Roger

Who: The last of the band the mists brought in before us, about forty-five years ago. A pit fighter in Waterdeep once, a farmhand in Vallaki ever since.
Where: His corner of The Blue Water Inn, most nights. He was in the crowd in the square when the devil came to Vallaki.
Status: Alive, old, and done with destiny.
First met: Session 7, staring at us across the Blue Water, white as a sheet. He told us his story in Session 8, over the wine Sirius brought him.

Roger is what happens to Mistwalkers who lose. His band came through the mists as we did, drew the same first three cards, and got further than anyone had a right to expect. Then they killed the wrong thing on the road, and Barovia turned its back on them. He is the only one left, spared on purpose to warn whoever came next. We came next. He warned us, told us he wanted nothing more to do with it, and has kept to his word ever since.

"You poor sod"

Urwin pointed him out on our first night in Vallaki: "That's Roger. He is what remains of the previous set of Mistwalkers." Later that evening Sirius took him a glass of wine and asked if he could sit down.

"You poor sod. You missed it. Oh, it's happening again. I bet you've just been dealt some cards and been told you have a great destiny. Am I right?"

He pulled a battered set of cards out of his jerkin and threw them on the table before we had said anything about ours. "I had a destiny once. Turns out the destiny's a crock of shit." Then he asked for the wine and told us everything.

His story, as he told it

His band came through the mists and fought some demonic wolf-creature on the way in. They had a mixed welcome in Barovia, and an old woman out there read their cards for them. ("Bloody old woman.") They were promised a gift of knowledge, a gift of faith and a gift of strength, and a destined ally in the place they would face the devil. He would not say the devil's name, and he still won't.

They did well at first. They came through Vallaki and pinned their gift of knowledge to Krezk: "a big old godsforsaken glowing pool over there, and some big old powerful priest… We never made it inside."

Halfway there from Vallaki, a creature stepped out to meet them. "Half-raven, half-man. Beak as long as your arm." It said: "Greetings, friend. I come in peace."

"We thought we'd learned our lesson at Barovia, that everything lies and everything is dangerous. We all struck at once with ferocious force, with silver and magic, and slew it where it stood. And I think back on this day again and again and again. I think it was the day we lost."

Hundreds of ravens cried out in the woods. When they reached Krezk, the town had been warned about them and would not open its gates. A whisper network ran ahead of them everywhere. "That bloody winery down south wouldn't let us within a dozen miles."

Weeks of nothing later, back in the village of Barovia, the devil appeared in the street, told them they were being boring and killed every other person standing in it, to give them some incentive. The village lads decided to march on the castle, and the band could not stop them, so they went too. At the castle they met not the devil but his emissary, "what I now know as a dusk elf," who told them they had been a disappointment, that it was too early and they hadn't gathered enough strength. He killed the lads, and he killed Roger's friends. "We got some licks in."

"He said that he was sparing me to do this, to spread the message to the next ones who come. 'Don't be boring.'"

A dark figure passed over them on a fiery flying horse. Afterwards the devil went through Krezk and the village of Barovia and killed hundreds, saying "This is your punishment for the sins of the mist walkers." Only Vallaki was spared. "For some reason, I think it's because of the church." It was the only place that would take Roger in. He found farm work and has been drinking away his sorrows ever since.

The cards

We laid ours beside his. The first three match exactly: the Healer, the Paladin and the Avenger. He, too, was sent to the glowing pool behind Krezk's walls. The last two are different. His ally card was the Raven, which he believes was the raven-man they killed. His last card was the Artifact, "where we're going to find him." Ours are the hunter of hunters and the tomb of the only man he ever envied. Different roads to the same devil, and each band's ally is its own to lose. We took the lesson: know your ally before your sword does. See The Reading.

He had a trinket once, as we have our heirlooms. "I had some trinket. I burnt it. My destiny's over."

What he told us to do

Don't be boring. The devil kills what bores him, and whoever happens to be standing nearby.
Don't kill the ravens. He said it twice. "I think that's our mistake."
Try, at least, to be interesting. "The devil slaughtered hundreds on our account. Try and be interesting, at least."

He also gave us permission to give up: "You're not going to win. The devil is the devil. I'm giving you permission that you can settle in Barovia if you feel like." We told him that if we didn't try, the devil might do it all again, and that we would rather die than let people die on our behalf. He heard us out and did not change his mind.

When we offered him a second chance at it all, he was very clear. "I am done. I am done. I had friends. No, I am done." And: "Don't involve me. I give you this advice because I feel sorry for you, but I'm not going to help."

The Vallaki he gave us

Before we knew anyone in town, Roger gave us the lay of it. The old burgomaster ruled by fear and died suddenly about fifteen years ago, and his son "didn't seem very sad." The stocks are always full. Of the Reformation Center: "People go in there and come out wrong." Of Lady Wachter, who talks about the people and is too rich for the Baron to touch: "No one that powerful stays that powerful without being rotten in Barovia." Izek has an arm "like somebody grafted a demon's arm to it," and we were not to get on his bad side. The lake has been haunted for about four years. And the dusk elves camp near the Vistani outside the walls, a dying people: there are only men left.

What we owe him

We promised him we would not kill ravens, and we haven't. He asked to be left out of it, and we have left him out.

Where we left him

He was in the taproom the next night too, and Lady Wachter, hearing we had met him, said only, "That poor, poor man." He was in the crowd in the square at the festival when the devil came down on his burning horse and said the last lot had been an embarrassment. The devil did not look at him. He had long since forgotten Roger. Roger had not forgotten him.

What we still don't know

What else has he seen from that corner table in forty-five years?
Who was the emissary who killed his friends and let him live?
~~Who, or what, was the raven-man? Why did Danika wince when we mentioned it?~~ Answered, Session 10: he was a wereraven of The Ravens of Barovia, and Urwin's Great Uncle Frederick. Roger's band killed their destined ally and our landlord's family in one blow. "Don't kill the ravens" was never superstition.
~~If Vallaki was spared for its church, what happens to Vallaki now its bones are gone?~~ Answered, Sessions 11 to 14: vampires walked in and the church burned. We put the bones back, and the devil came anyway, to tell us they stop his watching but not him.