[[1490-12-23|<< 23 Nightal 1490]] | [[1490-12-25|25 Nightal 1490 >>]] ## 24 Nightal 1490 Well. Good news and bad news. The good news is that we got that cool ass sword that the fortune teller told us about. The bad news is that we had to flee Vallaki. It was pouring when I woke up this morning. I just shouldn’t have gone outside – Nia had told the burgomaster that we would only be at the festival if we were in town for it, and he seemed reluctant to tell us that it was mandatory. For all we know, we could have skipped the thing entirely. But we didn’t skip it. All of us – me, Skoll, Nia, Ireena, and Ezmerelda – dragged our happy asses outside and into the rain so that we could watch a parade of depressed children dressed as sunflowers march down the street. The burgomaster was having the guards seize people who didn’t look happy enough. It was a shitshow – even one of the guards got taken away. Baron Shithead kept...looking at us. He wanted us to act happy – some of us did. Nia even clapped for the guy. I wouldn’t do it. I was soaked and miserable, and I wasn’t about to put on a show for the likes of him. I knew the guards were going to grab me before it happened. I took one of them air with me, but unfortunately Skoll caught him when I dropped him to the ground. At the burgomaster’s command, Izek – the freak – pulled off his stupid little cape and revealed his freaky arm that's apparently magic, and then he shot a fucking fireball at me. Good thing I’m pretty dexterous, I guess. Skoll yelled at the burgomaster on my behalf – which, while idiotic, I did appreciate. In response, the baron ordered Skoll to be taken away. So Skoll ran. From the air, I could see Nia try to sneak away with Ireena and Ezmerelda. Ezmerelda, who I am guessing thrives on giving the impression that she is a badass, shrugged Nia off. And then Nia knocked Ireena into the crowd on accident. Ireena's hood came off, and that freak Izek definitely saw her. To say that my stomach dropped would be an understatement – I kind of felt like I was going to vomit. At least Ezmerelda got in a hit on the burgomaster before escaping into the crowd. That was the last thing I saw before I had to focus my attention on not accidentally flying into any buildings. I went to the only place I could think to go: Lady Wachter’s estate. In the back of my mind, I just know that she’s in it with Strahd somehow, but all I could think about was that she doesn’t get along with the burgomaster. And – considering the burgomaster is who we were running away from – it made sense at the time. Karl answered the door. I’d never been more happy to see Karl in my entire (admittedly short) time in Vallaki. We didn’t stay long at all – just long enough to collect our wits. Then we headed for the inn to get our stuff; but before we could leave, Nia left a note for Rictavio with the barkeep. In response, the barkeep said some cryptic shit that basically amounted to “I run an underground raven network.” Me, Skoll, and Nia left Ireena and Ezmerelda at the tower nearly as soon as we got there. Ireena was pretty shell-shocked, and I wanted to do something to help; I figured it’d be a much better use of my time doing something practical for her instead of fumbling around with words. But to do something practical – namely, to repair the wizard tower and build a cabin – I needed supplies, and tools. Nia had noticed a settlement on our map not too far from the wizard tower, so we set off toward Krezk. On the way, we came across more people like Tural. They didn’t talk much, which was fine by me – I was mostly concerned about avoiding the howling wolves that I kept hearing in the distance. Krezk is a walled settlement in the middle of the forest at the base of a mountain; I should’ve felt right at home. The guy who runs the place – Lord Dimitri Krezkov – saw to it that I didn’t. Him, and the mongrelfolk, that is. And the lady that was definitely made of sewn body parts and had Ireena’s hair. But let me back up a little. Krezkov looks surprisingly young for his status and his silver hair. He let us in town to trade, but he made it clear that we weren’t to do anything else. I got what I came for – all I had to do in exchange was chop some wood. Skoll got some fruits and vegetables for doing some gardening. So we did trade, to our credit. We just might’ve made a pitstop at the abbey once we learned it was haunted as hell, is all. Specifically, what we heard is that the people there tried to oppose Strahd, and that they were either killed or went mad. At the word “mad,” alarm bells were going off in my head – Nia’s too. I’m pretty sure Skoll didn’t have a fucking clue what was going on, but he followed along anyway. The abbey was full of creatures and treasure and ghosts and shit. And then there was the priest guy walking around with the red-haired seam-lady. There was also the disassembled body parts that looked like my body parts on first glance, but I don’t really want to get into any of that. The point is this: we found the fucking sunsword, and it rules. First off, it’s sentient. Second, it really wants to kill Strahd. Which is a sentiment I share, considering that Stahd's death is seeming more and more like our only way out of Barovia. Skoll told a raven to look out for Rictavio on the way out of town, so I guess we have that to look forward to. I have to admit that I kind of miss the bastard. Back at the wizard tower, Ezmerelda tried to take the sword from me not once, but two times. I was a little charmed, to be honest. Finding the sword seemed to cheer Ireena up a bit, even if she's still a little shaken about what happened in Vallaki, and even if she's still pretty disappointed that she wasn’t actually chosen for the circus. It was strange; when Ireena held the sword, and I was holding it too, I could feel a sense of...familiarity, somehow, coming from the sword. I don’t know what the fuck is going on with that, considering that Ireena has known about the sword’s existence for as long as we have. Unless she has a secret double life that she’s not talking about, which I suppose is possible. Possible double lives aside, I’m glad we found the sword. It feels like I’m one step closer to getting out of Barovia. That – combined with Skoll’s spaghetti that he made for us – made today not too bad a day, despite how it started. It’s not like I was planning on making a life in Vallaki, anyway. --- ## Page Tags/Properties **Tags:** #Journal **Category:** [[Journals and Writings.base|Journals and Writings]] **Character:** [[Krue d'Avenir|Krue]] **Campaign:** [[Curse of Strahd]] **Date ([[Calendar of Harptos|Harptos]]):** 12/24/1490