[[1491-01-02|<< 2 Hammer 1491]] | [[1491-01-04|4 Hammer 1491 >>]] ## 3 Hammer 1491 I’m starting to think that it might not be so easy to beat Strahd. I got my ass handed to me pretty badly today, and I still haven’t completely stopped bleeding. The day started well enough. Sure, Ezmerelda did slap me on reflex when I woke her up for omelettes - courtesy of Skoll - but I did get to eat omelettes. We all left for Vallaki, with the exception of Rictavio, who hates fun now. We rode in Ezmerelda’s wagon - it was cool as hell. It turns out that Ezmerelda plays the lyre and travels around and tells fortunes in a harlequin mask, which I was delighted to find out. It didn’t quite match up to the woman I know (the one who tells me to die at least once a day), which made it all the better. We made a quick stop at the Luna River Vistani settlement. Ireena and Ezmerelda stayed behind in the wagon - Ireena because some of the Vistani work for Strahd, Ezmerelda because she apparently stole a horse from them before her attempted one-woman siege of Castle Ravenloft. It happens. Luvash was easy to find. He was in much better spirits than the last time we saw him; he was in an even better mood when he learned that we killed the guy who attacked their camp. When we had walked up, he was talking to a hooded figure. A dusk elf, it turns out - one of the ones that the Vistani have been tasked by Strahd to "watch over." The elf - Kasimir Velikov - was quite surprised to see Skoll; he didn’t know that other kinds of elves even existed, which was one of the more depressing things I’ve heard someone say in Barovia. Kasimir sent Luvash away so that he could talk to us, which is when I grew a lot more curious about what he had to say. He said that if we don’t have any leads on getting out of Barovia, he might have one - namely, the Amber Temple, which is apparently where Strahd secured his immortality. We’re probably not going to be able to just walk in there and turn off the immortality machine, but it’s worth checking out - if we can manage to get past the roc, that is. We departed from Kasimir and the rest of the Luna River camp and headed for Vallaki. Thanks to Miruna, there was no issue getting into the village. We told her to gather as many people as possible and meet us in the town center in an hour, dropped Ireena off at the inn, and then the four of us were off to the burgomaster’s house to get information on Izek’s family. Vallakovich’s first reaction to us was one of annoyance; when he saw that I had Izek’s armor and battleaxe, however, he changed his tune a bit. The guy was scared shitless of us. It was kind of hilarious. He couldn’t remember much about Izek’s family at all - other than that the men were fishermen, and that they all died in a dire wolf accident - so we told him to go inside and find what records he could. Not in a position to refuse, he obeyed. We also stole a bunch of his shit, just for the hell of it. Ezmerelda even stole a whole ass mirror. There honestly wasn’t a lot of things to steal in the first place, but Skoll did find some guy chained up in a backroom; another one of the burgomaster’s “maliciously unhappy” citizens. Skoll released the man, and I don’t think the burgomaster will attempt to recapture him any time soon. While Nia was busy monitoring the burgomaster, Ezmerelda, Skoll, and I managed to find something in the attic: the baron’s edgy teen son, Victor. Victor’s been trying to create a teleportation circle to get out of Barovia. I could tell in a glance that the thing would kill anyone that stepped on it, and I wasn’t wrong - he’s killed multiple servants trying to test it out. I kind of wanted to kill the kid when he told us that, because what the hell. Lucky for him, I wasn’t feeling like duking it out in the burgomaster’s attic while we still needed answers, so I just left. I think I heard Skoll trying to talk him out of further tests, though. Shortly after the three of us made it back downstairs, Nia and the burgomaster joined us. Nia suggested we go on a walk while he talked to us. At this point, I was practically buzzing with excitement - until the burgomaster told us what he found of Izek’s family. He only read one entry of the record. It concerned a child by the name of Ireena Strazni. It was a hard truth to grapple with. Yes, we killed Ireena’s brother - but Ireena never knew him as her brother, and he was a complete shithead. Still, I knew that we were going to have to tell her, and I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. I didn’t have much time to stress over it - we were soon in the town center, and it was showtime. The entire town showed up. The air felt heavy. All their eyes were on us, waiting - and then Skoll turned the burgomaster into a donkey. It took a moment, but the crowd erupted. I’ve never seen people in Barovia look so joyful. I lifted Izek’s battleaxe into the air, and the noise nearly deafened me. The donkey-burgomaster ended up kicking Skoll - so, just for good measure, I led the jackass into the stocks. People lost their minds. Karl got the crowd chanting “dragon slayer,” because of course he did. It soon morphed into “dragon slayers,” though, so I didn’t have too much of a crisis about it. It’s not like Skoll or Nia have slain a dragon, either. We sought out Urwin in the crowd - he, like everyone else, was pretty happy with the present situation. He gave us some hardtack and he gave me a really, really cool hand crossbow. In return, Nia gave him land deeds that she stole from the Lady’s house yesterday. I’m sure he’ll make better use of them than she would’ve - though I'm sure it'll take more than some pieces of paper for Urwin to secure control of the town. Father Lucian was also in the crowd, so we confirmed that Ireena can stay at the church with him. After that, we found Karl. Karl said that he was chilling, but he also said that it’s a little whack that he found his dead mother on the floor of his