Current Games
A summary of events in each session of the game.
Adam Smith was a highway man carrying out small time robbery on the road from London to Oxford, along with his companions Lucy Western and Christopher Haines.
They got really lucky one day and managed to steal a lot of money (£10,000) which a nobleman was carrying with little protection. The nobleman died of a heart attack afterward and there were no witnesses, so they got away with it.
Deciding to settle down, Adam and Lucy, who were lovers and had a child, Gordon, decided to take on the guise of rich gentry, adopting the names Antonio and Lucy Tremere, along with their travelling companion Christian Neptune III.
Their disguise was proving difficult when people checked into their background and they soon found that England was not an easy place to buy your way into gentry / nobility.
Antonio asked a solicitor who does not ask too many questions, Peter Magpie, to look into buying him a title. Peter suggested that England may not be the best place to find to this, and he may have more success in Europe.
Peter eventually found an obscure Romanian title, Boyar (Baron) of Dorau, in Transylvania in the Holy Roman Empire that was available. He travelled to Vienna to secure the title for his employer, while pocketing a tidy profit.
Eventually, he wrote back to Antonio tell him he had secured the deal and he should travel to Vienna.
Antonio organised a travelling party to go with him to Vienna and onwards to his new estate. He took Lucy and their son Gordon, plus Christian. In addition he brought Father Jacob Westley, a Priest to teach Gordon and advise them. The family doctor, a Dutchman called Johan Van Der Veldt, and his apprentice William Dyke, also came along. For protection Antonio employed Horatio Wolfgang LeFleur, a Belgian mercenary and his companion Magnilda Falkenrath. As they are transporting a lot of money, Antonio had Horatio employ some extra armed escort, which ended up being two former French Musketeers Pierre and Rene.
The party journey to Vienna in two stage coaches, with the Musketeers driving. When they arrive, they are left waiting for two months before the Viceroy grants Antonio an audience and sells him his new title.
Peter and his assistance, a dumb boy who his dismissively refers to a “Scribe” or “Boy”, decide to come with them to the new estate to cover any legal problems. In reality, Peter has, through his satanic seer powers, sensed something important in that area and wants to investigate it further.
As they are travelling into less civilised areas, they employed two Austrian wagon drivers, Hans and Herman, to drive the coaches, so Pierre and Rene can concentrate on protection.
They pick up a Romanian guide, Bogar, who knows the area and head eastwards towards the Carpathian Mountains in Transylvania.
As the party travels further east in the high summer of August 1790, they find the roads little more than dirty tracks that kick up lots of dust and are probably impassable in the rain.
They stop at some villages and find the people unwelcoming of strangers and dislike their guide, who appears to be a gypsy type referred to as the Vistani.
They hear wolves howling and a pack of them appear to watch the travellers as they camp in the woods one night. They travel further eastward towards the Carpathian Mountains, where Dorua is located.
As they reach the Carpathian Mountains, the see two distinctive peaks shrouded in mist, which they must cross over to reach Dorua. They encounter a gypsy / Vistani wagon coming the other way on the narrow pass and have to stop.
The Vistani males from the caravan speak to Bogar the guide and he tell the party that Madame Esmeralda has been expecting a Lord from England and wants to speak to him. She is a well-known Fortune Teller with “the Sight”. Antonio reluctantly and sceptically steps forward and enters the Vistani caravan alone.
He meets with a woman who speaks broken English and she carries out a Tarot card reading for Antonio, telling him there is evil ahead and he will need to settle with his past. She mentions “Barovia” and mist.
Antonio, being quite a pious Christian, is appalled at this “heresy” and soon leaves, ignoring the woman. He returns to the coaches and they resume their journey, precariously passing the Vistani wagon.
Further along the mountain pathway, there is a sudden lurch and the lead coach stops – one of the wheels has come off, on the side of the coach that passed closest to the Vistani wagon.
