#Flicker the Shadowember Cat

[costhursdays]

Upon waking in the morning (or what appeared to be morning, it was difficult to tell with Barovian weather) Chiaroscuro turned to check his lantern he had left under his bed only to find the dark shadow within had disappeared. Scanning the room his multi-eyed gaze landed on the table in the corner, a small shadowy flame appeared to be... Grooming...? Itself? And Chiaro trepidatiously approached. Reaching out to pet it, the strange cat-like creature raised its head and pressed its forehead into Chiaro's outstretched hand. Both Alexir and Cash were watching as he did so, and Alexir had even asked to pet the little Familiar, but to a painful conclusion. It appeared that the little Embercat was painless to Chiaro, who was able to cradle it like one would a cat normally, but to others it caused painful searing burns. Alexir healed his hand easily with Lay On Hands, but not before Chiaro offered to do the same.

Nick entered the room after checking to see if the three others were awake, informing them that Ireena was still asleep from last night's binging episode. Kenshi, shirtless and sweating, entered the room as they revealed that information and went to go check on their ward. Ireena awoke with a splitting headache and Kenshi checking in on her, and joined the people in the other room to chat, ask about the cat that Chiaroscuro had named Flicker, and inquiring about possibly heading out to get some food. Nick asked Rictavio if there was anywhere that they could get some food this early, seeing as how the inn wasn't open for a while longer, and he informed them that the Church of St. Andral had morning services and there they offered food for the less fortunate. Ireena had requested they attempt to find the Church anyways so that she could request sanctuary, and they headed out to the street.

On the way there, Chiaro asked Alexir how it was that he was able to use healing magic so easily, and Alexir explained that it was just something he was able to do as a part of his training as a Knight of the Order, but that it flowed through him easily and was inherent to his skills. Chiaro asked then if he could attempt with Alexir's still pained hand, and upon channeling his magic, Alexir noticed that Chiaro's horns twitched and he accidentally caused more harm to Alexir's hands with his untamed magical ability. Alexir tended to his newer pain in his prior injured hand, and the rest of the group teased them both for their PDA.

Upon reaching the Church, they saw it was equally as old as the one in Barovia, and peering inside they made out what seemed to be twenty or so odd folks with the Priest at the front leading a sermon, Altar Boy at his side holding a ladle as people came up for warm bowls of what appeared to be a cream based broth. The group came up at the end of the Priest's words on the Morning Lord, and he soon addressed them, new faces among his flock and so many unusual ones at that. Ireena asked him for his sanctuary, and he happily offered it, even offering her a job as a teacher to some of the orphan children like the Altar Boy they had gotten food from (whom they learned was named Yeska). He however, asked the group for their help, and took them into a side room to discuss things further.

The Priest, whom they learned was named Father Lucian Petrovich, was the only one up until a few weeks ago who knew of the reasoning as to why the Church of St. Andral had been so well protected for so long, and that was due to the bones of the Saint Andral that lay beneath the altar, hollowing the ground around them. He informed them that Yeska was a very frightened child and had been suffering terribly from nightmares, and so he told the boy he had nothing to fear with the blessing they stood atop from Saint Andral and his sacred remains. Not long after this, the bones had been absconded from their resting place, and while the Priest had his thoughts as to who did it, he did not want to point fingers and make this all public before the big town festival that was in a few days. Father Petrovic was under the impression that it was his gravedigger who took the bones, a slightly older boy named Milivoj, who had a bad temper and attitude and had been acting a little suspicious as of late. He didn't want to cause him to go into a rage, and so he didn't outright accuse him. Kenshi asked of any other new members of his flock, and he spoke of a woman named Willemina Rikalova who had started to come to see her son be saved as he had been arrested for defying the laws of the Burgomaster, Vargas Vallakovich.

With information in hand, Alexir and Chiaroscuro asked to stay behind and assist with the duties in the Church and helping Ireena with her settling in, as Nick, Kenshi, and Cash all went to head down the road to Blinksy's Toys.

