Cast
Bluto
AliveWary
Vallaki's town drunk and the Wachter brothers' drinking friend. We were asked to find him, and we found him on the haunted lake, throwing a girl in a sack over the side of his boat.
In the haunted lake, hurt and sinking. He threw a screaming sack into the water when he saw Sirius coming.
- Last seen
- The Haunted Lake
- Belongs to
- Vallaki
- First met
- Session 16
- Last seen in
- Session 16
What we owe, and what we are doing about it
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Find Aragal's Daughter
Aragal's fourteen-year-old daughter went out this morning and didn't come back. We think she is in the sack in Sirius's arms.
We came to the Vistani camp with a present for her and found every Vistana in it out searching. She is fourteen, rebellious, and given to wandering, and she has been gone since the morning. Aragal didn't think she could come to harm, because the devil's creatures don't hunt the Vistani. He offered us our pick of the camp's trader wagon if we find her. We told him we don't need paying to look for a child, and that getting her back comes first.
An hour later, out on the lake, Bluto threw a sack with a screaming girl in it over the side of his boat. Drew's spell couldn't pull her out, and she sank. Sirius dived after her, found the sack in the dark water and laid his hand on it, and she lived. Now he is in the air above the lake with the sack in his arms, and she is alive, just. We think it is her. Nobody has looked inside yet.
Next: get her out of the sack and out of the cold, see who she is, and if she is Aragal's, take her home.
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Look for Bluto
We found the Wachter brothers' friend at last, out on the haunted lake, throwing a girl in a sack over the side of his boat. Now he is the one sinking.
Bluto is an older, dour man with a black beard, like most men in Barovia, who drinks with Karl and Nikolai at the Blue Water. Lady Wachter told us over dinner that the ghost of the lake, a lady, "takes great interest in him in particular". That same night her sons asked us to find him. He had gone north to the lake a couple of days earlier, talking about righting a wrong, and had not come back. "Who amongst us doesn't have a bit of a problem with a drink?" Mama, they said, would pay "70 gold, 80 gold? Whatever you want, really." We said yes, and then Vallaki happened every single day. Mama is dead now.
On the morning after the festival, the smith at Thimdul's told us that a few days ago Bluto had brought in a doll from Blinsky's and had it filled with lead shot, to make sure it sank. We called it ghost self-defence, and went north.
We found him. He was out on the lake in a rowing boat with a sack in his arms, and a girl was screaming inside it. When Sirius flew at him he threw the sack over the side. Fëanor's spell hit him, Clover knocked him out of the boat, and he went under. Sirius brought the sack back up. Bluto is still in the water, sinking slowly, and Sirius means to try to save him. Whatever we do next, the brothers are going to want to hear what their friend was doing out there. So do we.
- Who
- The town drunk of Vallaki, as the smith at Thimdul's put it. An older Barovian man with a black beard, often dour, and a friend of Karl and Nikolai Wachter.
- Where
- In the water of the lake to the north, sinking.
- Status
- Alive, for now. Fëanor's spell hit him and Clover knocked him out of his boat. He hasn't said a word.
- First seen
- Session 16, out on the lake. We had been hearing about him since Session 9.
What we heard first
The Wachter brothers asked us to find him on the night we dined at their mother's house. He had walked north to the lake a couple of days before, talking about "righting a wrong", and hadn't come home. They drink with him at the Blue Water, and they were sure Mama would pay seventy or eighty gold to have him back. Lady Wachter herself told us that the ghost of the lake, a lady, takes a particular interest in him. We said yes, and then Vallaki happened every day for a week. See Look for Bluto.
The doll
On the morning after the festival, the old smith at Thimdul's told us something we filed under "odd". A few days earlier Bluto had come in with a doll from Blinsky's and asked to have it filled with lead shot. "I think he says that he wanted to make sure it sunk." The smith added that he talks to the Wachter brothers, and that he does occasionally head to "that cursed, cursed lake." We decided he was arming himself against the ghost, and called it ghost self-defence.
The lake
When we reached the lake that afternoon there were two boats on the water. In one sat a man who looked, from the shore, a bit worse for wear, with a wriggling sack in his arms and a girl screaming inside it. It was Bluto.
Drew called out to ask whether he needed any help. Sirius came down the shore on Clancy and opened his wings, and when Bluto saw an angel flying at him he panicked and flung the sack over the side. Fëanor's spell hit him. Clover's bolt knocked him clean out of the boat and into the lake, and he went under. Sirius brought the sack back up. Bluto is still down there, sinking slowly, and Sirius means to try to save him too.
What we still don't know
- Why would he drown a girl, and is she Aragal's daughter?
- What wrong was he going to right, and is this it?
- What did he want with a doll that sinks?
- The brothers told us he had gone to the lake days before we arrived. When did he come back to town for the doll, and why did nobody notice?
- Lady Wachter said the ghost of the lake takes an interest in him. Has it got anything to do with this?