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cursed-in-barovia · 6 years

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Session 4

At Gregori’s shop, The Hare & Hair, the group decided to do a little shopping with money and items found throughout the adventure so far. Gregori was only interested in coin, hides, furs, and other decorative animal parts. Once everyone was satisfied with their purchases, Gregori invited the group for a meal at the Seven Tables Inn because the wolf pup completely destroyed his pantry and ate most, if not all of his food before it ran away.

It was about 6pm, snow still covered the village, but the storm seemed to be on a short break. While Gregori escorted the group to the inn, Zemotta and Devotion stayed behind at the shop. Devotion wasn’t feeling well. Perhaps the recent events were too much, or maybe it was something bothering her from her past.

The Seven Tables Inn had an open tavern where villagers were winding down after a day’s work. You noticed that ALL of the people of Orasnou are human and a lot of them seem to lack expression in their faces and wore muted tones of clothing, while the more lively people had brighter colors in their apparel. Marku Grelon, the owner, could be seen behind the tavern bar, cleaning glasses and tending to customers. Upon entering the tavern, Gregori rushed over to Marku, and through Dundee’s observation, he was able to see that Gregori was trying to redeem a deal he and Marku had. A favor owed. All Gregori wanted was a free round of meals to feed his guests. Marku wasn’t too happy about it, and agreed to meals, but Gregori would have to cover the cost of drinks.

Meanwhile lots of other conversations could be heard in the tavern: “Have you seen the increased number of guards Burgomaster Randovich now has watching over his home? What’s he guarding?”, “Apparently there’s some sort of ancient artifact that was once important to Strahd hiding somewhere around here.”, “You just KNOW that the stuff that Fillar is selling at his Eyes of Midnight shop are stolen goods.”, “Have you see this new guy Arik in the wolfskin cap? He only seems to speak to Fillar and avoids anyone else. Some say he smells strange and awful.”

After his negotiation with Marku, Gregori embarrassingly approached the table that you all took seat at, and relayed the deal. He kindly asked that you don’t go too overboard on the drinks. He didn’t have too much coin to spare. It wasn’t too long before Nori, Dundee, Tomigot, and Zoras started ordering many drinks each. Nori could see the beads of sweat start to dribble over Gregori’s face as each drink was served.

Meanwhile, at another table there were two villagers, Alek and Hans, playing Liars Dice. This got Dundee’s attention and captured Tomigot’s curiosity. With pockets full newly acquired gold, Dundee and Tomigot agreed to a few games, while Zoras watched. Nori scanned the room for any loose or unattended coins and successfully swiped 1gp from the bar top, just before Marku went to turn around to collect it. A coin wedged inside the cracks of one of the tables also caught Nori’s thieving attention. This coin wasn’t so easy to pry, as years of gunk and old beer acted as mortar to seal it into the crack.

At the game table, after a few rolls and a constant, nerve-wrecking increase of bets, mostly by Dundee, Alek won the first game with a luck hand of four 6’s to win 68gp. With gold fever, Alek asked for another game, and so another game was played. The pot was growing fasting and faster as Dundee kept raising the bets by 10gp! Tomigot noticed something fishy going on with Dundee’s hand and eventually decided to “go see the lady half-orc in the room.” Alek and Hans had a good laugh because there was nothing but humans in the room! Except for Zoras, Nori, and Tomigot himself, of course. The game continued, Alek folded, and it was just Hans and Dundee left. Eventually the betting fizzled out and Zemotta finally came to the inn to witness Hans proudly present his hand of four 6’s while Dundee triumphantly displayed his FIVE 6’s to win 133gp!

Drinks kept coming, and at one point Nori handed 5gp to Marku as Gregori witnessed from across the room and mouthed the words “Thank You” to Nori in return. The group was ready to get some much needed sleep, but a trek back to Gregori’s, through the snow, was too much. So Marku invited everyone to stay at his inn, he had enough rooms available. In his drunken state, Tomigot thought the top of a tavern table would be a much better bed, and passed out. Zoras demanded his own room for his beauty sleep. Zemotta and Nori shared a room while Dundee also had a room to himself.