Hans and Herman set about using their carpenter skills to repair the damage.
Wolves begin to muster behind them on the path and above them on a mountain ledge. One of the wolf pack comes close and Rene shoots it. The wolf runs away quickly and the pack scatters at the loud sound of the musket.
Horatio sees what he thinks is a human figure amongst the wolves, but it is hard to tell because there is some mist gathering.
The wolves become braver and attack again. This time a wolf jumps down from the ledge above onto Rene, while Horatio sees what he thought was the human figure coming closer, but when it emerges from the mist it is a large wolf apparently on two legs for a moment before it bounds forward and attacks. Another wolf leaps forward to attack Pierre.
Horatio initially struggles to hit the fast wolf, while it struggles to do more than scratch him due to his armour. Eventually he lands a big blow on the wolf and it backs off.
Rene is badly wounded by the wolf attacking him, but Pierre is able to fight off the one attacking him and helps his fellow musketeer to fight the other wolf off. They fire into the pack of wolves and they disburse.
Dr Johan steps forward and helps Rene.
Antonio, who is terrified of dogs and wolves, urges Hans and Herman to hurry their repairs. They botch up a quick repair as the wolves again begin to assemble. Antonio orders a quick departure. Their guide Bogar appears to have vanished.
As they travel to the heights of this mountain, they find the road splits left and right. The right path looks more used and appears to be heading back down the mountain, but there is another pack of wolves on that road. Determined to get away from the wolves, Antonio orders the left road to be used.
The left road appears to have some sort of old battered sign by it is written in Romanian and no one understands it, so they drive past. The wolves are soon left behind them, howling as the mist closes in around the coach.
They pass through a large bank of thick grey mist that absorbs sound and limits their vision. The coaches slow down and it becomes rather cold.
The coaches proceed forward slowly, a sense of dread growing amongst the travellers. Then the lead coach spots some large gates ahead, cut into an ancient wall. The gates block the road, but as they approach they silently swing open of their own accord. No one is around.
The coaches move slowly through the gates and on the other side the mists are thinning and they begin to see that they are on a road with trees either side.
Once they pass through, the large iron gates swing shut noisily behind them, apparently of their own accord.
It has been a long day and Antonio orders the coaches to be parked by the road and set up camp for the night. Horatio arranges watches.
As he is heading to bed, Peter Magpie sees disturbed by the image of a man impaled, which then seems to vanish when he looks again. He goes to his tent to secretly sense for magic nearby.
He senses there is magic close by, at the tree line. He leaves his tent to investigate and sees a woman in white robes. As he approaches, she hisses that “No one will know when you die here” and her face melts into a skeletal figure. She is a ghost and attacks him, trying to take over his body. He takes out his pentagram to try to ward her off and after a mental struggle he succeeds, but the effort is exhausting and he faints.
Pierre, one of the musketeers, has been alerted and shoots at the woman, but it has no effect. Peter’s scribe comes to help him and the ghost switches target. The ghostly woman is unable to overpower the scribe and retreats into the forest.
The rest of the camp is now awake. Dr Van Der Veldt examines Peter and brings him round.
In the morning, Antonio announces they are going to leave this place. They return to the gates, which do not open, but Horatio and the soldiers force them open.
They proceed into the thick fog, but soon everything starts going wrong. The horses take fright. Dr Van Der Veldt screams he can’t go on and leaves the coach, heading back to the gates. Horatio’s horse stops and one of the musketeers is thrown by his horse.
As things don’t seem to be getting any better, Antonio orders a return to the gates, which appear to be remarkably close despite the distance they had travelled.
After composing themselves, they move on down the road away from the gates. As they proceed the woods close in around them. Dr Van Der Veldt sees something on the side of the road, but they ignore it.
After a while, the woods thin out and the land around them becomes open farm land, with the odd peasant working the field. The peasants stare amazed at the coaches going past.
