Field notes

The rout at the windmill, the truth about the pies (don't read this before eating), a love letter we wish we could unread, a raven that isn't a raven, and our arrival in the lawful, festive, entirely well town of Vallaki. All will be well.

The rout at the windmill

Let the minutes show that we did not win.

• Bella looked at Sirius, black wings and all, said "Ooh, you lot are spicy, aren't you? You, winged one," and turned him into a frog: a small frog with wing markings and, we're assured, a hairdo. Morgantha did the same to Osric a moment later, a slightly bigger frog. Our paladin and our knight were sitting in the mud at the hags' feet, one hit point apiece.
• Lily, alone with three hags and two frogs and still half out of her mind for pie, chose her friends: "I care for my friends more than I care for pies." She ran in, scooped up both frogs, took Morgantha's claws across her back for it, and got clear to Drew's side.
• Offalia turned something cold on Drew. Drew fought the fear down on a natural 20 and still froze for a moment.
• Ireena begged us not to do anything rash. Fëanor said "Do something rash" and put a guiding bolt into Morgantha for twenty. After everything we'd thrown at her, she finally looked a bit hurt.
• Clover switched gems in a very cartoonish fashion and breathed fire over all three hags, and Drew followed with a line of acid. It all washed off them. "Nice try, deary."
• Sirius, still concentrating on his spell, had a frog's wits. Osric caught a fly with his tongue.
• Then Morgantha said "And take your toy, too" and smashed Clover with two swings. It went "eh, eh, eh" and flopped over like a cartoon.
• "That's it, right, you three dearies run. Don't come back."

They didn't chase us. They stood in the doorway and laughed, and eventually went back inside. We dragged the woman in the silver net down the road with us; Granny's cart had no horse, because Granny pulls it herself. Somebody who once had a pet frog as a child volunteered a pocket. An hour later the frogs were men again.

Around the fire we took stock. Osric: "I was giving one a good hammering, and she was barely taking any of it." Drew: "I set them all on fire. I threw poisonous acid over them. Nothing happened." Sirius wanted to go straight back and destroy them. The rest of us pointed out that any one of them holds more magic than all of us together. Ireena: "Barovia is full of horrors. Don't pick fights with the terrors, is what we say." Sirius checked his oath, which says caution is wise, and accepted a retreat.

Somebody's Arcana told us what they are: hags, night hags, stronger in threes. Drop them below three and they get substantially less powerful. That's how we'll beat them, and it isn't how we tried.

Vasha and Radu, and what the pies are

The woman in the net is Vasha and Radu. She begged us not to let her out while the moon was up: she could feel the beast straining, and the silver was all that held it. "I don't belong in civilisation anymore." She stayed lucid and human inside the net all night.

Written plainly, because it shouldn't be softened:

"It's our arm, again and again and again."

The hags caught her and her mate, Radu, while they were out hunting, chained them in silver, and hack their arms off, again and again, and let the curse grow them back. The pies are made of the arms. "They have us. That's all they need." There were never any missing children. There didn't need to be.

Lily: "I feel bad about having eaten a person while also still wanting to eat a person."

We burned every pie we had. Someone asked that we say cremate, not burn, and we did. Fëanor wanted to burn them and never speak of it again. Told he was a bad priest, he answered: "I'm not a priest. I'm just a lost boy." Sirius told him he's clearly chosen of Lathander.

What Vasha told us:

• She was born in Vallaki, "a normal girl". A wolf-like creature bit her and let her go, and the next night she woke in the forest covered in blood. Radu found her, explained what she was, and took her in.
• Radu is born to the curse and can control it. She can't. They are pair-bonded. (Fëanor needed that clarified. "We just bone.")
• Werewolves heal any wound that isn't done by magic or silver. Drew realised our crossbow bolts are silver, and somebody has a silvered shortsword from the house. "Keep them away from me."
• She turns at the full moon, once a month.
• Their pack lives in the west. They're mostly born to the curse, very angry, not organised, and not friendly to outsiders. Usually people don't get turned; they get killed.
• Their alpha is Kiril. "K-I-R-I-L. She controls the pack." She'd most likely tear us to pieces three hundred feet out. If we say "Radu and Vasha need help", that might get us a hearing.

