[[1491-01-09|<< 9 Hammer 1491]] | [[1491-01-11|11 Hammer 1491 >>]] ## 10 Hammer 1491 I got my ass handed to me today. Again. More on that later. Exethanter showed us to the treasure room this morning. Sure enough, there was a shit ton of treasure, among which was a very conveniently portable chariot. The treasure had to wait, though. Exethanter told us about the existence of one last set of sarcophagi - important ones, apparently, because Strahd has vampire spawn guarding them. Since we hadn’t found out much new information on Strahd yet, we went. The vampire spawn were easy enough to sneak past. As in the other rooms, there were three sarcophagi. The first vestige promised the gift of resurrection without regard to the age of the corpse. The downside to taking the gift is that you'll look like a corpse yourself. We learned that Strahd attempted to use this power to resurrect Tatyana, but it didn’t work quite as expected, because Tatyana was unwilling. The second granted the knowledge required to become a lich. The conditions were simple: you have to have evil in your heart, for one, and gaining knowledge will be all you come to care about once lichdom is achieved. It was pretty clear that Exethanter took this gift - Strahd took it too, apparently, but the vestige was not under the impression that Strahd had utilized the knowledge that he had been granted. The last vestige represented itself as having a direct link to the dark powers. It offered vampirism - to achieve this vampirism, you either have to be killed by someone who hates you, or you have to kill someone who loves you and drink their blood. I could probably guess which one Strahd went with. We regrouped outside the room. Skoll was considering taking the resurrection pact - he said he doesn’t fear the gods, and that taking at least one of the powers that Strahd accepted will help him hurt Strahd in a way that matters. Nia didn’t say much at all, but it was clear that she was thinking real hard about something. I wanted to try to talk them out of it, but I didn’t know what to say. So I just watched as they both went back into the room together. Ezmerelda turned to me, then. She wasn’t happy about it either - but while her objection was a moral one, I was mostly just worried about my friends. Not to say that Ezmerelda wasn’t worried. She even said that she was, and I could tell it took a lot for her to admit that. After some waiting around, I heard Nia’s voice in my head, as I had many times before. She warned me that Skoll looked a little fucked up. I turned away from the door, at first, but I had to look eventually. And there Skoll was: his skin sunken, gray, and pale, his hair still mossy, but less vibrant, stitches lining his face, the flesh on his right hand stripped away. He looked like a zombie. But he was still Skoll. He lifted up his skeletal hand and shifted his fingers; they clinked together, and he laughed. It did a lot to reassure me. As we were heading back to the treasure room, we saw a figure kneeled in front of the statue in the temple entrance. We watched as the figure ate a live frog, prayed, and then left. When we asked Exethanter about it, he said that the figure was probably Rahadin - he comes to the temple often and prays for Strahd's freedom from Barovia. I can’t wait to kill them both. We waited a bit to ensure that we wouldn’t run into Rahadin. Then, we turned to the treasure we had amassed, deciding to load it all up on the chariot that was among the treasure. Skoll summoned 8 draft horses - 2 pulling the chariot, 6 flanking - and then we were off. We didn’t make it far before we came face to face with that giant goat again. There wasn’t much sneaking to do this time. Since I was in front, it charged right at me. I managed to dodge out of the way the first time, but it reared around and headbutted me in the stomach. It pushed me to the cliff's edge - I could feel the back of my talons in free air - so I did the only thing I could think of, and threw the damn thing down the mountain. It was pretty impressive. We made it to the bridge again. Just as I was saying to keep an eye out, an earth-shattering screech sounded through the sky. A giant bird swooped down and knocked two horses off the bridge. And then it landed in front of us, its wings blocking the sun, its body blocking our path. The roc was tough. It took hit after hit and dealt blow after blow. Ezmerelda got hit once, and hit bad - but it mostly focused on me, pecking and swiping with its beak and talons as many times as it could. I got beaten to all