#and i love everyone in this bar(ovia)

[badassindistress]

No Vampires Allowed - Session 30

A banshee screams, a desperate prayer is made and a final battle is fought… It’s time for the last session of No Vampires Allowed!

Tagging the party: @aporeticelenchus @pioup-pioup @guineamaina @ratheralark @m-siecle @somuchbetterthanthat

 Raisa is locked in combat with Strahd, the rest is left behind. Two gargoyles have appeared and Strahd has called other creatures of the crypts to aid him. Calliope gets attacked by an icedog that nearly tears het throat out. She strikes it with thunder but it’s still on top of her.

Clara makes Emily’s crossbow magic and heals Calliope. Everard uses the Faerie Fire scroll, creating a violet light around Strahd. Viktor throws a fireball and Emily flies over the  wolf to shoot Strahd with her newly magical crossbow. She gets attacked by bats, which fail to harm her and latch onto Raisa instead. Strahd tries to bite Raisa, but gets stuck on her armour. Ezmeralda slashes at the dog hunkering over Calliope and Kasimir makes it howl in pain with another fireball. A second dog knocks Viktor unconscious.

Bucephalus appears and Strahd gets on the horse. Calliope spears the dog on top of her, killing it and healing herself. There is an eerie wail coming from the south. Clara gets Viktor on his feet again. He fails to snipe the bats and hides.  Raisa is still grappled by a giant bat and Calliope stabs the gargoyle attacking her. Emily shoots the bat off of Raisa, so she’s free to pursue Strahd with the sunsword. Ezmeralda dispatches another gargoyle.

Emily has run back to Ireena’s grave and hears footsteps coming down the stairs. Ireena is still in peaceful repose, so Emily throws her ballbearings over the stairs. The wailing is getting louder. Everard uses the pipes of haunting to frighten the creatures away from him.

Emily finds Patrina’s grave and sees an elven looking banshee going towards her friends. Ludmilla trips over the ballbearings and falls on her butt, but she still catches Raisa in Evard’s Black Tentacles. Calliope blows the gargoyle attacking her to smithereens and heals some more.

The Banshee starts a mournful wail and Kasimir throws his arms around her. Raisa, who was just fine a moment before, drops to the floor, suddenly unconscious. Strahd reappears next to Calliope and tries to burn them all. He calls the inhabitants of the crypts to him and all the crypt doors swing open. Clara, burned by the fire, falls unconscious. Muriel swoops down on Strahd and Everard gives Clara a health potion to get her back on her feet. Everard tries to call on Shami-Amourae for help in desperation, but nothing happens.

Clara drinks the potion of exhausting speed and rushes Strahd. Emily flies to Raisa, unconscious in the tentacles, to get her back to consciousness too. The moment Clara fell unconscious, her crossbow lost its magic. Raisa gets back up again and relights her sword, bringing sunlight streaming back into the crypt. Strahd jumps off the horse and tries to grapple Muriel, he slashes at her and she gets knocked unconscious. He sucks her blood, getting her two steps closer to death.

Kasimir holds Patrina until the life seems to return to her cheeks. Ezmeralda brings down a lightning bolt on Strahd and Ludmilla manages to just hit Emily with a poison dart. Escher appears, shambling, looking half starved. He looks in very bad shape and reluctant to fight.

Bucephalus tries to disappear, but a lovely voice that appears out of nowhere says “I don’t thinks so” and Shami-Amourae pushes him out of the ethereal plane. Calliope heals all her friends in one fell swoop, saving Muriel’s life at the last moment. Muriel is awake again and claws Strahd in the face. Everard casts Chill Touch on Strahd and then turns around and sees Escher. Everard is dumbstruck.

