Special Note: Barovian Relics
Upon awaking this morning, each member of the party found a new item in their possession. These items feel strangely familiar, as if they were relics from each person’s past.
- Arden carries a Broken Blade
- Varnish carries an Electrum Coin
- Fig carries an Angel’s Feather
- Choppy carries a Stone Crest
Morning at the Blue Water Inn
The party awoke in stages, with Arden awaking early and exploring the hayloft of the Blue Water Inn while everyone else slept. He reached the loft via the stables, where he stopped to have a cute moment with a roan speckled horse before ascending the ladder. The loft was populated with dozens—if not, hundreds—of ravens roosting in the rafters and on the roof. Buried among the hay, Arden found a treasure chest and a secret door. Touching the chest drew the ire of the ravens, causing Arden to quickly abandon his search. When he opened the secret door, he found himself peering into the master bedroom of the inn, where Urwin and Danika slept.
When the remainder of the party awakened, Urwin beckoned them all into the taproom so they could speak together privately. Over hot bowls of porridge, Urwin cautioned the party against directly confronting the Baron, instead recommending they opt for flattery. He also advised them to seek out Lady Fiona Wachter, a wealthy Vallakian matriarch and an outspoken opponent of the Baron Vallakovich’s rule. The Lady Wachter lives in a large manor on the north side of town, along with her two sons Nikolai and Karl and her daughter Stella—although Stella has recently been kept cloistered within the house for unknown reasons.
At this point the quiet morning was interrupted by the flamboyant Rictavio descending the stairs to retrieve a paper-wrapped parcel from Urwin before departing out the side door of the taproom. Before he left, Arden questioned him about the contents of the parcel; Rictavio responded by saying it contained food for his horse, Drusilla, and for his friend, the destitute toymaker, Gadof Blinsky. Since they both planned to visit Blinsky Toys, they agreed they’d see each other there and parted ways (with some suspicion on the part of Arden).
Outside the Inn
Leaving the inn, the party encountered a scene unfolding on the street, disrupting the flow of morning business. They heard the sound of a whinnying horse and turned, beholding a small procession: Baron Vargas Vallakovich astride his chestnut horse, flanked by two enormous mastiffs, followed by three guards, and led by a hulking, angry-looking man with a devilish arm that they immediately knew to be Izek Strazni, thanks to the descriptions provided by the refugees Emeric and Magda.
An old, frightened-looking woman wearing threadbare commoner’s clothes had just stumbled away from the horse and fallen into a puddle of mud a few feet away. The party recognized her as Willemina Rikalova, the old woman they’d met en route to St. Andral’s Church the previous evening. The horse had come to an abrupt halt, along with the rest of the procession, and Izek’s deformed arm was outstretched, suggesting that he had just pushed—or flung—the old woman to the mud. The Baron angrily scolded her for getting mud on his cloak with her “filthy peasant hands,” to which Willemina responded in an apologetic and quavering voice that she merely sought clemency for her son, Udo, claiming that he meant no harm with his “foolish joke.”
The Baron insisted that Udo needs “rehabilitation for his malicious unhappiness,” and suggested that Willemina does as well. As he commanded Izek to seize the woman, Arden and Fig leapt to intervene, protecting the old lady and confronting the Baron. The Baron greeted them as outsiders and asked, with amused contempt, whether they wished to claim responsibility for the “old fool’s” rehabilitation. Arden, swallowing his pride like a champ, heeded Urwin’s advice and bent the knee, flattering the Baron with praise and deference and promising to take care of her.
Driving the point home, Father Lucian emerged from the gathered crowd and urged peace. The Baron warmly greeted the priest by name, and then Father Lucian apologized for Willemina’s behavior, noting that she’s been troubled in recent days at his services, and promised to see her to St. Andral’s Church and help ease her troubled mind. Reluctantly satisfied, the Baron released Willemina into Father Lucian’s care and bade welcome to the party members, noting their appearances and pompously commanding them to educate themselves as to the town’s rules and traditions.
They departed the scene, agreeing to visit the toyshop before swinging by St. Andral’s Church to pick up Ireena.