They arrive at a small village that lies under a castle high up in a mist shrouded mountain and pull up at the courtyard to the Inn. They hear a thin tinny bell ringing briefly.
Antonio leads the party into the Blood on the Vine Inn. Three Vistani (gypsies) are sat at a table by the door. Two older looking locals are at another table and a handsome young man sits at a third. He looks up with interest when the party enter.
The barman speaks Romanian which no one understands. Lucy speaks Austrian / German and the barman grunts basic replies.
They order drink, food and 5 rooms for the night. The barman checks every coin.
The handsome man invites Antonio to sit with him. His name is Ismark, known as Ismark the Lesser as his father was also called Ismark.
He asks them where they are from and is surprised. They do not get many foreigners here and he breaks the bad news that they are trapped in the land of Ravenloft, in the village of Barovia. They cannot escape these lands without the consent of the “Devil” Strahd, a Vampire Lord who lives in the Castle above them.
Antonio is sceptical but chats with him and asks more. Ismark also tells them his sister is in danger. She has twice been bitten by the Devil Strahd, who has taken an interest in her for an unknown reason.
Ismark asks if the party will help him move her away from the Village of Barovia to a safer place.
Antonio considers Ismark’s request to help his sister and agrees. Peter is convinced it means nothing but trouble but there is a general feeling that it would be worth helping Ismark.
Ismark says he wants to transport his sister to a safer place further west, such as the town of Vallaki. This is still within the estate of the Devil Stradh, but it is not cowed under the shadow of Ravenloft Castle and is thought to be safer. It has a wooden palisade for protection.
Antonio, Peter, Johan, Horatio, Father Jacob and Pierre go with Ismark to his family home. He is the son of the Burgermeister – the Mayor.
The house is run down and there are signs of wolf attack. Inside, his father is dead in a coffin in the living room, attended by Ireena, a beautiful red-headed woman.
Ireena will not leave until her father is given a proper burial in the church yard. Peter Magpie is furious and asks why Ismark did not point this out before.
They agree to escort the coffin through the village to the church. When they arrive, the church looks in a poor state. Protestant Father Jacob complains this is a Catholic church.
The priest, Father Doravich, is weeping at the altar. Ismark speaks to him and tries to persuade him to help bury his father, but Doravich does not want to know.
Horatio investigates a noise in a side room with a broken roof and finds a chained trapdoor in the floor, with sounds of a voice calling for his father in Romanian and banging on the door.
Horatio opens the door, despite Father Doravich trying to stop him. Below is a teenage boy, thin and pale with clawed hands and fanged teeth. His father says he has been “cursed by the vampire”.
The boy screams for help but Horatio closes the door and chains it up again.
It is finally agreed that Father Jacob will preside at the burial, despite his objections to this Catholic place, and he does not want to see the body. They go into the graveyard and carry out the ceremony. It begins to get dark.
They return to the Church and decide to stay the night here rather than risk walking around in the dark. Horatio bars the doors, with him and Pierre on watch.
As the night draws on, wolves begin to howl and a pack of them appear to surround the church. They scratch and claw at the walls and the door, howling and calling out.
Peter asks if Ireena drew them here due to being on her period and Ismark angrily tells him to shut up.
The wolf howls and clawing continues for some hours until around midnight, when they go quiet. Boots are heard walking towards the doors, then someone knocks on the main doors of the church.
Horatio opens flap in the door. Well-dressed figure asks him to let him in, tries to influence his mind, but fails. Horatio closes the flap.
Bats suddenly fly in from the room with the trapdoor. Dr Johan is bitten badly on the back of the shoulder and becomes convinced he will turn into a vampire because of it.
The bats finally disperse and all is quiet. The get a tense few hours of sleep.
In the morning, they find a peasant impaled on a spike outside the church. Peter Magpie is terrified to look at the face, fearing it has his face.
