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Barovia Wants You!
Hey, she's a paladin. She arms and armors herself and slips out to check into it. Strangely, the watchman doesn't seem to have noticed anything. Best not to trouble him--he's an old soldier who tends to laugh at the youngsters who train here and take themselves too seriously. Liiare ventures into the wood, and within a few yards is totally enveloped in a mist impervious even to her elvish senses. Then something... something shifts, and she hears the howling of many, many wolves, and a bunch of noisy humans and such blundering around, and finally, well, she witnesses the manifestation described below, and then, in a most un-elvish way, she manages to stub her toe against a root. And she curses out loud. That's not something Liiare would normally do in such a situation, but somehow it happens, and somehow she finds herself moving forward toward the waiting party. The first night out of Daggerford, the remainder of the party camps in a traveler's shelter open to all--just a rough, floorless stone roundhouse beside the road. It's mostly a silent camp, as you mull over your mistakes and the injustices done you--even if these thoughts aren't normal to you, somehow, tonight that's what's on your mind. A cold mist rises from the nearby creek, creeping and coiling into all the low places, and then higher and higher until it envelopes you all. By the time the first watch ends, the mist is so thick that you couldn't see one another even if you were awake. And just then you all suddenly are awake, awake and alarmed, blasted from sleep by the bloodcurdling howl of a nearby wolf. One wolf, two, three--they're all around you, and all howling in a way that could freeze your blood--even if you're not normally subject to this kind of fear, this time it chills you to your core. And there's something out there, some kind of motion, something easing its way through the underbrush. The mist thins, and you can make out one another's figures--and one more. There's an elf woman at the edge of your camp, a dark-haired woman dressed in black, slender as the willow, and she seems to look at you. She speaks, in a voice like a hiss of ash: "Kill the dead man!" Then she explodes. Literally, her body spasms and shatters, and a great unkindness of ravens erupts in all directions and vanishes into the mist. Nothing remains where the woman stood, but out in the forest you hear a curse in a strange dialect of elvish, and then a different elf woman stumbles into your camp. I'll let Liiare tell you what you see as she blunders in, and you can describe yourselves to her, because this is the last member of your party. So please don't kill her out of paranoia. Now the wolves are back, and nearer, and howling madly. You hear a young child scream "Daddy!" once, but not again. If you venture into the woods, you find nothing at all. Eventually the howls grow more distant, and as the sky begins to lighten they die away entirely. Dawn comes, and you break camp. The mist remains, but you can find the road, or at least, a road. It doesn't look much like the one you were on yesterday, but there's no other road around. This one is a narrow dirt track with thorny shrubbery crowding you on both sides. Oddly, it doesn't matter whether you turn in the direction you think leads toward Daggerford, or away from the town. In either case, you soon stumble into a derelict farmstead with a the skeletal remains of a cow lying in the farmyard near the door to a tall, narrow farmhouse. There's a sign beside the road at the point where a path leads to the farmyard. It says "Durst Manor." A soft whimpering draws you around a cart with a broken wheel, and you find a pair of children standing in the mist, holding each other and weeping. When you approach, the elder child, a girl of about ten, pushes the boy behind her and turns to face you. The little boy clutches a stuffed doll to his face as if trying to muffle his sobs. What do you want to do?
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Yeah, I probably shouldn't have done that. Last edited by Exfilia; Mar 15th, 2020 at 03:43 PM. |
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#3
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Last edited by bananabadger; Mar 16th, 2020 at 11:21 PM. |
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__________________
│I have taken the oath.│ “There's something about this that's so black, it's like how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black.”
-Nigel Tufnel |
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#6
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Last edited by Oakie; Mar 16th, 2020 at 03:35 PM. |
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Last edited by lostcheerio; Mar 16th, 2020 at 09:32 PM. |
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__________________
“He who opens a school door, closes a prison.” - Victor Hugo |
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As Thane looks around, he sees an ancient farmstead long fallen to ruin. That cow skeleton has been dead for decades at least--it's fallen apart and is just bones on the ground, recognizable only by being in pretty much the right place.
Arquiztex, also observing, has noted that the sages in the party are interested in what they call "lizardfolk." Herr Doktor Wens also looks around, but he does it from the perspective of a sage who's done a lot of reading in the field--in several fields, in fact. He scribbles notes in his notebook. Liiare does indeed notice something unsettling about all this. The children say nothing in answer to her question. The gnome natters on a bit, and that seems to relax the youngsters a little. It's Rolen and Sylvi who asks the pertinent questions, though. Where is your father? Was this your home? Where are your parents? "This was our home," the little girl says. "I'm Rosavelda Dunst, at your service and your family's. Please may I present my brother Thornholdt. Say hello, Thorn!" "At y... your ser... urserbissanur fambly!" The boy's recitation descends into a whimper. "Our father... our father is downstairs with the monster. Mama, too. There's a monster in our house, you see" says Rose, pointing at the farmhouse. Its windows are dark. There's a fenced farmyard in front, the sagging gate of which is slightly ajar. The rest of the farm buildings are in varying states of collapse, but the house still looks safe. "Mummy and Daddy locked the monster in the basement," says Thorn. "We're not to go down there." "No, we're not allowed," says Rose. "so we've never seen it. We've heard it, though, howling like anything! It's horrible! Mummy and Daddy are down there dealing with it." Thorn buries his face in his sister's skirts. "It didn't get us," she continues, "but it might have got loose and got the baby. Our brother Walter is in the nursery upstairs. Papa told us to watch him, but Thorn got scared and ran out here, and he doesn't want to go back in." Thorn snuffles. "I don't, either," the girl admits. "Not going back in there," Thorn says. "Monster!" "I wish I were brave enough," says Rose, "but I'm not. I wish I could have got little Walter out, too."
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Yeah, I probably shouldn't have done that. Last edited by Exfilia; Mar 17th, 2020 at 01:15 PM. |
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__________________
“He who opens a school door, closes a prison.” - Victor Hugo |
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Last edited by delpinator; Mar 17th, 2020 at 03:31 PM. |
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__________________
│I have taken the oath.│ “There's something about this that's so black, it's like how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black.”
-Nigel Tufnel |
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#15
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Last edited by Oakie; Mar 17th, 2020 at 10:36 PM. Reason: copy edit |
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