The Tome of Strahd

The party continued climbing Argynvostholt. The spiral stairs in the chapel proved to be a dead end, so they took a set of stairs on the other side of the foyer to the third level of the mansion. Here they reverted to classic "dungeon crawl" mode and started methodically opening doors.

The first door lead to a room with a long table, around which were seated six undead figures (more revenants). While not overtly hostile, one did ask, "Why do the living disturb the dead?" At this, the PCs opted to let the undead lie and closed the door. As Alec pointed out to the group (a little bit of meta-game thinking, but it does point to why I like the milestone system, anyway), since they aren't getting experience for killing monsters, there's no point is starting unnecessary fights. Obviously, there characters might not want to start unnecessary fights, but for more in-setting reasons like wanting to conserve their energy, or, in this case, to retrieve the item they're at the ruins to get and then get out with due haste.

The next door took them to a ransacked study, with empty bookshelves, a pair of empty chambers beyond, and slashed portrait of the mansion in its heyday. They found a scrap of paper, a fragment of an old journal hinting at the true nature of Argynvost, the commander of the knights that once lived here. Ap used mage hand to lift the flaps of the painting to get a better of idea of what it looked like. Then Lop decided to go all out and cast mending, fixing the painting. This summoned an apparition of a silver dragon, Argynvost himself. He tasked the party with retrieving his remains from a "room of ill omen" in Strahd's Castle and returning it to Argynvostholt, its proper resting place. There, the creature's spirit could "bring hope to this dark land."

It's definitely telling that in classic Metroidvania style, the party is expected to make a few forays into and then out of Castle Ravenloft before finally choosing to confront Strahd. Thus far, my group has learned that it needs to rescue Emil Toranescue and recover the skull of Argynvost.

One of the empty chambers was Argynvost's sleeping chamber, the other was lined with lead and had a, now broken reinforced door. The mages could tell that the lead would block detection magic, so that room was probably reserved for the dragon's hoard.

The party continued climbing, reaching the roof. They then climbed the tower at the top of the mansion. The paused to check out some spiral stairs, which lead to archer nests, containing phantom warriors. These new monsters for Curse of Strahd are basically militaristic ghosts that fight with the weapons and wear the armor they wore of old. They aren't otherwise terribly remarkable; the only other note-worthy thing is that they have multiattack and their attacks do force damage. They also lack damage resistance.

The battle was short, and the party continued climbing, eventually finding the Tome of Strahd, the item they had come to find. They learned more of the vampire lord's history and how he had become undead. They learned why Ireena having her soul set free was good for her, but why it angered Strahd so much.

At about this time, Tathora spotted an intruder peaking at them. Addressing the newcomer, they found it was a Vistana woman also interested in battling Strahd. She wished to know more about the book they had found. When Lop had his Strahd dummy speak, the woman threw a handaxe into the dummy's head. (Goosebumps or not, ventriloquist dummies are naturally kind of creepy.) Lop took it in stride, casting mending on his treasure. Eventually, the woman revealed herself as Ezmerelda D'Avenir, Van Richten apprentice.

The party soon learned that she had "borrowed without asking permission" a horse from the nearby Vistani camp and some of the Vistani were on her trail. Looking out the window, the party confirmed that yes, there were Vistani out front, waiting for her to come out.

The party, with Ezmerelda along, went to confront the Vistani. They found a group led by Arrigal, the rogue that had retrieved the wedding dress for them. Tathora particularly put out by his past actions, and told him so. He shrugged it off, and merely asked for Ezmerelda. The party refused to surrender her, and Arrigal wasn't interested in starting a fight, so he left them.

The party returned to Vallaki, hoping to meet with Kasimir Velikov, the head of the elves. They found that he was away, but the Martikovs did have news for the PCs: they had located on of the winery's missing gems in the hut of a hag living in the ruins of a village called Berez.

We broke at that point as the party prepared to venture to the village of Berez. They had also reached a milestone, so we took a few minutes to level everyone up.

When we return, Berez! And Scarecrows. And not the singing kind either.