They return to the Inn, to find the rest of the party had an uneventful night, apart from hearing the wolves howling. They pack up and head west to Vallaki, taking Ismark and Irenna with them.
The coaches move along the road heading up the side of a mountain and come to the western gates of Barovia, which open easily. They avoid the road up to Castle Ravenloft.
They travel on for the day and start to approach a small town protected by a wooden fence. Guards with long polearms stand behind iron gates and want to know their business. Ismark does the talking and they are allowed in.
Vallaki is more lively and full of people going about their business, unlike Barovia village. They arrive at the Blue Water Inn and decide to stop here.
Peter notices some ravens with intelligent eyes on the roof of the Inn.
Antonio and the party enter the Inn. There are plenty of locals in there who stare, until the bar keep bids them welcome.
They order food and drink bar man using German.
Horatio, Magnilda, Pierre, Rene, Hans and Herman wait outside. Hans tells Horatio the quick repair of the wheel will need a proper carpenter to look at it. Horatio moves things out of the damaged coach and gets 10 gold from Antonio to pay for the repairs.
Hans returns to say a local carpenter wants 7 gold to do the job, but wants 2 in advance. It will take 4 days to replace the wheel and the axel. Horatio visits the carpenter and pays him 1 gold and shows him the rest.
During conversations with the bar keep, it emerges that the wine supply is low. The Wizard of Wines supplier is overdue and has not been seen. He offers free board to the party if they go and find out what has happened and return with wine.
Antonio agrees that would be a worthwhile venture.
Hans confronts Horatio pointing out he is only a coach driver, he is not paid to go on dangerous expeditions. He wants an extra 5 copper pennies a week for having to do such a dangerous job as driving the coach out of this safe town to some dangerous place outside.
Horatio argues but in the end goes to tell Antonio, who agrees to give everyone a danger money rise.
It is agreed that Hans and Ismark will drive the coach, with Antonio, Dr Johan, William and Peter riding inside. Horatio, Pierre and Rene will ride along side. The others will stay behind in the Inn.
There are delays getting everything ready and the expedition does not leave until late morning. Horatio gives Hans a leather jacket and knife and procures extra provisions just in case.
They get directions from the Inn Keeper, Urwin, who tells them to head west on the Old Slavich Road and turn south just before a stone bridge. They should then see the winery on the right.
The Winery After a few hours the road branches off to the left just before a stone bridge and they turn off, heading south as per their directions. They begin to approach the winery and can see that the vineyards are damaged and the fences are broken down.
Horatio sees a figure in a cloak duck into cover. He takes Pierre and Rene with him to investigate. He finds himself confronted by four people armed with swords and bows.
When Horatio says they are have been sent from the Blue Water Inn to help, the man introduces himself as Davian Martikov, who owns this place. He tells them that the magical seeds that help the winery grow were stolen and freaky tree creatures over ran the winery. Three other companions are with him, his two sons and the husband of his daughter.
Davian leads them along a small track that leads to the winery building. As they pass between the vineyards, they see a strange thin tree-like creature made from twigs rise out of the ground. Then another and another rises.
Antonio, Peter, Ismark, Pierre and Rene are struck by fear and unable to act. Rene fires off his musket uselessly.
Hans abandons the coach and runs into the winery for cover. Dr Johan drives the coach into the winery. William takes Horatio, Pierre and Rene’s horses inside.
Horatio slaps Pierre out of his paralysis and the musketeer helps his friend Rene into the winery then comes back to get Antonio and Peter.
Davian and his friends help Horatio take the horses off the coach and they all cram inside, watching as twig creatures begin to march towards the winery.
There is a high pitched whistle coming from a cloaked, bearded human figure further back. He appears to be some sort of druid, who raises his staff and more of the twig creature’s rise from the ground. The winery is surrounded by over 20 of them.
The twig creatures swarm around the winery while the defenders begin to build barricades as best they can. A fight ensues between the defenders and the Twig Blights.
