Back to my adventures in Barovia.
DAY 344 (11th Alturaik)(February) cont ...
Well, I took 'Fluffy' back downstairs and formally introduced him to everyone. He seems to be a very friendly sort of young fellow and got on well with not only Sylvia, Ashlyn, Yli and Tie-Pie but also everyone in the Inn.
After some discussion with my fellows we decided we should go and see Ireena first. I talked to the barman and Ismark (her brother) about how best to get there and what to expect before we left.
Basically just go down the street to the house at the end of it. Ismark had no message to send and seemed to wish nothing more to continue drinking himself into senselessness. The land lord also told us there was a house on the way where a lady called 'Mad Mary' lived.
Ireena, you may recall was currently keeping vigil over her dead father, the former Burgomaster of Barovia.
At about eleven o'clock in the morning we walked down the southern street, boldly keeping to the centre of it, as if challenging the undead to attack us.
Yli, with his sharp hearing, heard the sounds of undead groaning from one of the houses and we went in to take a look. I was first through the side door of the house and was attacked by some undead rats. One attached itself to my leg with its nasty little claws!
I slashed at it with my scimitar and then Yli shot at it. Finally Tie-pie blasted it off with a scorching ray, absolutely ruining my trousers as dead rat bits splattered everywhere.
I summoned some bears as more rats appeared. Then one of those giant maggot things came out of the other house and I cast hypothermia at it. This showered Tie-Pie in half frozen undead maggot chunks. The alley we were in was turning into a charnel house.
As zombies entered the combat, myself and Tie-Pie both summoned flaming spheres (it was a wonder we didn't burn the house down, but I suppose it was damp and cold due to it being winter) and sent them and the bears after them.
It was a stinking chaos of undead critters, zombies, bears and spheres, but at least none of us were hurt after the end of it. After the fighting ended we searched the building and found some magical items, a bow and a pair of boots.
A few doors down from here we passed a house where we heard sobbing coming from and assumed it to be the residence of Mad Mary. At the back of the building I removed the planks from the door then Fluffy tried to barge it open and failed. Tie-pie then took a run at it and bounced off then just as I was about to cast 'Wood Shape' Yli barreled in and knocked it open with a shoulder charge.
The sobbing was coming from upstairs and we quietly traced it to its source, a room full of pink furnishings, toy unicorns and a big fairy castle that any little girl would have been delighted to play with. There was also a girl's bed with a canopy, dozens of dolls arranged on it.
Light filtered into the room from the shutters and fell on and old woman sat on the floor crying.
Initially I went in alone and quietly said, 'Hello.'
Once I got her talking she rambled on for some time about her daughter Gertruda and how she had gone up to the castle, or had been taken there.
'The master of the castle has her and I fear the worst is yet to come...'
'What is the worst?' I ventured.
She wailed in reply.
I stepped back and Sylvia checked her over for general health.
'She's thin,' said Sylvia back out on the landing. 'But she appears to be eating and drinking enough to
survive.'
'Probably best just to leave her here for now.'
We agreed on this, secured the back door again and reported on her condition back at the Inn.
Apparently the locals were aware of the 'Mad Mary' situation and some of them were keeping an eye on her.
So, finally, we ended up at the ancient and half broken gates of the Kolyana mansion. It appeared to have been having a hard time, the exterior walls were clawed, burnt and stained. All the windows and doors were barricaded.
I knocked on the main door and Ireena herself answered. She was a tall, well build sort of woman. She invited us all in, saying she had heard we had rid the town of the 'blaspheme' and was happy to meet us.
The interior of the mansion was well furnished, but had not seen the attentions of a cleaner in a long while.
In the main room, her father's body lay, in a coffin and dressed in his robes of state.
She spoke of her father, the Master of the Castle (Strahd), the symbol that had protected her father up until his dead and other matters related to this.
She ended by saying that she did not know what had happened to the amulet, but that the wise woman who lived west of the town might know.
Ireena then asked if we could help take her father to the cemetery and bury him. We said yes, and the townsfolk got to see the unusual sight of a dire wolf pulling a wagon with a coffin on it up to the church.
We took it round to the cemetery and placed the coffin in the family crypt. Sylvia then performed a burial ceremony (with Ashlyn as the verger) and Ireena said some words of remembrance.
While standing there in the somber scene I noticed that the mists that shrouded the town seemed to encircle the graveyard, coming up to its edge, as if unwilling to come further.
We also noticed a nearby grave that had been recently dug up, that of Mahail Latchko.
Next we escorted Ireena back to the mansion and at her door started to say our farewells, thinking next to go see the wise woman.
I asked her, 'Will you be safe here though? I mean, can we offer any further help?'
'With the dead not rising from their graves the town is much safer,' she replied.
'What about Strahd?' I pushed.
She gave a non-committal answer, but this triggered suspicions in Sylvia who said, 'Show me your neck.'
At first Ireena was shocked, but I could see she was wearing a dress with a high collar.
'If you don't mind,' I said gently.
She revealed her neck and it had two puncture wounds on it, the sign of a vampire bite.
'I've had such awful dreams! On two separate nights, he has come to me. He calls me Titania!'
She told us more about the dreams and that if she was bitten again she would fall under his thrall.
Well, I was at a loss what to do with her, but it turns out she has been trained as a fighter. I suppose I hadn't really noticed before, but Ireena - she's a big girl! And well muscled, she really looked that given a sword and a suit of full plate she would be handy in a fight.
It was decided that she would join us.
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