Blinsky Toys
On reaching the toyshop, the party nervously entered and inspected the wares. Inside they found a bunch of odd, macabre toys, including:
- A headless doll that comes with a sack of attachable heads, including one with its eyes and mouth stitched shut
- A miniature gallows, complete with trapdoor and a weighted “hanged man”
- A set of wooden nesting dolls; the smaller each one gets, the older it gets, until the innermost doll is a mummified corpse
- A wood-and-string mobile of hanging bats with flapping wings
- A wind-up musical merry-go-round with figures of snarling wolves chasing children in place of prancing horses
- A ventriloquist’s dummy that looks like Strahd von Zarovich
- A doll that looks remarkably like Ireena
Blinsky, hearing their entry to his shop, greeted the party warmly (and weirdly):
“Wyelcome, friends, to the House of Blinsky, where hyappiness and smiles can be bought at bargain prices. Perhaps you know a leetle child in need of joy? A leetle toy for a girl or boy?”
When the party questioned him about the Ireena doll, Blinsky urged them to leave the doll alone and ask him no further questions. Only after succeeding on a persuasion check did Blinsky fearfully explain that the doll was only the most recent of its kind commissioned by Izek Strazni, the captain of the Town Watch and Baron Vallakovich’s personal bodyguard and enforcer. Apparently, Izek came in periodically to describe and commission a new doll; Blinsky said they all looked similar, though he had never before met someone whose appearance actually matched the dolls’.
Thoroughly weirded out but unable to get any additional information about the doll, the party browsed further while Blinsky related his inspiration for making toys: the legendary toymaker Fritz von Weerg, whose greatest invention (a clockwork man so intricate as to seem truly alive) was said to lie somewhere in Castle Ravenloft. Blinsky is so filled with wonder at the thought of such a marvel, he has made it his life’s purpose to design and make toys that would do the same for each new generation of Barovian boys and girls.
Town Square
The party selected the wolf-chasing carousel as a suitable gift for Arabelle, made the purchase, and departed the shop. Outside and a little ways down the road in the Town Square, the party observed Izek and several guards putting up posters advertising the coming festival. They noted that there were still plenty of posters for the previous festival (the Wolf’s Head Jamboree), and that the next festival would take place on Neyavr 7. The party didn’t linger, and proceeded to the church.
St. Andral’s Church
Arriving at the church, Fig experienced a near-miss at the front door as a man emerged carrying a bundle of nails and planks. Fig dodged, but the man still lost his balance and careened down the steps, losing his grip on the supplies and sending his half-cracked spectacles skittering across the ground. Choppy and Varnish helped him collect his items, for which the man extended profuse thanks and a calloused handshake. He introduced himself as Henrik van der Voort, the town’s resident coffin-maker and occasional carpenter, and explained that he’d been asked by Father Lucian to deliver some tools and supplies to repair some damage to the floor caused by a falling tree branch the previous night. He then hurried off to his shop, which he said could be found at the south end of Arasek Stockyard (on the eastern side of town).
The party entered the chapel to find a broad-shouldered, black-haired young man standing atop a stepladder, nailing a tarp into place over a broken window, while a young boy swept the chapel floor not far away. Father Lucian, in crisp, clean vestments, watched them work from the pews, holding a broom of his own and looking pensively into the distance.
He greeted the party warmly, recognizing them from the previous evening, and assured them that Ireena was in his office (which they’d converted to a makeshift bedroom) and would join them shortly. He introduced them to Yeska, the altar boy, and said that the young man was Milivoj and served as the church’s groundskeeper.
Upon noticing the players, Milivoj scowled and asked the priest if they were being a bother. “You can’t be too sure about strangers; I thought the town gates were supposed to be closed. They could be vampires, or worse,” said the young man. Father Lucian chided him, emphasizing “the importance of hospitality and compassion in these dark times,” and apologized to the players for Milivoj’s hostility after the lad left with a grumble and a huff. He then asked the party for a word in private.
Father Lucian explained that the church is ordinarily hallowed ground, with a magical ward that prevents fiends and undead from entering the church and keeps them from magically charming, frightening, or possessing those within it. This protection comes from the crypt beneath the church, which held the blessed bones of Saint Andral himself, the founder of the church and a great cleric of the Morninglord. Originally, only Lucian knew of the bones’ existence. However, after news of the siege of Barovia reached Vallaki along with the first of the refugees, he shared this knowledge with Yeska in an effort to reassure the young orphan that he was safe within the church’s walls. Every year, on the Feast Day of Saint Andral, Lucian performs a special rite of protection over the bones, which renews the church’s sanctification.
