08/25/2022
In the last episode of Curse of Strahd (Open D&D 5th Edition table), the ally Stella Watcher dropped some hurtful insults at Strahd. The sort of comments that questioned the legality of his lust for a woman who neither consents to nor reciprocates his "Love" for her. This saved Belmont from being dropped from the third floor to his death and instead was tossed aside like garbage in Strahd's eyes to instead begin to pursue Stella in a rage. The party ran down the stairs attached to the parlor room. Arken and Stella decided to skip the landing halfway down the steps in favor of just putting as much distance as possible from the Vampire Lord. Strahd ordered the Animated Armors that were standing by to take care of Belmont. They quickly obeyed and the chase was on.
Binky, Braum, and Weatherwax instead chose to stop at the landing to find themselves in a library of old books and tomes, as well as a wizened old man chained into a hunch over a desk with a rope above his head. This man was writing on a comically large scroll. Upon questioning the man, he was writing the current events of Barovia as they unfolded, as in the party's current decisions in past tense. Binky ended up pulling the rope to sound a belfry far above them. Braum decided to see if there were any incoming threats in the room above, since that was loud.
There was a threat behind them as Strahd chased Stella down the stairs. Now the party was split three ways and for once, as DND custom, was no fault of the party. Enemies were forcing a wedge in the ally's block. Stella and Arken find themselves in the main chamber of the castle just before the banquet hall. They tried to escape, where eight gargoyles perched on the colonnade animated and swooped down on poor Arken and swarmed him. Thankfully they did not see Stella either.
Meanwhile, Belmont broke and entered into the guest bedroom, where an addled woman was asleep and woke dreamily as Belmont entered, not perceiving him as a threat. She happily answered any questions that Belmont answered, almost dreamily. Belmont didn't have much time to stay and chat as the Armors were taking the most direct path, through rooms and doors to catch up to Belmont, so the chase continued.
Back at Binky Weatherwax and Braum. Binky thought the whole wizened man at the desk was sketchy so he set the place on fire via burning hands. A whole library bloomed in fire. Weatherwax tried her best to free him, but she was a frail witch and needed help. Braum found himself in a spartan room with vaulted ceilings, where a massive, broken stained glass window depicting a raven upon a castle dominated one side, as well as an ornate mahogany, gold-and-gossamer laced throne sat on a dias with it's back towards the main part of the room.
Meanwhile, the swarm of gargoyles flew out of the room via the front door of the castle. Stella uses this opportunity to provide some meager healing to Arken when Strahd arrives, striking an awesome blow to Stella that knocks her into the banquet hall. Strahd casually strode in for the kill before Arken swooped in, grabbed Stella for a Misty Step onto the chandeliers above. He attempted to break the iron chains to drop the lights on Vampire but failed to do so. Instead, Strahd turned into a flurry of bats and back and joined them on the fixture. Grabbing Arken by the neck, he dropped him to the floor. Arken was a monk after all, he landed rather safely, but Strahd cutting the chandeliers instead brought him down to a single hitpoint.
Belmont somehow managed to make a loop around the third floor of the castle, finding the column staircase that the party had used just in time for a flurry of gargoyles to come crashing through the broken windows and pursuing the hunter, he chose to put as much distance as possible and descended down to the first floor. Coming face to face with the Count of Barovia himself.
Meanwhile, Braum remembered Madam Eva’s fortune-telling of how a symbol of good and hope was seen on a throne fit for a king. Sure enough, there was a platinum chain draped over the back of the throne, the medallion stylized with a ruby set into the middle of it. Just in time as a flock of Shadows answered the belfry. They began their attack, beginning with the dying old man despite Weatherwax’s attempts to save him. She was a frail old witch and the chains were too strong. Braum raised the medallion, and from it shone a brilliant light that debilitated the shadows. The three characters decided to run down a pair of stairs in the throne room.
At this moment, the Morninglord took pity on the characters fighting helplessly against the Lord of darkness. As they found their connection to the deity, Morninglord decided to give a tiny morsel of reprieve and light in the sea of darkness. This came in the form of an instant level up and long rest. Just in time for Strahd to find himself surrounded on the bottom floor.
Belmont began the assault, throwing a critical wooden dagger at Strahd. But just before the moment of impact, a baleful, oppressive red light shone from the walls of the castle. It was as ominous as Braum was brilliant. The attack bounced harmlessly, as if Castle Ravenloft itself protected Strahd from harm. However that light shattered like glass when Braum arrived with the sun at his back and rammed a sword through him.
Strahd had no choice but to flee, turning into bats and flying away up the stairs. The party now grouped up and rejuvenated, decided to check out the grand set of doors in the main intersection, it was a set of heavy stone and mahogany doors that required one to put their weight in to get it to slowly open with a harrowing groan. Inside was lined with knight statues who’s heads turned as Braum, brave and alone, ventures forth forty feet to a matching door on the far side.
Braum entered into a cathedral. Large and broken stained glass windows depict pictures of the Morninglord with raven motifs. Catwalks line the wall forty feet up and vaulted roofs pitch at the 120 ft mark. Upon the altar was a silver figurine where moonlight shines down upon through the cracks in the windows. Slumped over the altar is a robed figure, and a blackened iron mace at the floor next to him. Braum, still alone, picks up the mace to disarm the figure on the altar just in case.
Just then, as if waiting for this moment, two figures come crashing down from the catwalks above. One a familiar reborn tabaxi, landing gracefully despite the distance on the other side of the altar. The other, a mahogany and amber golem, cratering as it landed, blocked the entrance of the chapel and the hallway. Firean strikes his trap, a former player character who pledged his body and soul to Strahd. The medallion of good and hope, trapped alone with an assassin, his friends stuck behind the hallway and the golem.
What happens next? See y’all next week!
