Field notes

A summons we couldn't refuse, half an hour one of us no longer owns, a friend kept as collateral, a coffin maker's confession, six things upstairs that shouldn't be in this town, a landlord with feathers, and a canapé party used as a shield wall. David was away, and Fëanor spent the session as the Baron's guest.

The Baron wants to see youse

We'd barely left the Workyard when we noticed that every corner that usually has one guard now had six: eighteen in sight, all furtively not looking at us. Then Izek came round the corner, about eight feet of him, with a small head on a huge body and an arm "as big as a normal guy". Sirius tried flattery and asked his name. "The baron wants to see youse now." (Somebody at our table: "It's a long name.") The guards closed round us and herded us through the military district to the burgomaster's mansion, where people were carrying festival floats and flagpoles through the ground floor, and into an office at the back.

The Baron received us with his wife at his shoulder. We want to record the Baroness carefully, because none of us has stopped thinking about her: she stood there the entire audience with a fixed grin and said nothing but echoes. We think she may have been through the Reformation Center.

• The charge. "A little bird told me that you have been doing vigilante activities in my town." The orphanage exorcism. His sources are "hardly ever wrong. I have eyes everywhere." ("Actual little birds?" asked Sirius, who deals better with literalism. The Baron then explained what a metaphor is.)
• The test. We said all was well in Vallaki. "I don't think your heart was in that." Sirius's second go convinced him, and he took back his doubt. The charge itself he didn't take back.
• "The smiles of the people of Vallaki keep the devil out. As long as all is well, we make sure the devil does not darken our doorstep."
• He knew we'd dined with Lady Wachter. Sirius gave the dinner six and a half out of ten: heavy on the fish, nice wine.
• The accusation. "I have heard some awful rumours, awful rumours, that the Lady Wachter is in league with the devil and consorts with fiends." She means to bring the devil's power into the town. Not just any fiend: "The one in the castle that flies across the sky in a red thing?" "Yes. No more than that, please."
• The offer. Bring him evidence and he'll make us deputies of the guard now. Then he'll put her before his "totally impartial judges", send her to the Reformation Center to be "fixed" (so that she "thinks in a more appropriate way"), seize her holdings, and give Wachterhaus to us. He can't move against her directly because she has the ear of the people.
• The threat. We'd already broken the rules. "I'm going to have to arrest one of you as recompense for at least a little while."
• The Reformation Center is run by the twins: "They are experts at this sort of encouragement to think in a more righteous way… Either people come out of the Reformation Center thinking more appropriately, or they don't come out at all. I prefer the first one, of course."
• Victor and Stella. The Baron says Stella had a pre-existing condition: "I think the lady was trying to pass off damaged goods." His son studies the book of the Morning Lord in the attic. "My son is perfect, thank you very much."
• Two of his three household staff have disappeared in the last couple of weeks. "It's terrible stuff."
• Sirius read him closely. He believes every word. He isn't exactly evil. He thinks he is righteous and doing good for the town. "It is a righteous duty. It is hard. But I bear this burden for the town." Somehow that is worse.

We took the writs: one each, handwritten, sealed in wax, to the effect that we act at the Baron's request and our orders are to be followed. ("Do we get badges?" "No badges, unfortunately.") "Bring me that proof. Otherwise, you'll be acting under false pretences." Somebody said, "Oh, I do like a writ." On our way out, a long, drawn-out "All, all, all, all will be well."

The missing half hour

The Baron let one of us go up and meet his son, and only one. Sirius went, with Izek ("Don't let him in any of the other rooms"). What happened up there, the rest of us didn't see.

About thirty-five minutes later Sirius came down, perfectly pleasant, and said it had been a nice chat of four or five minutes. It took most of the walk across town to establish what he doesn't seem to find alarming:

• He can't remember Victor's face. He thinks Victor may have been facing away from him.
• It was "sort of sitting in an empty room".
• He can't remember walking there or back.
• "Well, you know when you remember you were talking to someone in a dream and then you sort of wake up? Sort of like that."
• "I was either drunk very rapidly and then got better, or something strange happened."

None of us had noticed anything odd when he came down. Our verdict: he's been sorcered. Somebody went into our paladin's head, took half an hour out of it and left him content. Stella Wachter got whatever this is, three years deep. We think we just met the person who broke her.

(Sirius also realised he'd forgotten to use his divine sense all afternoon. We are working on a signal.)

Fëanor is collateral

At the door, as if it had slipped his mind: "I am unfortunately going to have to hold one of you because you did break the rules originally." Izek took Fëanor, who went along with it. "This is just to make sure you understand who's in charge around here. He will not be harmed. And if you behave, he will be returned to you." And the Reformation Center? "As long as you are making progress in your task, that will not be necessary."

We left him there. There were eighteen guards and an Izek, and none of us feels good about it.