hell. Ezmerelda called to me at one point, telling me to duck back for cover - but she was right next to me, so it was me or her. I stood my ground, even as Ezmerelda said that she wasn’t looking to get me killed. I might have made fun of her for it had I not been close to death. The roc fell eventually. It lay there, writhing; I stabbed it, and stabbed it again, and then it died. I sat down. Skoll ran over and hugged me. Nia healed me with the icon from Ravenloft. It was enough to get me to stand up. Instead of an alive giant bird blocking our path, there was now a dead giant bird blocking our path. Skoll summoned an earth elemental - the horses had disappeared when he started casting spells in combat - and the thing threw the bird off the bridge. Skoll asked the elemental to pull the chariot. Then we were off again, some of us (me) limping. We traveled out of Tsolenka Pass, out of the cold, up the main road. Eventually, we came across a clearing that was chock-full of fucking scarecrows. I shouted, telling them to leave us the fuck alone. They listened. We were almost back to the tower when we came across a group of blights, because shit just doesn’t go our way in Barovia. We managed to sneak past, but just seeing them was enough to piss me off. Still, we made it back without any casualties. Rictavio was waiting for us, clearly worried - though not nearly as worried as the last time we were gone overnight. Once we were inside, Ezmerelda guided me to a bed and very nearly tucked me in. I was almost too out of it to notice. But I still had some control of my faculties, so I started applying a poultice to Ezmerelda just as Rictavio came in and started healing me. Were I not bleeding all over the place, I think it would’ve been a funny sight. We caught Yesper, Godfrey, and Rictavio up to speed. Rictavio was beyond stressed that we had worked with a lich, and one that was so instrumental to Strahd securing power at that. He was also stressed that Skoll and Nia made pacts with the vestiges, but Skoll managed to explain his logic well enough. We took a moment to sum up what we knew: Strahd was chosen by the dark powers for his strength, ambition, and propensity for evilness. To lessen the power granted to him, we either have to undermine his strength or undermine his evil. From what I know of the guy, the former is probably the more realistic option. We discussed our next steps and tossed around a couple ideas. We landed on Pidlwick - tomorrow, we’ll ask him about our remaining fortune - the "knowledge of the ancient" to see if our object possibly resides in Castle Ravenloft. Having decided on that, Skoll left to make dinner. Mostly everyone else filed out after him; soon, it was only me and Ezmerelda. We talked for a while. I brought up the fact that things are coming down to the wire and asked if she was ready for the fight with Strahd. In response, she said that she doesn’t think she’ll ever feel ready. She asked the same of me. I paused for a long moment to find my words. I didn’t quite know how to communicate my thoughts regarding leaving Barovia - or if I should even try to communicate those thoughts - so I decided to focus on her question as it was. I told her that I used to feel ready, but then I got fucked up a bunch of times. Ezmerelda expressed surprise that I can take as many hits as I can. She didn’t even deflect when I told her that it sounded like she was giving me a compliment. Skoll came back in then, carrying soup for us both. He looked between us and smiled a shit-eating grin. I looked down. Once he was gone, Ezmerelda asked why he keeps "doing that." I tried to pretend that I didn’t know - but she saw through my lie pretty easily, so I decided to take a bit of a risk. I told Ezmerelda that Skoll thinks that she and I are "up to something." She had no idea what that meant. It was something of a relief when she dropped it, but I couldn’t help but feel a tinge of disappointment. Whatever the case, we continued talking for a while about things of little of consequence, occasionally poking fun at each other. She lies asleep, now. As I write this, I can’t quite describe the feeling that I am feeling. I’m hoping it's the blood loss - it’s an intense, scary thing to feel. Soon, we will fight Strahd. I am worried for all of them. In all my life, I’ve never seen a cause worth dying for. Killing Strahd is no different, but protecting them might be a different story. Not that I expect to die. Only that I'm willing to risk it. --- ## 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]]):** 01/10/1491