Peter makes a reckless attack on one of the Blights and is badly wounded in the chest. Davian and his sons use flaming arrows. Horatio uses grenades dropped from the first floor window twice to blow up a group of blights.
The druid figure in the background is spinning a whistle in his hand, which seems to be animating the Twig Blights. Rene targets him from the first floor with his rifle and with a spectacular shot, shoots the druid through the eye and kills him. The Twig Blights begin to die and over the next few minutes turn back into piles of twigs.
Rene and Pierre celebrate their success as a victory for France. Everyone else is just pleased the desperate fight is over.
The travellers recover from the attack. There are several people injured and Dr Van Der Veldt helps them.
During the battle, some of the horses from the coach fled. Ismark and Hans go after them but one cannot be found. The coach is a horse down.
Horatio goes out to check on the dead druid and finds a vial with green liquid on him. Dr Van Der Veldt believes it is poison and it looks like it has been put into some of the wine vats.
Davian tells them the magic crystal that helps the wine grapes grow is still missing. It will need to be recovered if the winery is to get back to its former productivity.
Peter decides to do a divination to try to find this magic crystal and also to find some healing. To get help from his Dark Master, he must provide a sacrifice. He goes down and retrieves the druid poison and uses it to kill one of the horses.
He is rewarded that night with two pieces of information, both the same. The magic crystal is a source of healing and it can be found on a druidic hill not far from here.
In the morning, Peter tells them he had a dream that the magic crystal is located on a druidic hill. Davian confirms there is one just to the west of the winery.
Antonio decides to check it out and the group set out for Yester Hill, leaving just Hans and William to look after the winery.
Two wild eyed screaming barbarians burst out of a hole in the ground, dressed only in mud and some cloth, attacking recklessly. They are cut down but not before they do some damage.
Then they hear a familiar whistling sound and they see two blights rise from the ground, both of them made more from thorns than twigs.
A long battle ensues, between the travellers and the Druid-controlled Thorn Blights, which have the ability to throw thorns over a distance. Along with them, some berserkers dressed in only loin clothes and woading come screaming out of the mists at them.
The travellers manage to kill the druids, which ends the threat of the Thorn Blights, and fight off the Berserkers, but it is a difficult battle
Pierre is badly wounded by a thorn blight. Rene stays to look after him and so does Dr Van Der Veldt.
The rest of the group continue to the top of the hill to look for the crystal.
As they approach the hill proper, thick fog quickly begins to roll in, obscuring their view. They are forced to march round the walls of the hill and take their time reaching the summit as they cannot see a clear path up.
Strahd visits Dr Van Der Veldt, stepping out of the fog and mesmerising him and Rene. He encourages them to help Pierre up, then he uses some sort of magic to cause a spike to rise out of the ground and impale Pierre, killing him. Rene cries out in grief.
As the party reach the top of the hill, they see a large wooden statue of a robed figure, behind which is an enormous tree.
Standing beside the statue are two druids, but stood in front of them is Strahd von Zarovich.
Ismark shrinks away in terror from Strahd.
Antonio shoots at Strahd with his pistol but the shot either misses or he is not affected by it. Strahd then uses some sort of magic to have the gun fly out of Antonio’s hand and into his. Strahd then breaks the gun with his hands.
Antonio then draws his sword and rushes at Strahd. Strahd draws his own and in a short exchange bests Antonio, cutting him down to the floor.
Strahd then mounts his horse. He tells the remaining party members he is disappointed, they are weak and pathetic opponents. He instructs the Druids to kill the party and departs.
The Druids chant some sort of spell and suddenly the enormous tree then animates and moves forward, attacking the party. They can see a magic crystal is glowing in its “chest”.
Horatio concentrates on attacking the two Druids, who he is able to kill. However, the tree continues to attack the party.
Davian and his sons fire flaming arrows into the tree, but its bark is thick and the fire does not catch.
Peter holds back, fearing for his life.
