26/05/2016 - The Village of Barovia (3)

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.

17th August 1790

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.

Ghostly Woman

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.

Trapped By Fog

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.

The Village of Barovia

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.

Ismark

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.