Just as everyone was finally beginning to sleep, a strange, beastly feeling started to emerge from within Tomigot’s passed out body in the middle of an empty tavern. Blood rushed through his veins, his nails began to grow, his nose turned into a snout. His body become covered in fur. He wasn’t hungry, he was STARVING. After a loud howl, and pushing and throwing furniture around, he rushed through the tavern doors, leaving a werewolf shaped hole, allowing the light dusting of snow from the outside to trickle into the room.

Zemotta could hear the ruckus and rushed to investigate. She was startled to see that Tomigot was gone, the tavern was a mess, and that there was a new hole in the door. She went to alert the rest of the party.

It was early in the night, the snow was sprinkling down, lightly covering any fresh tracks that might have been left by Tomigot. Determined to find him, the group set off to see into the cold darkness. The subtle tracks lead to the entrance of the forest that surrounded Oraşnau. Howls of wolves could be heard from every direction. Zoras lit some torches and the party headed in. After an hour into the forest, 2 zombies were seen trudging through the 3 feet of snow between the trees. After several arrow shots and force blasts, they were taken out. Eventually the group followed the tracks to a crossroad. It was almost as if it were a game trail or werewolf/wolf highway, FULL of tracks, making it impossible to pinpoint any single creature. Defeated, the group returned to the inn in hopes to catch some much needed sleep and that Tomigot would return in the morning.

The group returned to the inn at about 2am. It wasn’t long before everyone fell asleep and began to have dreams; Nori successfully prying the coin out of the crack in the table, Zoras seeing images of shiny feathers, Zemotta seeing life without her favorite “ladder”, Dundee having visions of a spotted snow cat up at the top of an icy mountain peak. At around 6am, Zemotta and Zoras could hear some commotion going on down stairs. Marku was upset and reacting to the mess in the tavern and suspicious of Tomigot as he returned to the inn. The group’s rest was, once again, interrupted. Everyone came downstairs from their rooms to greet Tomigot. He was a little woozy, tired, and weakened with deep scratches on his sides. While Zemotta tended to his wounds, Tomigot couldn’t really remember what happened that night. All he could remember was a horse, how good a horse tastes, and then an undead humanoid creature taking swipes at him.

Fearful of what it meant to be a werewolf and having a new lust for blood, Tomigot wanted to rid his curse. This, of course, had to happen after a long rest, so everyone returned to their rooms. At around noon, like morning of a winter holiday, Nori ran across the road to Gregori’s shop, before even getting fully dressed, to see if he had any coal and herbs. He wasn’t sure what he would find but began to sift through the pile of ruin the wolf pup left behind. A large handful of sprigs of herbs were collected from the trash, as well as some coals from the fire. Nori thanked him and eagerly ran back to the inn to throw the items into a bronze brazer. After a few words, a raggedy winged owl emerged, with missing feathers and a blind-looking eye. “A trash bird!” Nori named it Chi.

Meanwhile, Zoras enjoyed several mimosas and late breakfast. Dundee asked Marku about any sightings of a snow cat. Low and behold, Marku had heard of there being an elusive cat that lived high up in the mountains at the tallest peak. Nobody has been able to catch it to prove its existence, and that there was actually a standing bet that the thing wasn’t real. Determined to prove that rumor wrong, Dundee added to the wager with the condition that if he didn’t return to the inn with that snow cat, then he’ll share 100gp with everyone who’s in on the bet.

Zemotta and Tomigot had also gone over to Gregori’s shop to see if the town’s new elves might know how to cure Tomigot. Aya had motioned to Zemotta to not mention anything about werewolves to Gregori. Most people don’t respond well to the topic of them. She mentioned that Jeny Greenteeth, the old woman that previously requested golden elk hearts, might be able to help. She’s a little odd but talented with spells.