Davian is hit with a serious wound, and one of his sons is killed. As it gets injured, the tree goes into a blind rage, and stomps on the unconscious Antonio, injuring him badly.
Ismark looks after Antonio, feeling guilty that he did not help him against Strahd. However, he is powerless to stop the huge tree stomping on Antonio’s body, further wounding him. He then decides to help fight the tree.
Eventually, Horatio’s 2-handed sword slashes off one of the tree’s arms and Ismark cuts the other off. Then they disable its legs and chop it until it stops moving.
One of Davian’s sons cuts out the glowing crystal from the tree’s chest and puts it next to his father, ignoring Peter who tries to get him to listen but can only speak English, which he does not understand.
The fog begins to clear. Ismark calls for the Doctor to come over.
Doctor Van Der Veldt is comforting Rene, who is wailing inconsolably over the death of Pierre. He is relieved to get some peace and leaves Rene to attend the wounded on the mountain.
Meanwhile, Horatio gathers wood to burn the dead tree. He finds a druid cauldron and their living quarters.
Ismark takes Pierre’s horse in the night and leaves a note saying it was taken from necessity and will be at the Blue Water Inn. They stay at the Wizard of Wines that day as Antonio cannot be moved, he is too ill. Rene is still crazy and Dr Van Der Veldt does trepanning on his head to try to relieve his anxiety. It does not work.
They remain at the Wizard of Wines house while Antonio finally stops declining and begins to recover. Davian continues to recover and regains consciousness. He has cracked ribs.
Antonio’s recovery continues and improves further. Davian is able to sit up a bit that day. Rene begins to recover from his anxiety.
Antonio is vaguely conscious today for a short periods. Christian Neptune III turns up on Pierre’s horse. Ismark gave it to him and he decided to come and help out as he can. However, when he realises there is little he can do, he returns to Vallaki. Rene wakes up feeling fine, although he is very quiet. (His musket firing skill is now broken. His hands shake too much.)
They take another day of rest and healing.
Dr Van Der Veldt feels it is now safe to move Antonio. They load him into the coach. Davian asks if they can stay and help get the vineyards organised, but the party feel they have wasted time here already and want to go. Peter suggests keeping the crystal but the others oppose this. They went to the druid mountain to get the crystal for them.
They leave the Wizard of Wines and head back to Vallaki, arriving by nightfall. Guards let them in when they say they have wine. Return to the Blue Water Inn.
They discover that Christian Neptune III has wounded in a drawn out dual with the husband of a beautiful woman he was sleeping with. He was then arrested for the crime of adultery. The Burgermeister wants 50 gold pieces for his release.
Horatio does not think they should pay, but Antonio says he will pay as he must look after his people. Ismark and Ireena have disappeared, trying to keep a low profile. The Innkeeper is pleased at the arrival of the wine and honours his agreement to give them free board and lodging.
Peter pledges to lawyer his way out of Neptune’s imprisonment. He recruits Horatio as an interpreter and heads for the Burgermeister’s house.
They meet Baron Vargas, the Burgermeister. He is very insistent that they attend his Festival of Light, which is happening in three days’ time and diplomatically, Peter agrees to this. They discuss events at the Wizard of Wines and Baron Vargas offers them two prisoners who are miserable as workers at the Wizard of Wines. Peter agrees to this.
Neptune is released that day at the Baron’s orders.
Horatio heads back to Wizard of Wines with the new coach, driven by Herman, carrying the two ex-convicts. Horatio follows on behind in the cart belonging to the Wizard of Wines. About an hour out from Vallaki, the coach takes a corner and the repaired wheel falls off, causing a nasty crash.
Horatio is not hurt in the cart, but as he moves to help the others, two figures stumble out of the forest, dressed in rusted armour and tattered regalia. They look like they died many years ago but they move with a slow hunger to kill. One of the convicts screams in terror and flees. The other and Herman withdraw, but Horatio steps forward and attacks one of the zombies.
