Session 018 - 2025-06-16

Events

The party was led by Lavinia, the Burgomaster's maid, from his study into a large dinning room for refreshments. The room had a large table and eight women were present, seven of them looked like peasants and were making costumes for children and weaving wickers for the upcoming Festival of the Blazing Sun, and were clearly not happy to be there. The baronness was also present, Lydia Petrovna, and she greeted the adventurers, saying that they were free to have any refreshments as they liked. Meanwhile they could see the Baron leaving his study alongside his henchman, Izek, walking towards the mansion's entrance.

Lavinia excused herself to the kitchen, claiming to be overburdened with chores ,while the party decided what to do next. Linus sent Onofre to keep an eye on the mansion's entrance, where the Baron stand yelling orders to the townsfolk that brought in more wicker bundles, while Izek took off with some guard. After a while, Linus had Onofre fly around the house to inspect for any suspicious rooms. They observed that the building had three floors, with the topmost looking like a big attic. Onofre returned to the entrance right after.

Ultimately, they decided to split. Klildar and Linus remained on the ground floor, while Alfbern and John proceeded upstairs. They wanted to find the object mentioned in the tarokka reading, that mentions "knowledge of the ancient".

The paladin and the mage asked if the hostess had any stronger drinks, instead of the tea and juices. The baroness called for Lavinia who took them to the kitchen, where they met the cook, Karl. When he was asked to serve wine to the guests, he mentioned that he needed to tap a new cask, but Klildar asked if he could do it instead, as he has plenty experience from his family's brewer background. He handled it perfectly, and gained the cook's favour. They proceeded to taste the wine and converse with Karl, that explained that they're currently understaffed as two of the original staff had gone missing recently, the butler and the baroness' aide. He has no idea what happened to them, but said that the baron has Izek investigating the matter.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Jon and Alfbern proceeded with caution, listening behind all the doors before opening them. They visited a large library, where they found rather common books and documents, and it seems to be a room which the baron spends longs periods of time. They eventually entered two particular rooms that were locked: a no-window small room that had Uldo, the local shoemaker, shackled to the wall. He was arrested for protesting agains the burgomaster. He was freed and fled through a small staircase that leads to the kitchen downstairs. The second room was very strange and creepy. It had several dolls scattered on top of every furniture, and while all of them had different clothes, they all shared the same face: Ireena's. Jon grabbed one of the dolls and they continued with the investigation.

Downstairs, Uldo finds Klildar, Linus and Karl in the middle of a converstaion while sipping wine and tasting cured ham. He gives an excuse to the cook and asks if the can open the door to the garden, so he could leave. After that, Klildar asks if there's a special room to store the wine casks, like a cellar or basement. But Karl says that there isn't one, and shows him the pantry. At this point the adventurers excused themselves and walked back into the hall, the Paladin to keep an eye on the baron, while Linus went upstairs to have a look on the library.

Jon and Alfbern continue their exploration, that leads them to the master bedroom. While the room was ordinary, they found a trapdoor on the ceiling, with a rope attached to it. By pulling the rope they revealed the entrance to the attic.

After climbing the stairs, they found themselves in a small and heavy dusted room, with only a small window and a door. Through the door they reached the actual attic, littered with old furniture, boxes, chests, etc. One thing was clear though, a path ran across the floor, made from pushing the stuff aside and featured footprints on the dust.

When they reached mid-way of the path, a faint glimmer caught Alfbern's attention. A metal insignia on the cover of a leather bound book, was reflecting the flame produced by the druid. Upon a closer look, they were able to recognise the symbol, a symbol they first saw days ago, on a letter handed to them by a vistana, in a roadside Inn:

Strahd's emblem.

tome of strahd.png|500

Party

Setup