Upon reaching the building, they could barely see within the dirty glass windows, opting to walk in. As they entered, Kenshi was able to Catch a Projectile toy in mid air as everyone looked up to see a small monkey in a dirty pink tutu climbed amongst the shelves of weird, macabre toys. Almost immediately after, a large, portly man in a moth eaten jester's cap and frock came out, scolding the monkey. He, noticing the rest of the group, offered his sales pitch, and the party spent a bit of time asking Blinksy questions while perusing his strange wares. Here they notice a doll in the likeness of Ireena Kolyana, their charge, and they questioned whom it was for, Cash transforming into a near identical version of her to give him an idea as to how she looked. Blinksy informed them of a strange, terrifying man named Strazni who demands the toy maker to make these dolls once a month at risk of his life and his shop. Blinksy tells him he's probably doing the Burgormaster's orders in the middle of town, as he was Vallakovich's right hand man and bodyguard. Everyone bought a few toys from Blinksy, who thanked them all with a sloppy cry, and the three left the shop a little lighter on coin and with an intent to head to the center of town to see this man for themselves.

Cash was still in his Ireena disguise as they walked and upon hitting the center of town, they could see several folks all about, cleaning up from last weeks festival, while people in donkey masks stood in stocks. They all also saw a bald man who was barking orders at people dully before he turned his head and stared at the group. Cash, due to being a bit behind of the rest of the party, appeared separate, and the man with a burning obsessive look upon his face, rushed the disguised Tiefling quickly before anyone had a chance to react. It was three on one, possibly, and the man whom they could only assume was Strazni, was dead set on Cash's Ireena facsimile.

[costhursdays]

A rush of Strazni heading for Cash's person didn't alert either him nor Nick, but Kenshi adeptly noticed the large man lumbering towards the Disguised Tiefling, and stepped in to question him. Kenshi also noticed that the man's right arm looked deformed under the cloak he wore. Strazni demanded that Kenshi step out of the way, as she belonged to him. Cash dropped the Disguise Self spell, and lied that he saw the doll in the shop and wanted to see if he could make her real. Strazni, confused as to why Cash looked like the woman from his dreams, angrily told everyone to leave the area. Cash took him in to memorize the face of the man as much as he could. With Strazni met, and the partial group sufficiently stressed and confused, returned to the path to Church of St. Andral with the toys for everyone.

While the others were dealing with a strange mountain of a man, Chiaroscuro and Alexir were helping acclimate Ireena to her new role, Chiaroscuro assisting in mending the orphan children's clothing while Alexir took a break from the mental stress by sitting in a pew a bit away's from the pulpit. Father Petrovich sits with Alexir, and the two chat a bit about their tiefling companion, Chiaro. He mentions that he was a bit surprised, because he thought the air of holy energy he felt was radiating of Alexir, but no, Father Petrovich said it came from Chiaro. Alexir mentioned he never felt anything of the sort, but agreed that there was something special about the man. Petrovich agreed, telling Alexir to keep an eye on him, as he could see some awe inspiring things from the young man.

As Father Petrovich stood, the rest of the group walked in, toys in hand for the others, and everyone took refuge in the Priest's back office to discuss the happenings. Nick, Cash, and Kenshi informed Chiaro and Alexir of Strazni, told them how he had been seeing Ireena in his dreams and he had been forcing Blinksy to make Dolls of her for months now, and

Chiaroscuro, who had been making a bit of headway with the orphans, was voluntold to discuss the bones with Yeska with the new toy that the group had bought for him and the rest of the orphans, a moderate sized puppet show with marionettes of a king, a queen, a prince, a princess, an executioner, a tax collector, a dunce, a vampire, and a vampire hunter. Chiaroscuro did so, with some coaching from Nick and the group who used their Psychic Whispers technique, using the toy with Yeska to discuss difficult topics like the death of his parents to the Wolf's Head Jamboree, and also how scared he was and what to do to combat this fear. Yeska confirmed Father Petrovich's suspicion that Milivoj had been the one he had told about the bones, and the group set outside to confront the surly teen about them.