home. He did seem like he was chilling though. Then we headed into the inn and broke the news about Izek to Ireena. Well - Nia and I did. Skoll wandered off before we could find her. He probably wasn’t feeling great about the fact that we killed Ireena’s brother. Ireena took the news well enough, but she did seem a little lost for it. I gave her Izek’s battleaxe - Nia looked at me like I was an idiot for it, which I didn’t really understand. I felt like Ireena should be the one to have it. With much of the excitement over, we went to the church and gave Ireena a proper goodbye. She went in for a group hug, but I wasn’t having any of that - I was going to miss her, and I wanted my own. It was all a little more sad than I had been expecting. But she should be safe there, which is what matters. We’ll take care of Strahd - one way or another - and then she won’t have to live in fear all the time. In the meantime, it’s like I wanted, I suppose. It shouldn’t be too hard to keep my distance when she’s confined to a church all the time. On the way back to Vallaki, we studied the mirror that Ezmerelda had stolen from the burgomaster’s house. I could tell that it was magical, and Nia told us that it’s one of those mirrors that you ask things of - so we pulled over to the side of the path and gave it a shot. Unfortunately, it seemed like you need some sort of passcode to operate the thing. Back at the tower, Rictavio said that he would look at the mirror and see what he could find out. He also told us that he hadn’t eaten today, but refused to get out of his wagon. So Skoll and I dragged him out. I did apologize to the guy, once he was eating - one, for manhandling him out of his wagon, and two, for getting mad at him yesterday. I told him that I get that he’s trying to be a shithead so people don’t get too close to him. I also told him that I understand regret, but that I’m still mad I can’t do anything about it. He apologized too. The whole thing was pretty uncomfortable. After Skoll managed to recover from his donkey-related injury, Skoll, Nia, Ezmerelda, and I headed out for the old manor that's on the way to Berez. There was a huge statue of a dragon in front of the place, so that was pretty cool. It was trapped, at one point - but it had been ineffective for what was probably a long time. Above the door read “Argynvostholt,” which I’m pretty sure is the name of the manor. We weren’t exploring for long before we found a dusk elf hidden away in one of the rooms. The elf was pretty beaten up, so Skoll healed him. The elf - Savid - was from the same camp as Kasimir, which makes sense. To thank us for not killing him or something, he gave us some information about the place: a dragon used to live there, along with its followers - the Order of the Silver Dragon. They were all, as it so happens, slain by Strahd. We thanked Savid, escorted him to the door, and then continued exploring. We figured that - even if the place was haunted by a dragon and its knights - the ghosts would probably be on our side, since we also hate Strahd and all. In one of the rooms, Nia was checking out an inactive fireplace when it came roaring to life. The fire took the shape of a dragon and it said, “My knights have fallen into darkness. Save them if you can. Show them the light they have lost!” Or something like that. The point is, it was ominous. We really should’ve left then. Instead, we didn’t, and got attacked by some revenants. It took us a long time to kill them. Skoll got beaten to all hell - he looked near death by the time the revenants had been dealt with. I also felt half-dead by the end of the fight. It was partly thanks to Ezmerelda, who accidentally struck me with lightning. The lightning definitely hurt worse than anything those revenants hit me with. It was an accident, though, and I could immediately tell that she felt real bad about it. She cast some spell on me afterward - or least I’m assuming she did, since she just wordlessly ran up to me and slapped me on the back, and then I started glowing a little bit. Whatever the case, we beat them. Ezmerelda and Nia didn’t get hit once - Skoll and I acted as the punching bags. I patched him up the best I could, but Skoll couldn’t even walk; so we decided that we better get the hell out of there, despite the fact that Nia wanted to stay and explore for some godsforsaken reason. Ezmerelda tried to heal me on the way back, but her potion looked fancy as hell, so I told her to keep it. When I told her that I appreciated it, she visibly winced. I would’ve laughed if my entire body hadn’t been in pain. Since Skoll was unconscious by the time we returned, I tried to make dinner at the tower. Ezmerelda wasn’t having it; she picked me up and threw me on a bed, which unfortunately did make me feel some things. She made us all dinner. It was mostly just a slab of meat (and fruit for Skoll), but I wasn’t about to complain, for a whole host of reasons. Over food, Nia, Skoll, and I decided that we better head for Ravenloft tomorrow if we’re all healed up. While it would be stupid to go there, it would be even stupider to ignore Strahd’s invitation for much longer. Rictavio healed me and Skoll some. It hurt like hell. I did appreciate it, though - I could get up and walk around without feeling like my legs were going to give out from under me, which was great. I used my newfound power to go make a fool of myself in front of Ezmerelda one last time for the day. I mostly just wanted to thank her for making dinner, but I ended up apologizing for the fact that she felt bad for electrocuting me. I think she might think that I’m an idiot, or insane. That may be fine, though. At least she’s being nicer to me now. But I should get some sleep, and stop thinking so hard about what essentially amounts to nothing. I have the feeling that I’m going to need all the energy I can get for tomorrow. --- ## 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]]):** 01/03/1491