In the morning Vasha chose to stay near the mill and watch. "I can't leave Radu." She told us she'd appreciate help mounting a rescue, and expected nothing of us. We gave her our word anyway: we will come back and attempt to vanquish these hags, with you or without you. (See Go Back for Radu.)

Lily's withdrawal

The pies are gone, but the hook isn't.

• Night one. Lily agreed, sadly, to be tied to a tree. Drew cast alarm around it. Someone sat beside her. Nothing happened, and she slept beautifully.
• Morning one. For an hour after waking, getting a pie was more important than breathing. She fought the ropes. "I've got to get a pie." Then it faded to wanting one, which is not the same thing.
• The test. On the road, one of us (we think Osric) told her he'd kept half a pie in his bag. She asked politely, "Can I have it? Please?", and didn't lunge. There was no pie. She'd passed, and she got her daytime freedom back. The DM warned us it would be worse tomorrow.
• Night two. She sobbed quietly while being tied. Sirius asked to be tied up next to her: "I don't want her to be alone in the group as the one person being punished for something that wasn't her fault." He was tied properly, dagger in hand ("I won't cut myself free"). "We're sort of role-playing being criminals now. Isn't this joyful?"
• She couldn't sleep at all that night, and woke exhausted into another hour of pie-madness. Fëanor offered to put her to sleep with a spell; the craving would only wake her a minute later.
• Three is the magic number, she told us. That's what Granny Euphemia said.

The letter

On the road, in broad daylight, a dire wolf stood stock-still in our path facing us, with a bunch of roses in its mouth. It was straining against itself. It dropped the roses, and round the stems was a note on very fine card stock, with Ireena written on the side. We said "Thank you. You can leave now, wolf", and it went.

Ireena didn't want to read it. We told her the gist: he likes her. The whole text is in Strahd's Letter to Ireena. The part that matters:

"…merely speak my name thrice, and I shall be with you in the moment to whisk you to our castle, Ravenloft. Your destined future lover, Strahd von Zarovich."

• He calls us ruffians, and says our flight from the village caught him unawares.
• His name, said three times, brings him. Sirius immediately suggested using Ireena to summon him and kill him. Ireena: "Wait, what? Did you say kill Strahd? Really?" The DM, out of character: "Players, bad idea."
• Trap designs followed: a very small rock in a volcano; a room with lots of spikes; one of us dressed as Ireena. Barovia turns out to have no volcanoes, only mountains (Mount Baratok and Mount Ghakis, which have mist, not smoke). The survey continues.
• Ireena: "You are doing such good for me. You are the best of people. But, harebrained schemes, have fun, but wait until I'm safe."
• One comfort, from one of us: he's still in the sending-you-gifts phase, not the coming-to-kidnap-you phase. "It's not a big silver lining, but it's something." "Thank you for trying." "I do try."
• "He's not going to stop. He gets what he wants." Her hope is the church in Vallaki.

The raven

That night a raven watched our camp. Lily's sharp eyes swear it's the same raven that watched us in the village of Barovia: the same tufty feathers. Sirius greeted it: "Hello, raven. We're friends." It ignored the food we put out. Lily used her gnomish gift to speak with it, and nothing connected. "It's not a beast. It's not an animal." It said "caw, caw" and flew away.

Theories: a holy creature; a person in animal form; something mechanical; a monster. Sirius is sure it's a messenger of the gods, "or some of the positive gods in this land", and wants to find where it lives and help it. Ireena: "Ravens are lucky. They are boons, ravens."

The farmstead

At noon on the last day we passed an abandoned farm left to rot. We had a debate: Ireena needs the church, and we could still stop for ten minutes. "Our record for buildings so far this trip is one for one terrible." "Let's make it 50/50." Sirius knocked politely. Three grey, pallid humanoids rose out of the hay. They weren't the ghouls from the Durst house.

• Drew's fire bolt opened it.
• Sirius walked into the middle of the three and spread his black raven wings, and all three froze in terror. Ireena: "Wow."
• Fëanor's magic missiles (one a natural 20) put the first one down, dart through the forehead.
• Osric took the leg off the second and then took it to pieces.
• Drew fired a silver bolt at the last one as a controlled experiment. She was making notes.
• Sirius took its head off. The body kept standing. Lily ignored the head and stabbed the body until it fell apart.