It had started to rain a bit as they left the building, and Milivoj was digging a grave in the wet mud. He allowed the group to help him out of the hole, and as he was interrogated, everyone could see he was simply a stressed, tired, frustrated teen who was working so hard to support his family after his parent's had passed. They asked who hired him to steal the bones of Saint Andral, and he informed them of the Coffin Maker, Henrik van der Voort. When asked how much he was offered to steal them, Milivoj reluctantly said that he'd get fifty gold pieces for the bones, enough money to last his family a while. After getting the rest of the necessary details from the boy, Chiaro offered five gold pieces to him to help him out for the next while. When everyone else had started to leave, Cash flipped him one of the Gold Rings from the Death House, Milivoj catching it deftly in the air, and told the lad that while he understood doing whatever was possible for money, to avoid bad jobs for bad coin. Milivoj agreed, and left to go inside away from the rain.

The group made the plan, approach the Coffin Maker's home, Kenshi will enter the shop as a possible customer, Cash will use Disguise Self to pass as Milivoj asking for his money, and, the rest will enter where they could to get the bones. Unfortunately for them, upon approaching the building, the group were forced away upon knocking, Henrik van der Voort being a gruff, antisocial old cretin. While Cash began to use Disguise Self on himself, Chiaroscuro asked for a boost up to attempt to see into the second floor from Alexir, and while barely, he could see through the barred and slatted windows into a dark room filled with boxes and supplies. He summoned Flicker in the center of the room, his eyes glassing over to be able to see through his Familiar's sights, and looked around through Flicker to find anything close to the bones. All the while Cash's Milivoj disguise was applied, and he was able to get inside the front office of the Coffin Maker's home, demanding his money from the old man.

Henrik relented, going through a door and, through Flicker's senses Chiaro could hear him coming up to the second floor, going through a door on the other side of the wall. Not long after, Henrik returned with the bag of coins for "Milivoj", and began to escort the man out of his home, when he was shocked by Kenshi's hand shooting out and grabbing the door before it closed into its frame. Inviting himself in, Kenshi looked around for a brief moment before chastising the man and demanding to know where the bones were. Henrik held up his hands in defeat almost immediately, knowing all too well that the jig was up. He informed Kenshi were the bones were, through the door, up the stairs, and to the right, and Kenshi demanded that Henrik go with them to find it. Henrik refused, saying he already told the man where it was, his only request was that Kenshi not go into the room on the left of the stairs, as it was not safe. This room in question is where Flicker was standing at this exact point, surrounded by boxes, wood, and large crates labeled "Junk".

[costhursdays]

Upon preparing for heading out of the town, the party had a few errands to run through getting Udo Lukovich and his mother Willemina Rikalova out of Vallaki. With the possible threat of retribution from Vargas Vallakovich assuredly presumed, they had to work fast to get the two out of the city. From here they were told by Father Petrovich to head south of town to the small Vistani encampment. Vargas does not trust these Vistana and have forbade any from entering the town. The group disguised the two Vallakian's, heading through the gate trepidatiously, so as to not get caught.

Upon reaching the camp they came across a hurried scene, as Vistana were running to and fro. The group met with a man who seemed to be delegating the lot, sending out teams into the forest and beyond. They learned from this man, Arrigal, that his niece Anabelle was missing, and that no one had been able to find her for half the day at least. Over half the Vistani that lived in the encampment were out searching, including several Dusk Elves, the likes of which the group had only read about due to the rumors they had died out long ago. Arrigal asked for their assistance in finding her, describing her as a little girl in a yellow sun dress and ribbon. While Nick was suspicious of the description, Chiaroscuro proffered that he could help track her with the help of Flicker the Shadowember Cat, who could perceive scents better than anyone in the party could. Arrigal had a young Vistana teen bring out a spare ribbon that Anabelle wore in her hair, and Flicker gave it a healthy sniff before leading the group back to town.

Heading north, the party left through the gate to Lake Zarovich, where they had heard earlier that day from Lady Petrovna that the wolves have been more active in the area of the lake. As they came to the edge of the water, they couldn't see anything save for the small row boats at the shore and one in the water, with a man fishing within. The party got in two, Alexir and Kenshi in one rowboat, Cash, Nick, and Chiaroscuro in the other, and both rowed out towards the man in the middle of the lake.