The dead soldiers fight better than Horatio expects and he is wounded. He managed to kill and dismember one of them. The other one attacks Herman and he is wounded before Horatio is able to rescue him and finish off the second dead soldier.
He collects what he can from the wreckage, puts Herman and the remaining convict on the cart and they return to Vallaki. There is no sign of the convict who ran away.
When he returns to the Inn, he finds Doctor Van Der Veldt high on drugs and William looks at his wounds. Horatio tells Magnilda to go sort out the Wheelwrights, he wants the wreckage recovered and repaired.
She is pleased to help and leaves, bringing the young assistant Wheelright back to look at the wounds he has caused before dragging him off to recover the coach.
Antonio is bedridden recovering for some time. He is looked after by Dr Van Der Veldt and William, with Lucy nursing him a little, but she soon gets bored of this and spends more time with Christian Neptune III, renewing their secret affair.
With Horatio wounded too and others not at their best, they plan to spend the next few days recovering. However, they are disturbed by guards going door to door ordering everyone onto the streets to watch.
The party are forced to get involved too. Horatio stays at the door of the Inn, but the rest follow the precession to the Town Square, where a large wicker ball has been rolled into place on some scaffolding.
It begins to rain, but Baron Vargas the Burgermeister insists that the Festival continues. He is accompanied by a huge thug of a man, who appears to be his personal body guard, sporting a large metal arm.
A number of Townspeople line up to throw oil onto the ball as the rain begins to pour down. Baron Vargas tells everyone not to despair, all will be well, despite their glum faces due to being wet and bored.
He personally takes a burning torch to light the wicker ball, but as he strides over and tries, the torch sputters and goes out in the rain.
One townsman laughs at this, causing others to giggle. Baron Vargas rounds on the man who laughed and has his large body guard grab him and tie his arms and legs up.
Meanwhile more torches are brought forth and the ball is finally lit, but as it is now very wet, it doesn’t burn very well and gives off lots of smoke. The whole event is a disaster.
The Burgermeister has the tied up townsman roped to the back of his horse and he drags him along as he rides around in a circle, telling everyone all will be well.
While Baron Vargas does this, his thug body guard has spotted Ismark and Ireena in the crowd. He walks straight over to Ireena, pushing Ismark out of the way and grabbing her. He then starts to drag her against her will away, towards the Burgermeister’s house.
When Ismark draws his sword, Baron Vargas, a little confused by what his body guard is doing, orders his guards to stop Ismark.
Ismark fights four guards and is able to overpower three of them, but the last one stabs him in the side from behind and he goes down, badly wounded. Ismark is then pounced on by the four guards and put into chains.
Baron Vargas takes his wife and son back to his house, while still telling everyone all is well, and dragging the poor tied up townsman behind him. The guards carry the struggling Ismark away to prison.
The party are incredulous at events and meet up at the Inn to discuss what to do. They like Ismark and would like to help him, but there are so many guards on the streets, trying to intercept him before he is taken to prison would be too dangerous.
They instead plan how to break Ismark out of prison, either through blasting their way into the prison with grenades, bribing the guards, or both. They also want to rescue Ireena, bring down the crazy Burgermeister and take over the town.
Horatio sneaks out that night and breaks Ismark out of the town prison using gunpowder to blow open the wall.
The guards are frightened and confused by the explosion. Horatio is able to drag the injured Ismark back to the Inn.
Horatio puts Ismark in the coach, to hide him from being found. He is still very badly injured from a sword wound he took during the fight with the town guards.
The Inn Keeper seems to know what is going on and confronts Horatio. He tells him that rescuing Ismark must not back fire on the Inn and he must take this problem away as soon as possible.
Ismark has kidney damage, but he insists to Dr Van Der Veldt that he be patched up so he can rescue Ireena. Anything could be happening to her.