The group gathered back at the inn to put a plan together. It was soon decided that the partly would go along with the elves to find Jeny Greenteeth and possibly find any furs along the way, and then see about finding the cat that Dundee was after. The snow was now 4 feet high, but no match for Zoras’ ice plow. The elves soon spotted 2 golden elks ahead. Everyone with a ranged weapon took a shot at the elk. One of Nori's attempts with Zoras' crossbow backfired with a snap of the string to the face. After a few hits, Tomigot’s new, heightened senses could smell the blood, causing the beast inside him to reemerge. His hybrid werewolf form was revealed and he was hungry. The closest piece of meat was in the form of an air genasi. Dundee quickly set his snare in front of Tomigot, but it didn’t stop him from giving Nori-Wes two strong swipes of his claws. The elves moved toward the elk to preserve them from a werewolf feast. Zemotta moved back, fearful that she might be a snack, while Zoras threw an illusion of a snack inside of Dundee’s snare in the form a juicy steak. The lure of the steak worked to distract Tomigot, but the snare was no match for his reflects. Once he realized the steak wasn’t real, the Tomigot returned to his half-orc self, without completely knowing what just had happened, but immediately apologized for whatever he might have done. He then ripped some fabric from his clothes and shoved them up his nose. Zoras offered to make them smell nicer and at Tomigot’s request, they smelled like flowers…and then like new picture books. The urgency to find Jeny was even more obvious.

Low and behold, as the party traveled deeper into the woods, they saw an old lady walking along the trail in front of them. It was Jeny! She wasn’t too thrilled to see people, let alone ones she’s already met, yet she wouldn’t stop blabbering about how she got displaced because of the mist and that she had to start everything from scratch again. Once she realized Tomigot needed help, she invited everyone to her shed that was a work in progress. She explained that not only did she require gold for her spell casting services, but she also asked for favors. To remove Tomigot’s curse, need a lingering embraced. A relieved Tomigot gave her the biggest hug she had every received. Jeny seemed to really enjoy it, while Zoras tried to get in on the action. All he got was an disgusted, evil eye from Jeny. Once the hug was over, she asked Tomigot how he felt. He seemed to feel much better! The werewolf bite on his arm was nowhere to be found! "Works every time!" said Jeny, proud of her spell casting skills.

Nori hesitantly asked if Jeny could heal wounds. “Of course I can! It’ll cost you 10GP and then we’re going to have a staring contest. The first one to blink loses!” Nori and Jeny’s eyes locked on each other’s and then Jeny tried to scream really loud to break Nori’s concentration, but instead choked and lost the challenge. Nori felt a little more healthy afterward. She also offered a freshly brewed potion of healing for 50gp to take on the road. Nori accepted!

With everyone healed, it was off to find Dundee’s cat! It 3 hours later they got to the based of the mountain peak that was mentioned in the rumor. A deep ledge could be seen at the top to the right, about 300 feet, where two shadowy figures could be seen amongst a lingering fog. To get to the top the party would have to climb up 100 foot increments, up icy slopes, to different shallow ledges of the peak. No paths could be found. With Tomigot being the strongest of the group, he tied two ropes together, and then to a grappling hook. The first swing of the rope and throw of the hook was expertly done. He was able to hook into the first ledge and fairly easily climb up to then reel the rest of the party in, one by one. This repeated at each ledge. By the time it got to throwing the hook to the last ledge, Tomigot had grown tired. It became difficult to not only throw the grappling hook the full distance, but the ice seemed to be more slippery, making it more difficult to climb was the rope was hooked.

Eventually everyone climbed the 300 feet to reach the ledge where the shadowy figures were seen. Upon closer inspection and a quick clearing of the fog, two yetis could be seen, along with an emaciated snow leopard chained inside a cave! Each yeti was alerted by the poor stealth of some of the party members. As they approached the group, missing patches of fur and rotten flesh could be seen hanging off their bodies. Their eyes were bloodshot, yet foggy. These aren’t healthy creatures!

TO BE CONTINUED…

#curse of strahd #barovia #ravenloft #yeti #snow #cat #leopard #zombie #werewolf #dungons and dragons #5e #dnd #role playing #game #tabletop #story #adventure

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