None of us took a scratch. Drew's findings: our magic didn't do much to them, plain steel did better, and silver made no difference at all. She harvested the bodies, got her bolt back, and kept a jar of zombie guts. We found five silver and sixteen copper. Osric is the treasurer.

Then Ireena, who had seen the wings: "Are you an angel?" Sirius: "It seems likely that my family interbred with celestial creatures some time ago, yes." She dropped to her knees. "Oh, thank you, Morninglord. Thank you, angel." Sirius knelt beside her and prayed to Lathander with her. "I can't believe I'm surrounded by an angel of the Morninglord. We're blessed. We can't fail." One of us pointed out that we'd failed rather badly two days ago. "We simply went on. Everyone's alive. That's good in Barovia, I'll tell you that." Sirius: "I will use my strong right arm to do the best I can in service to this land. You have my word."

Vallaki: all will be well

At dusk we reached Vallaki: big stone walls, a wrought-iron gate, and a church steeple on the far side of town. "Visitors from outside. Get the forms, Ted." "Right, Frank."

• The questions. Are you now, or have you ever been, agents of Strahd? In league with the Vistani? With the dusk elves? ("Don't know what those are.") With werewolves? No to all four. Fëanor added that if they happened to be attacking something we were attacking, we would continue attacking it, just for the avoidance of doubt.
• The laws. Obey them all. Register every weapon: the bolts were counted one by one, and Lily's broom-handle club was registered too, because "you have brought it to our attention, and therefore it must be registered". Follow the laws, and you'll have no business at the Reformation Center. Speaking the devil's name inside the walls is a punishable offence (the guard only said it to ask his questions); the approved term is "the devil". Re-entering the town means being questioned, registering and attesting all over again.
• The guard. "I am a legally empowered guard of Vallaki. Fear you not. My serial number is 4368."
• The festival. "The Festival of the Blazing Sun. Attendance is mandatory. Failure to attend this festival is punishable by punishment. Here, have a flyer." It is seven days from today, and children are required, if you have them. "This fun is mandatory, and you will have fun or face the consequences." (See The Festival Flyer.) Is it Lathander's festival? Best ask the priest.
• The Baron is also the Burgomaster: "He is both Burgomaster and Baron. He is great." Asked whether he takes constructive criticism: "The stocks are ever ready for heads and arms."
• Ireena told them she was the late burgomaster's daughter and Ismark's sister, come to be protected in the church. The guard hadn't known the burgomaster had a sister, gave his condolences, and said she was welcome: all non-Vistani, non-werewolf, non-dusk-elves are.
• "Frederick, open the gate." Everyone chanted "All will be well". There was no Vistani camp in sight from the gate.

Inside: posters being torn down and replaced with Blazing Sun ones, a guard on every corner, and about an hour's walk across town to the church. The square has five corners, a gallows and stocks with three people in them. A passerby told us one of them missed the last festival because his mother died, and that wasn't accepted. One was drunk once. One said something bad about the Baron, which is the second crime on the list. Asked what exactly was said: "I would not even think of trying to say such a thing. Don't tempt me, sir."

And people here walk the streets after dark without scurrying. That's more than the village could say.

St. Andral's secret

St. Andral's Church is centuries-old stone with a tall steeple, stained-glass saints and red sun motifs, and a walled graveyard of family mausoleums. About a dozen people were praying quietly. Sirius: "Greetings, Father. We are mistwalkers." Father Lucian: "I hope the rumours are not true about what happens with mistwalkers, but you would never be blamed. The Morning Lord welcomes you." He called Fëanor a man of the cloth, "Lord Fëanor", and took us into his small back room. Ireena stayed in the pews: "I'm so glad I am safe here now finally."

Then he told us, on first meeting, what he's told nobody else:

"We had a relic. The bones of St. Andral. They sanctified the ground. They were kept in the crypt below, and they made us safe. They're gone. They were taken. We are no longer currently holy ground. Evil can tread here if it wills."

