Episode 11 · Session XI
Hunt Well Those Who Hunt
A fire that isn't there, a brother's story, a chest from the bard, six crates that were never coffins, and a church ablaze.
At the canapé party a cry of fire fails to empty the room, and Ernst tells Sirius a story that changes how we see him. Back at the inn, a woman with feathers in her hair has been watching us snore.
In the morning Izek explains why there cannot possibly be undead in Vallaki, and the bard leaves us a present with a five-word note. So we go to the Coffin Works to settle things, and find out what was really in the crates. By the end the town is on fire, a mob is looking for someone to blame, and Father Lucian is standing on his altar with the sun held over his head.
Stay past the credits.
The recap
Session 11 in about 2 minutes. The full record is in the field notes.
There we were, eating a hostile noblewoman's canapés. Lily hid under the furniture and used her gnome's knack for illusion to make a voice in the kitchen shout "Fire, fire, fire, fire!" A footman called Haliq told everyone to stay calm, Drew's performance of panic convinced nobody, and nobody ran. "My house is very safe," said the lady, "in a lot of ways."
In a corner, Ernst told Sirius a story. Two brothers went into the Reformation Center: a tea that makes it hard to tell truth from fiction, a room where you smile or you suffer, and a dark basement where the elder passed his food through the bars to the younger for weeks. The lady's parties got them out in the end, and the elder died of it. "You probably can guess I was the younger brother there. I am going nowhere near the baron. There's only one devil in Barovia, and you are flashing his writ." On our way out the lady told us no one is beyond redemption: "Anyone who comes to their senses can still do business with me."
At the Blue Water, Ireena was waiting tables and loving it, Urwin had sent his family off to the winery, and the wine was half water. At a corner table sat a woman with feathers in her hair. "I heard you were admiring my plumage. You also snore." Muriel Vinshaw, the side of the Ravens that stabs things, had followed us since the village of Barovia, and joined us "because you've been mucking it up so far". Her partner Falkon had flown to the winery and never come back.
In the morning Izek explained that there are no undead in Vallaki, because it is impossible, and gave us until the next morning to bring physical proof against Lady Wachter. Fëanor was still the stake. Then Muriel brought out a heavy chest the bard had left for us, every stake and vial labelled, with a rolled note: "Hunt well those who hunt." Our ally card is a hunter of hunters. Somebody had decided to arm us.
At the Coffin Works an alarm screamed on the stairs, and upstairs stood six crates. When one lid came off, all six burst open: vampire spawn. Four went straight out of the windows into the town. One seized Lily ("You will not pluck us from the master's design") and bit her down to nothing, until Osric rolled a natural 20 and poured his own potion into her mouth. The other told Sirius "The master cares not for us." Muriel turned into something with a beak and pecked both of them into dust.
Outside, the town was burning. A man on a wheelbarrow screamed that the outsiders had let the vampires in, and the crowd turned on us, until Sirius rose over them on raven wings, glowing, and told them what we believed: "These were let into the town by the servants of Lady Wachter." "Avatar of the Morninglord," they cried, and let us through. We ran for the church, saving who we could on the way.
St Andral's was ablaze. A guard carried Yeska out alive. Inside, Father Lucian stood on his own altar with the sun held above his head and two vampires circling him. "All is lost." "They won't be for long," said Sirius.
We stopped there, one round into the fight in the burning church.