. Reaching the crossroads for the third time, they were nearly overrun by a skeletal warhorse and mail-clad rider with outstretched hand bearing a rusted iron lantern that shed no light. The rider paid the heroes no heed, did not stop or turn to acknowledge them, even when Arden and Fig recognized its clothing from their first-ever Barovian corpse encounter. These clothes had been worn by the doomed messenger of burgomaster Kolyan Indirovich, whose letter Fig found on the messenger’s wolf-shredded body on their first morning in Barovia. Although Arden called out with a resounding command and Fig gave chase, their efforts were in vain—this rider, it seemed, was neither friend nor foe nor perhaps even sentient. Arden’s spell found no soul to command and Fig watched the rider veer off into the woods to the south with no apparent path in mind.
The Watchtower
Unsettled but unscathed, the heroes resumed their trek and soon found themselves ascending a switchback path that climbed up a steep cliff before disappearing into the mists. At the cliff’s top they found a ruined watchtower, with a couple of weeks-old graves nearby bearing stones arranged in a sunburst pattern. With a successful survival check, the spotting of a nearby wolf carcass, and some dot-connecting from Ireena, they deduced that the graves held the bodies of Barovian refugees who had fled the village to escape Strahd’s nightly undead onslaught only to be killed by wolves only a day into their journey. Arden added these two to his running list of souls to avenge.
The party then explored the watchtower, finding it in a state of longtime abandonment and dire disrepair. It held only one item: a cracked silver pendant resembling a dragon, which Fig put on and found it to be ice cold (even after a few moments of wear). Ireena recalled having heard vague tales of an “Order of the Silver Dragon,” whose knights opposed the Devil Strahd, but they were known to have been utterly defeated centuries ago. Tucking this tidbit away, the group climbed the tower and took in the bleak views—fog, mist, murk, and shadow as far as the eye could see, except to the southwest where rose the great cragged spires of Mount Ghakis—though even these mighty peaks were eclipsed and enshrouded by an infinite wall of swirling mist that encircled the valley on all sides.
A Run-In with Wolves
Leaving the tower behind, our travelers’ path plunged into the woods and clung precipitously to the steep spur of a lesser (but still formidable) mountain. Through the trees, our perceptive heroes caught glimpses of movement: a flash of grey fur, amber eyes, and sharp, white teeth that vanished as fast as it appeared. The party proceeded with utmost caution until at last they noticed that their lupine stalkers had multiplied and now had them hemmed in with three ahead, two behind, and one (claimed Choppy) waiting hungrily in the ravine 50 feet below them. Despite their surroundings, the party made relatively quick work of the wolves with the help of Ireena, Parriwimple, and their blue-winged raven friend, though not before Choppy was mauled and pushed very nearly off the cliff’s edge. Heaving with exertion but relieved to be alive as the remaining wolf fled through the low ravine, the group noticed another two wolves watching them calmly from atop a high granite outcropping. Peering closely, Choppy felt strongly that these were indeed no ordinary wolves, for they watched with a patient intelligence not exhibited by the other wolves just encountered. Before anyone else could confirm, the distant wolves turned and skulked into the shadowed mountain crags, leaving our haunted heroes to regroup and ponder just what dangers might befall them next.