With a worried look and a hushed, urgent tone, Lucian informed the players that he could no longer guarantee the church’s safety for him, Yeska, or Ireena—someone had stolen the bones last night, and without them he could not perform the protective rite and the wards would fall at dawn on the day of St. Andral’s Feast (also Neyavr 7). He shared his account of the previous evening, that at the deepest part of the night he heard a noise in the chapel and arose to investigate. There he encountered a humanoid figure draped in a cloak, though it was too dark to identify. The figure fled by jumping through the nearest stained glass window.
Lucian couldn’t make heads or tails of the crime scene, inviting the players to investigate on their own, which they did. Examining the pried-up and splintered floorboards, they found a piece of gray wool fabric torn and stuck on a rusted nail. Inside the crypt were several clumps of earth in the shape of large bootprints, each containing several blades of grass and white flower petals. Near the altar, they found a few strands of dark black hair. Presenting the evidence to Lucian, he shook his head concernedly and confirmed the players’ suspicion: Milivoj was the culprit. The wool and the hair were clearly his, and the flowers mixed into the bootprints grew wild atop the graves in the churchyard.
Speaking gently with Yeska, Fig learned that Milivoj had been the one who frightened the boy with tales of the devil Strahd and the dangers lurking in the dark, which in turn led to Yeska seeking comfort from Father Lucian. Yeska truthfully denied sharing his knowledge of the bones with anyone, but recalled that Milivoj had been in the church at the time of the conversation and could have overheard them.
Lucian urged the party to have compassion for Mlilvoj, as the young man’s home life was a real bummer, and he insisted on accompanying them to confront Milivoj at his home.
Confronting Milivoj
Journeying from the church into the town’s poorer, northwestern district, the party arrived at a leaning, decrepit structure that Father Lucian identified as Milivoj’s home. They knocked on the slightly-askew door and were met by a gaunt, glassy-eyed woman, who grunted expectantly. Behind her, a trio of young children wrestled and shouted as they rolled across a cramped living space. Two other children, near-adolescents, peered curiously around a pair of overstuffed, patchwork armchairs. The woman, Jarzinka, asked the party if they had any dream pastries, as she’d recently finished her last one. Arden gave her his, then asked to speak with Milivoj, to which Jarzinka responded by turning and grunting at the two elder children, Bogan and Zondra.
Bogan, the boy, cheerfully informed the players that “Milivoj is sick and doesn’t want to talk to anyone today.” They pressed a little harder, and Zondra, the girl, turned to holler: “Milo! Someone wants to speak to you!!” Moments later, Milivoj emerged through a swollen door at the back of the room with a small boy atop his shoulders and two young girls hanging from his biceps. His countenance fell, he bade his siblings retreat into the back room, and his body language tensed as he dismissed Jarzinka with a terse “Mother.” When the players confronted him with the evidence from the crypt, Milivoj knew they had him dead to rights and came clean.
He stole the bones at the behest of Henrik the coffin-maker, who offered to pay him a sum that he simply could not pass up. Henrik claimed to be a descendant of Saint Andral, and wanted the bones (which he described as nothing but a dusty heirloom) to be returned to him so they could rest among family. Ever since Milivoj’s father—a former Vallakian guard—was wounded in a recent wolf attack, both of his parents began regularly purchasing dream pastries from Morgantha outside the gates. With both parents addicted, Milivoj sees himself as his siblings’ sole means of avoiding abject poverty, and simply could not turn down Henrik’s job offer.
Confronting Henrik
From here, the party immediately departed for the coffin-maker’s shop, being guided by Father Lucian.
Lucian, assuaging the players’ fear that they were walking into danger, revealed that he carries the holy symbol of Tasha Petrovna—his ancestor and a mighty follower of Saint Markovia—and promised that he can handle himself in a scrap.
Passing through the Arasek Stockyard en route to Henrik’s shop, the party beheld a sturdy carnival wagon covered in faded and peeling paint at the south end of the yard. Despite its aged appearance, the wagon bore a bright and freshly-painted sign reading “Rictavio’s Carnival of Wonders”. Their interests were piqued, but they chose to leave the wagon for now and continue on to Henrik’s workshop. They arrived to find an uninviting two-story structure with a sign shaped like a coffin hanging above the front door. All of the window shutters were closed up tight, and a deathly silence surrounded the establishment.