Clara keeps slashing at Strahd desperately, he’s bloodied from her Divine Smites. Emily shoots him and tells him that Tatiana would rather die than love him in any lifetime. Raisa runs forward so both Strahd and Escher are in the sunlight. Strahd tries to flee, but Clara catches him with Scorch and Muriel catches him with her claws. He fireballs them all and runs away. Clara passes out again. Everard uses Misty Escape to appear next to Escher. Escher has been ordered to fight, but when Everard tells him “terrible news darling, your ring saved my life” he’s so surprised he freezes. Escher is struggling against Strahd’s control, but the compulsion takes over and he slashes at Everard weakly.

Ezmeralda gives inspiration and Calliope heals everyone once more. Ludmilla does not join the fight, hanging back to see who wins. Escher gives Everard bardic inspiration. Calliope sacred flames the horse, it doesn’t do much. Muriel tries to mount Bucephalus, but he bucks her off. Patrina turns back into an elf in Kasimir’s arms.

Viktor makes Raisa fly. Everard keeps joking at Escher and Escher does not attack him. Clara slashes at the horse.

Emily runs after Strahd and finds him in the dark. She seizes him up and shoots him through the chest with her last magical crossbow bolt. Raisa, still flying, follows the sound of his cursing and feels the sunsword go warm in her hand. She sees Strahd stumbling, bloodied and with a bolt through his heart, and runs him through with a sword made of sunset. For a moment, Strahd looks surprised and then he looks, just for a moment, full of regret. And then it passes and the Dread Prince Strahd von Zarovich crumbles into ash.

Suddenly, everything freezes. A group of robed, hooded figures appear out of nowhere around the ash. One Figure speaks. “Has the verdict been reached?” Another says “Parole will be granted temporarily” a third says “good, the contract has been met”. The voices speak of paths from shadows opening and a review at a future time. The particles of ash disappear and the hooded figures fade.

Time flows again and all hostile creatures fall to the ground. Only Escher is still standing. He has not seen the hooded figures.

Emily runs to Ireena, still lying peacefully in her coffin. Calliope, with all her friends safe around her, takes out the diamonds and Revives Ireena. Ireena’s eyes flutter open and she is not burnt by the sunlight. She’s alive. Emily bursts into tears and hugs her.

Everard wanders back to Escher to show him they’re not going to kill him and talk about Everard’s new look. Escher admits that roguish isn’t a bad look on Everard. He doesn’t know why he gave Everard the ring, but Escher says he’s not good at killing people. He says he’d like to help Everard and pay him back. Everard says he knows someone who will have some advice and Escher promises he will listen.

A sound of crying and wailing suddenly permeates the air, there is a chilling shriek of despair and Everard feels the despair running through him. He gracefully passes out in Escher’s arms. The stones start to shake and the entire castle trembles. Escher tries to help Everard and gives him a little bit of his blood. Calliope helps him. Raisa retracts her sunlight and Escher leads them quickly out through a secret door to the brazier room and from there to the doors of Castle Ravenloft. The rowers are crumbling and falling into the abyss. Rahadon in his grief is bringing the entire castle down.

Outside, they find Izek and Ishmark still alive and standing over Volenta’s corpse. They run across the drawbridge and from there they watch as Castle Ravenloft is destroyed once again.

Calliope uses her sending stone to see if the Martikovs are okay. Davian says they’re all alive, but that Stefania might lose an arm. Calliope immediately offers them her ring of regeneration. Clara wakes Everard in Escher’s arms. Patrina is unconscious, but she looks thoroughly alive. The mist is slowly allowing some rays of sunlight in. Muriel looks up at the sun and cries. Emily pulls them all into a group hug.

Clara proposes they all get a rest and get smashed, so they all pile into Ezmeralda’s cart. Everard gets Escher a cloak to shield him from the sunlight. Escher and Everard agree to try and free each other. Escher doesn’t know if his family is still there. Viktor doesn’t want to go back to Vallaki, but Stella’s body is still there. Stella the cat has made it through the battle safely.

Exhausted and relieved, they arrive in Barovia village, where signs of life are returning. They all pile into Ishmark’s house, who empties his wine cellar for them.