Approaching him, the group asked how he was doing, but upon speaking the words, the man seemed to be in a daze. He didn't respond, instead slowly lifted a large, tied off burlap sack over the water and dropped it into the lake's frigid waters below. Kenshi sprung into action, leaping into the water and diving quickly to save whatever was trapped within the bag. He reached out, fingers barely grazing to grab the strings of the sack, bringing it to the surface a few seconds after diving in. Alexir threw a dagger at the man in the boat and knocked him out easily as Kenshi brought the girl out of the bag while he climbed into the boat. Cash connected the man's boat to the one he and Chiaro and Nick were rowing and both boats headed back to shore.

While en route to the shore, Kenshi explained where he was from to Anabelle, who was a precocious and curious thing. In the opposite boat, Chiaroscuro and Nick had a conversation using Nick's Psychic Whispers, where the Elf-ish rogue explained that they were from north of Waterdeep and that they had a sister just like Chiaro that they're very fond of. The moment passed once they got to the shore and questioned the man in the boat, who had started to come to from the intense shock to his system.

The man introduced himself as Bluto Krogarov, who had heard a tale that if one would sacrifice something to the lake, they'd be blessed with fish. He took advantage of Anabelle being there where she wasn't supposed to be, seeing her as a missing Vistana child in the middle of town where Vistani children are not allowed to be. The party left him at the north gate, informing the guards there that he had attempted to murder a child for fish, and headed back south to the Vistani camp, Anabelle in tow.

When she arrived home, the party met her father, a large, mountainous man named Luvash, who carried her around everywhere with him now that she returned home to him. He offered the group a gift of treasure as thanks, along with allowing Willemina and Udo to stay with them no questions asked, as they had been willing to save the one thing in the world he cared for. Simultaneously, he also asked the group for help, as their wine supply was low and the Vistani group were growing dry. He requested they go west to check out the Wizard of Wines, to see if anything was holding up their allotted shipment. The party, serendipitously, was already en route to the same place, so offered to check it out for them as well.

Back on the road, they headed west towards the bridge connecting Vallaki to the Svalich Forest. What was ahead of them was a mystery about to be solved.

[costhursdays]

Waking up from their sleep with so much on their minds, the group found themselves still in a battle on whether or not they'd take the Lady up on her offer to kill the Burgomaster or not. Several were in agreement that such a thing would not be the "right" thing to do; others were less so inclined, stating that while he had not done anything 'bad' persay, he had a hand in the creation of several new orphan mouths for the Church to tend to. All the same, they had decided yesterday to tell Lady Wachter their answer the day after tomorrow, so today was their time to get through the everything with the preparation for the Festival of the Blazing Sun while deciding to see whether or not the murderous nature will come upon them.

First thing Chiaro wished to do, even prior to getting food, was to retrieve Flicker from their spot spying on Strazni. Upon returning to the Burgomaster's estate, they swung around the back, and Chiaroscuro gently called out to his familiar. Slowly, a small ember slid through a few cracks in the plaster and cobblestone, transforming back into the little flaming ball of darkness that the party has grown to love. Chiaroscuro asked Flicker what it was he saw, and much like how Chiaro looked when he was witnessing through Flicker's eyes, he now saw a playback of the prior night.

He saw under the bed, the spot that Flicker chose to hide out for the night, and the vision was rapidly passing by, almost like Flicker was playing out the scene at five times speed. He saw the feet of Strazni enter the room, kick some of the discarded bottles strewn about further into the back corners under his bed, and lift up out of sight. Flicker's vision then slowly crept out from under the bed, jumping from the floor to an elevated corner watching the scene from on top of Strazni's closed trunk. Here, Chiaro saw Strazni take several swigs out of a bottle of wine, before dropping it to the floor, having finished it off. From here, he dug to find one of the dolls of Ireena, stroking its hair and muttering something with glassy, bloodshot eyes, and finally rolling over to fall asleep. From this position he remained, back to the doorway, for several hours until he rose with the overcast sky, redressing himself in clean clothing, and heading out for the day. He took a glance at Flicker's position once, but did not seem to have noticed the shadowember cat.