The Doctor tells him he could die from blood poisoning if he goes running around with a damaged kidney. Ismark does not care, tells him to patch him up with drugs so he can save his sister.
Dr Van Der Veldt instead gives Ismark a sedative, which knocks him out for hours.
Guards come to the inn, but the barman vouches that the party where there all night. Horatio, who is staying in the coach with Ismark, is warned by a boy to return to his room before the guards get there.
Peter looks to buy a house, to hide Ismark in and somewhere they can make their own. He looks into cheap property in the town and finds out that for 500gp he can get two three-bedroom houses next to each other in the north part of Vallaki.
They discuss what to do next. Peter asks the Inn Keeper of the Blue Water Inn if he can help find Irenna, which he says he can. Also tells him that they will transport the wine from now on, which is OK with him.
They made a deal with the barman about wine delivery, with Horatio taking responsibility for protecting the deliveries. When the barman shakes hands with hom over the deal, Peter notices he has a raven tattoo on his arm. He also senses the barman using some sort of magic to try to read more from him.
Early in the morning, William wakes Dr Van Der Veldt as Ismark is awake. He tries to get a sword and rescue his sister, but he is too ill. He asks Horatio to rescue his sister, and when he refuses calls him a coward. Then he faints.
Peter arranges for them to move into the new houses early, before the legal paperwork is finished. Peter talks to the inn keeper, who tells him more of Izek Strazni, the Baron’s bodyguard who took Ireena. He was an orphan who killed another child who was mocking him.
They visit a local toy shop, Blinksy’s. They find it has a number of odd and spooky toys, inappropriate for children, as well as some dolls that look suspiciously like Irenna.
Peter buys a toy for the son of the Baron and also one of the dolls that looks like Ireena.
Peter asks Horatio to accompany him on a visit to the Baron’s house. When they are granted an audience with the Baron, Peter gives him the merry-go-round as a present for his son, which he appreciates.
He also gives him the Ireena doll as a gift for Izek, which embarrasses the Baron and makes him suspicious. The Baron says Izek is “unavailable”. Peter apologies, thanks him and leaves.
They spend the rest of the day moving from the Inn to the two houses, transferring Antonio and his family.
That evening, Johan and Horatio go to the Drunken Monkey Inn, a rough little house pub on the edge of town where Izek is known to hang around. They ingratiate themselves with the locals by buying drinks and having arm wrestles, charming them and making friends. The locals name them Yog and Hog.
They learn more about Izek and his past. The Burgermeister let him off murder, unlikely he’d do much about him kidnapping random women. Horatio eventually gets ill from the bad vodka and Johan takes him home.
Peter murders Antonio while they are out, suffocating him with a pillow. He then is given dreams that night about a woman called Fiona Wachter. She fakes being a follower of Satan to others. She worships Strahd.
He also learns about the story teller who befriended Neptune there is more to him than he appears. Finally, there is a Vistani camp outside town.
When Horatio and Johan return, William gives them the bad news that Antonio has died. Because of the curfew and the drinkers staying in the Inn over night, they cannot be told until the morning.
In the morning the bad news is spread. Lucy, Neptune, George and Father Jacob are upset. Peter suggests burying him quickly.
Lucy takes over. She is shocked Antonio didn’t leave everything to her but to George. She talks to George and tells him she will look after the money until he grows up.
Peter goes to see the Undertaker, who is distracted about something. They arrange the funeral for the next day, but need to arrange with the church.
Peter goes to St Andral’s Church, where the priest Father Lucian Petrovich talks to him, is surprised that a Boyar has died. He is impressed to learn he died fighting evil. He indicates he would like to talk to them after the funeral.
Peter goes to see the Baron, but he is busy. His clerk talks to him, learns of Boyar Antonio’s death and is invited to the funeral tomorrow. Peter sends Father Jacob to the Church to talk about the funeral arrangements.
Horatio trains his three guards.