Muriel goes up to Escher and says “I don’t know if you know this, but we didn’t start out on the best foot. I was the Raven. If you have the terrible idea to hurt anyone I care about, I will kill you slowly.” Escher accepts this. He expected to be stuck in a crypt for twenty hears, this is a vast improvement. Muriel says that now she has them, he can shake her hand.

Clara, drunk and exhausted, spends the evening in the corner petting the cat. Muriel and Everard talk about returning to Faerun. Everard asks to stay with her until he feels “more himself”. When he hugs her, Muriel actually hugs back.

Calliope shyly approaches Ezmeralda to ask about her plans. They neither of them really have much to return to back home. Ezmeralda advises that leaving sooner rather than later might be wise. The Mists might not be dispersed for forever. Calliope offers to help Ezmeralda in her next adventure. Ezmeralda smiles. They agree to share the road, at least for a while.

Raisa gives Ireena the sunsword, because she feels Sergei might have wanted her to have it. When Ireena touches the hilt, she tears up without even knowing why. She says she will treasure it, bur confesses she is going to try and leave Barovia, if the land will allow it.

Emily goes to talk to Ishmark in private, to make sure he will accept Izek as a little brother. Ishmark says he feels like he keeps on getting new family, but he does agree to accept Izek as Ireena’s little brother and to take care of him. Emily speaks seriously to him about his obligations as the Baron, but Izek does not seem inclined to fill the power vacuum Strahd left behind.

Everyone is either drunk and exhausted, or asleep. Everard tries to get Escher to join him, but Escher is starving and it wouldn’t be safe. Everard kisses him on the cheek and makes to leave him, but Escher pulls him back into a proper kiss. When they part, Escher says proudly that he didn’t bite Everard once. Everard replies that he didn’t use Fae charm to make that kiss happen, so Escher should be proud of him.

The next morning, there’s sunlight and the mists have parted. In the village, some people seem to have just disappeared. Some villagers are planning on leaving Barovia, others are staying and planning to rebuild in the sunlight now they are out of Strahd’s shadow.

The party of adventurers, involuntarily stuck in the mists and finally free, can finally leave Barovia.

Emily pulls Raisa away by the hand and confesses that she doesn’t quite know how to do without Raisa anymore. Raisa agrees to come home with her, but only if they can see Raisa’s family first. They will be the ones to bring back the stolen children to the Duchess of Daggerford.

Clara talks to Viktor and Stella and asks if they want to come with her. She wants to go back home where she an feel connected to her God again and carry on with her mission of defeating evil, but now with her new apprentices. They will have to go back to Vallaki first, to retrieve Stella’s body. Lady Watcher is apparently in a weird cult and the fiend in her house is her familiar, so Clara and her new children will have quite an interesting time setting Stella back to rights. ( Viktor tried to teleport them out of Barovia, but Stella and the cat stepped into the circle at the same time. Viktor’s spellbook was written by Mordekainen, who is known as the Mad Mage, which might explain some things).

Muriel has found her family and realised how important community is to her. She want to make Barovia into a better place, repair the road, plant gardens and start a postal service. She’s going to change Barovia for the better.

Everard doesn’t want to bring his lady out into the world. He’s going to stay in Barovia, with Muriel and with Escher.

Ezmeralda says how nice it is to be together. She used to prefer being alone, but she’s realised now how good it is to have friends on the road. She proposes they will all meet again in a year, in Barovia or elsewhere.

Emily tells Muriel to get Everard to teach her to dance, since she will very much hold her to that promise of dancing at her wedding and that wedding might be closer than she thinks. Clara says she’s glad she didn’t kill Everard when she thought he was a vampire, which he very much appreciates.

They share a few more hugs but finally they all turn back to the road. In the newfound sunlight, they all go their own way. Outside the Burgomaster’s mansion, the spectral form of Sergei von Zarovich is watching over the house, sunsword set firmly in to the ground, protecting the house from all that might harm it.

 ... And that’s the end of the final session of No Vampires Allowed!

 (Vampire Count: Dead. Permanently.)