• They were stolen about six days ago. He noticed because the church felt less holy, and went to check.
• Only he and his boy Yeska, eight, his chosen successor, knew. He fears Yeska let it slip. ("Says the man telling people he's just met.")
• His only suspect is Milivoj, the groundskeeper for the church and the orphanage, who lives at the orphanage and is the only other person with keys. Milivoj doesn't answer him; he grunts. "He doesn't seem like an evil man, but I cannot think otherwise." Lucian is "a man of the cloth, not a man of violence". Sirius offered a quiet and respectful conversation.
• "I need a miracle. You are a miracle."
• Festivals every other week for about fifteen years. The current burgomaster is stricter than his father. "We must all attend. We must all smile." ("Blink twice, Father.")
• The stories say the devil has not set foot in Vallaki in over two hundred years.
• Is Ireena safe here? Not now. She'd be more comfortable at the inn. "Right now, it's just a building."
• Lucian sleeps deeply in the back room, and locks up every night.

He moved the altar back by its handles to show us the crypt: a dusty ten-foot room with a stone slab where the bones should be. We searched and found nothing. St. Andral died some seven hundred years ago. (Sirius coined "bone skin" and was asked never to say it again. He agreed, for as long as he remembers.)

We decided not to tell Ireena. If saying his name three times reaches him, perhaps he hears other things she hears.

Yeska idolises Sirius (who let him hold his longsword, then took it back because it isn't registered to him, and taught him push-ups) and Osric ("so big and strong… so cool"). Sirius persuaded him that the coolest thing you can do is keep a confidence, and out it came: "I told Milivoj. He's so cool, though." About ten days ago, out of the blue, Milivoj had asked whether he knew any secrets about hidden things in the church, and called him cool for telling. Cool people, we told him, don't ask you to share secrets. He promised to tell Father Lucian.

Ireena wanted to stay at the church. We talked her round to the inn for tonight. There's more wine at the inn.

The Blue Water Inn

The Blue Water Inn is warm and welcoming. "Welcome. I am Urwin Martikov, proprietor of The Blue Water Inn. This is my lovely wife, Danika, at the bar, and my boys, Brom and Bray." A six-bed room is two gold a night. The menu runs to potato pottage, beet soup, and wolf steak if you're feeling rich.

In the room: a musician in the corner in bright colours, about as far from a Vistani as a person could look; two cheerful drunks well into their cups; and at one table a very old man staring at us, white as a sheet, as if he'd seen a ghost.

Urwin: "That's Roger. He is what remains of the previous set of Mistwalkers." He'd guessed what we were at a glance. Is our kind an ill omen? "That is apparently what happened. Again, I was a wee lad when it happened last. Bad times. I hope it doesn't happen again."

Sirius bought two glasses of wine and went to sit with Roger.

Where we stand

• At the Blue Water Inn in Vallaki, on the night we arrived, with Ireena safe for tonight and not knowing the church can't protect her. Sirius is carrying wine to Roger's table.
• Level 4. Lily is exhausted and craving less each day. Clover was smashed at the mill.
• The hags stand, all three, with Radu. Vasha is watching the mill. They are weaker below three.
• The letter: his name three times brings him.
• In Vallaki: find the bones (lead: Milivoj, at the orphanage, tomorrow); a Blinsky toy for Aragal's daughter; the Festival of the Blazing Sun in seven days; talk to Roger.
• Kit: Ismark's map, no pies, silver bolts and a silvered shortsword, three potions of healing, the wolf pelt, the menhir rubbing, 5 silver and 16 copper, and a jar of zombie guts (Drew insists).

Questions on our minds

• Who has the bones of St. Andral? Why would a groundskeeper want them? Answered, Session 9: Milivoj took them for money, and passed them on. See those notes.
• What happened to the previous Mistwalkers? Answered, Session 8: ask Roger. We did.
• What is the Festival of the Blazing Sun really for? Is it Lathander's?
• Can we split the coven, perhaps by catching one hag alone on her pie round?
• Is Kiril's pack, far to the west, the den of beasts in Lily's reading?
• The raven follows us and isn't an animal. What is it? Does it belong to the lady of ravens?
• Speak his name thrice and he comes. Could that ever be our trap rather than his?