Chiaroscuro questioned if Flicker was able to hear what Strazni had said and with a small chirruping meow, Flicker was able to replay the sound for Chiaroscuro into his thoughts. Chiaro heard a gruff, stilted, slurred voice as the thought of Strazni stroking the doll's head replayed. He heard him question why she was there, why was she plaguing him so severely, and how he could fix this sight he kept seeing. Chiaro relayed this information to the group, and while it did paint Strazni in a different light, everyone came to an agreeance that Ireena should not be told about this. She had made it clear prior that she had no interest in hearing about some freak who was obsessed with her, especially seeing as how Strazni made the count of those up to two.

With Flicker in arms, they went back to the Church of St. Andral. From their spot, they were pleased to see Ireena had joined Father Petrovich with handing out food, which today was a small loaf of bread coupled with a meaty rice porridge. She asked how the day fared them after they had left yesterday, and while they said that, while they managed to have an eventful day, they felt like they didn't have a lot of information on anything that could help them in the future with regards to the festival. Father Petrovich proffered the return the the Burgomaster's manor to check in on Lydia, his sister, as he hadn't seen her in services in some time and was worried about his brother in law's temper, as he had become quite controlling in the recent years. They agreed after having some breakfast, with Nick deciding that Chiaroscuro should be the recipient of their Psychic Whispers, and returned to the manor to make their entrance back in Lydia's good graces.

Entering the home, a lot of the decorations had been finished and were laying on the floor to be assembled fully later, or set aside for the festival proper that was to happen the following day. The maid that took them in and directed them towards Lydia Petrovna did so again, and she was happy to see so many new people in such short notice. She took them into the dining room where she was having a midmorning tea break, and sat them down with glasses. Kenshi took charge of the conversation and inquired about how she had been lately, stating the information they had received from Father Petrovich. She sounded dodgy in her answers but did not stray from her fully committed "all will be well" personality that had been built into her. During the conversation, Chiaroscuro excused himself for the bathroom, and left to do some quick recon on the rest of the house, summoning and resummmoning Flicker into rooms to scope them out. A few times he nearly was found, the chef that seemed to be preparing lunch for the Burgomaster and his wife nearly running his hand directly into Flicker's burning little shadowfire forehead, but never was he found. This brought him upstairs as he looked around in the rooms that he was not privy to from the last time he looked around. While keeping quiet from alerting Vargas of his presence in the house, Chiaroscuro's searching lead him to discovering a locked closet at the end of the hall, where a mostly naked, battered and bruised man lay gagged and unconscious. Picking the lock quietly, Chiaro lay a gentle hand on the man, causing some of his scratches and scrapes to disappear, but he did not stir further. Chiaro Whispered to Nick the findings, and Nick excused themself from the table as well, citing that they were also heading to the restroom.

From here, the rest of the group was kept in the loop with Nick's psychic whispers as well, and they all were aware of the beaten man in the closet. Nick and Chiaro tried their luck at picking the lock to his manacles, coming out with two sets of broken lockpick tools and a jammed lock. Chiaro sent Flicker into the next room so that he could distract the dogs so that it would muffle the sound of a precisely placed Eldritch Blast, and Nick stole a bedsheet to cover the man with. They escaped the home with some help from Cash, who disguised himself to look like Lydia and having the maid take a nap due to how tired she seemed, and the rest of the party took their leave as they all brought the man back with them to the church.

He informed the group that his name was Udo Lukovich and that he was kidnapped by the Burgomaster's beast of a bodyguard and was being kept prisoner for speaking out against Vargas' constant festivals. Father Petrovich feared that the man would end up dead if he went home and asked if the group would take him and his mother, Willemina Rikalova, to the Vistani Camp just outside of town. Here, they should find some respite, and at least would be kept safe from any sort of attacks from the Burgomaster.