The bowyer next door

Henrik's Coffin Works was shuttered, with no answer. Lily found a drainpipe up to a window (too visible) and no other way in. Next door is Celegal's Bowyer, run by a grey-skinned, long-eared elf ("I don't get many new customers. It's usually the hunters"). We showed him a writ, and he told us everything he could think of:

• Henrik lives in the shop, opens only by appointment, and has been very quiet for about a week. He drums up trade by going to the inn to hear who's died.
• Henrik had some coffins delivered to him, which the bowyer found very odd. A coffin maker getting a delivery of coffins.
• Vallaki has only two full-time hunters. They put in their usual pre-hunt order for arrows about a week ago. No nets, no traps: "I'm a bowyer."

We sold him the heavy crossbow nobody was using. He opened at fifteen gold. We haggled with the phrase "we are doing the Baron's work. That's not a threat. I want to be absolutely clear. Not a threat," and closed at thirty. The seller came out five times richer than they went in.

What Henrik keeps upstairs

Our first guess about things that travel by day in coffins was vampires. Hammering got no answer. A guard squinted at us, got a thumbs up, saw the writ, and said everything was in order. Drew passed Lily her thieves' tools in a very public handshake, with a little guidance, and Lily picked the lock in front of the guards. Click.

Henrik slammed the door back at us: "This is a private residence." We looked at his shoes first. Dirty workman's boots. He is not the man with the nice shoes.

He wouldn't talk. "I'm not saying anything. You can take me to the Reformation for all I care." While he stalled, Sirius opened his divine sense: six distinct undead, on the floor above us. ("I meant the number six literally, not metaphorically.") Sirius's charm got nowhere. Then Drew levelled with him: the Baron terrifies us too, he's taken one of our party, we don't want to help him, we just don't want to die or kill anyone. He broke. In a quiet side alley:

"Wachter's man wanted the bones. I needed to just pick them up. He'd arranged for someone else to get them from somewhere, so I picked them up, and I handed them over to Ernst. I don't have them anymore. And then she had me in deep."

• Ernst threatened him.
• A few hours after Milivoj left the bones in the Vallakovich crypt, Henrik collected them, and Ernst took them from him.
• The next day, six coffins were delivered to his shop, with orders not to open them. He knows what's in them. He hasn't been upstairs since. "I either get killed by them or killed by her or killed by her men."

So the chain runs: Milivoj, the crypt, Henrik, Ernst. Where the bones are now, we don't know.

We told him to sleep anywhere else. It's his home, he can't afford the inn for more than a couple of days, and he has no friends: "I'm not very social." Sirius was very uncomfortable not telling the law. Drew wanted to hold our cards close, since Lady Wachter still thinks we might be on her side. Sirius: "You're smarter than me, Drew. I will follow your lead."

The landlord has feathers

Mid-conversation, Drew went very still: the alarm on our room had gone off. Back at the Blue Water, Danika was "very squirrelly" about whether anyone cleans our room. Upstairs we heard a window open, a rustle and a flutter, and found a new note on the floor where ours had been:

Trust is hard. Want to prove yourselves.

Danika stalled until her husband got back. We invited Urwin up to explain our window. Things just flutter in if you leave it open, he said. Drew mentioned her daily alarm ritual on the room. "Do you? That's interesting." The door was locked, so the only person who could get in was someone with keys. "That's a big leap." One of us: "But we never told you the cake was poisoned."

Sirius told him the raven at Wachterhaus is definitely a fiend. Urwin wasn't surprised. Then Sirius let slip the six undead in the coffin maker's house. "There's undead in Vallaki? Shit." Sirius checked him with his sight: not fiend, celestial or undead. Then Urwin edged towards the window and turned into something else. He kept the same mass, "scrolled into himself", with feathers. It was terrifying, and it was cool.

What he told us:

• "I am a type of cursed. There's two in this valley. They are the wolfkin and us, the ravenkin." He can also take the shape of an ordinary raven.
• The raven-man Roger's band killed all those years ago: "Yes. Great Uncle Frederick."
• They have an agent watching us: Mirabel. (We sent a compliment on her plumage. He'll pass it on.)
• "We are the Ravens of Barovia. We are against the devil." He has godlike power here, but he isn't omnipotent. The Vistani say one day a group of adventurers will topple him. "There have been 700 years of groups of adventurers, and he is yet to be toppled. So, sorry if I don't hold my breath."
• They're information brokers, not fighters. The Blue Water is run as an information hub, and it's also where his family lives. He won't say who else is ravenkin.
• "We are probably the only good group in this bloody place. Us and our clan in the winery."
• "You have mostly proven yourselves." They'll gather information for us, at some risk.
• Ernst "lives everywhere". He's her footman and her right hand, mostly at the house, sometimes out on errands. "Don't think of him as a person. Think of him as an appendage."
• Wachterhaus is warded to the nines. They can't get agents inside to listen. "The inside of her house is a black hole to us." She does a lot of good works, and the people really like her.
• The bones, from Raven records. The bones in the church make a powerful hallowing, which weakens with distance. With the bones in place, lesser undead can't enter the city. The devil could enter the city, but never the church. They've always been surprised he never did.
• He won't advise us whether to go to the Baron. "They're both bad."

Drew's inference: taking the bones out is what let the coffins in. And somebody reminded us that festival attendance in the streets is mandatory by the Baron's law. If you wanted to open six coffins for maximum harm, that's the street you'd open them into. We think we have a few days.

Lily and the lady

The plan was to lure Lady Wachter onto our ground. Lily would take a note: we have information about your daughter; the Baron is watching us; come to the church, neutral ground. Drew watched from a street corner, and Sirius and Osric waited at St. Andral's.

The footman knew her: "Ah, Lily from earlier. Come on in." He waved the note away: just come and talk to her. Lady Wachter was in the sitting room, and the raven was back on her shoulder.

"Oh, Lily. Have you succeeded already?" Lily produced the note and her worst lie of the evening. "Lily, are you lying to me? Why would you feel the need to come in here and tell lies? Have you turned on me, Lily?"

A wave of tiredness washed over her. She shook it off (a natural 20), turned mid-explanation and ran. Another wave caught her in the doorway, and she shook that off too. Then she ran flat out, with a proper diversionary route. When she looked back, Lady Wachter was standing in her doorway with the raven on her shoulder, looking upset. The note stayed behind. "Technically, I did not fail my mission."

Lily on why she ran: "I don't like talking to people in authority because it always ends badly for people like me. The only thing I could do was run. Sorry." Drew, arriving: "She went in that house and I thought they were gonna kill her, and then she came out, and then there was the crow lady."

At the church

It was about six. There's no curfew in Vallaki, unlike the rest of Barovia. We argued. Lily won't work with one bad person against another: "We should be trying to do the right thing." Sirius thinks the Baron honestly wants to protect the town, and asked who will protect it if we fail. Somebody worried that if the Baron gets the bones, he'll just hold them hostage instead of her, or destroy them to make a point. We settled on going straight at her: we know you've got the bones, and we know about the undead.

First we told Father Lucian, so somebody would know if we didn't come back. He found it hard to hear. "That doesn't make any sense. He works for Lady Wachter. She is a light of the community." Sirius: "My eyes glow gold sometimes, and I can see with the eyes of Lathander." "I don't think Lady Wachter's gonna hurt you. She's Lady Wachter." If what we fear happens, he'll give our words a lot more credence. Sirius offered to leave the locket with him. We decided it's safer with us until the church can protect itself.

The canapé party

At half past seven, as dusk fell, we found Wachterhaus with its doors open and lamplight everywhere, and forty or fifty citizens going in and out with plates of good food. "She does it sometimes, her evening canapés. She lets the poppets come in and have food. She's so good." This one was called about an hour earlier.

We all went in after Lily. (We settled the details at the start of the next session. Nobody waited outside.)

• "Lily, welcome back. Did you take a fright earlier?" One of us told her Lily had got spooked: "You're a very formidable woman."
• Ernst leaned against the far wall, scanning the crowd and watching us. Everyone knew what was going on.
• Sirius tried to speak to her. The Baron has taken an interest in us, he said, so we'd rather not talk here. "I don't think that'll be necessary. The canapés are open. Here I am, amongst all these people. They love me." And then: "Your services are no longer required."
• Lily slipped into the crowd and nobody was tracking her any more.
• Sirius sidled over to Ernst. "It seems your friend took a bit of a fright earlier." She was only delivering a message. "I think the message was received loud and clear."
• The raven sat on her shoulder. A maid stood watch on the first landing of the stairs. Nobody was going up.

She has bricked herself in behind the town's affection, and every brick is a person we won't hurt. The DM: "You've reached the crux. Which of these marvellous options will you pick, or will you find a third way through? This is Barovia."

Later, Urwin found one of us looking troubled and gave us the one piece of advice the Ravens give for free:

"There is more to Barovia than Vallaki. You can just leave."

Where we stand

• Inside Wachterhaus at the canapé party, about half past seven on the evening four days before the festival. Lily is hidden in the crowd; Sirius is talking to Ernst. Lady Wachter has cancelled our services.
• Fëanor is the Baron's hostage, safe as long as we make "progress" on proving Lady Wachter consorts with the devil. We are deputies with a writ each.
• The bones went from Milivoj to Henrik to Ernst. We think they're inside Wachterhaus, which even the Ravens can't see into.
• Six undead sit in coffins above Henrik's shop. We think they're being saved for the festival.
• The Ravens of Barovia are wereravens. Urwin is one, Mirabel watches us, and their clan holds the winery.
• Victor took half an hour from Sirius. It's our only sample of what was done to Stella.
• Henrik has told us everything and has nowhere to go.
• Thirty gold richer, one heavy crossbow poorer.

Questions on our minds

• How do we get Lily out of Wachterhaus? Answered, Session 11: she walked out with the rest of us, after trying to empty the house with a shout of "Fire!"
• What are the six things in the coffins? Answered, Session 11: vampire spawn.
• What did Victor do to Sirius in that attic? Is it what he did to Stella?
• Who is the man with the nice shoes? Not Henrik. Ernst, the table thought, is just a bit of a bloke.
• Where are the Baron's missing staff?
• Who are the twins? Answered, Session 14: Ilimir and Ivalice, elf twins who run the Reformation Center. Izek says they took service with the Baron about thirty years ago.
• Can we do any of this without the Baron? And would handing Lady Wachter to the Reformation Center save the town or just feed the other monster?
• "You can just leave." We aren't going to leave, are we?