Smokey Cold Dragon! - CoS

Last night was action packed!  In the beginning we were leaving Barovia at dawn to head to Berez.  Castiel awoke to find himself not at Wizards winery but in Barovia and Ervin sitting by his bed.  The transformation was complete; he was now a raven lycanthrope.  Ervin reported that the winery was flourishing with new life thanks to him.

As we left town, we traveled for about an hour, sharing the mounts that we got.  We traveled under another cloudy sky, wondering if it would rain at any moment.  We came upon a cope of trees as the windy path took us through it.  Knowing that danger could lurk behind any tree, Dante was vigilant and noticed that we were not alone just before we were attacked!  Eravan was the first to get bitten by a giant wolf.  A dire wolf almost the size of the horse that we were sitting on!  It was a strange fight because at first the wolves came at us one at a time instead of all at once but we fought valiantly and yet we took heavy hits.  When the battle was over, many of our group were severely wounded and we decided to take an hour’s rest before moving on.  Dante had the great idea of skinning the beasts to hopefully sell the pelts for money in the next inhabited town.  Dire wolf pelts should catch a great price since they are so huge.

At the beginning of our journey, Virgil was in a happy mood, which always annoyed Dante.  Dante preferred traveling in the front of the group on these occasions, staying a good distance from him.  Yet, after the rest and t he battle, Virgil resorted to his gloomy self; now Dante can handle that behavior.  After our rest, we continued on for another hour before Dante, once again the eagle-eyed ranger in our group, noticed a small, dilapidated sign with the weathered and uncared for lettering of "Berez" pointing off on a different path.  This path was clearly not traveled much as it was not as well kept as the one, we were on.

After traveling for a bit, a mist rolls in around us and we see specters of ages past.  It is a battle ground where knights are fighting fiends and undead.  The knights are sadly losing and succumb.  While we travel through this, Dorol stiffens and can't move.  He is reminded of a battle he was in that gives him nightmares.  We coax him out of it and continue on. When we come out of the mist we see a statue in the middle of the road of a dragon and off to the right, was a huge mansion with a half stone wall and wrought iron gate upon the top of it.  The manor was in ill-repair and needed a good remodeling...well, let's be honest; better to just tear it down and start a new.  At that moment, Dante remembers a part of the prophecy that the gypsy fortune teller told us that we would find a relic at the doorsteps of the dragon to help us along our quest.  With that memory, he decides to take a moment and hone in on his spiritual senses and feels that there are 8 undead in the house.  We know that this is not going to be an easy task but with the knowledge that we need that relic, we venture in.

 

Entering the mansion gives us all the heebie-jeebies (except Dante who is just weird like that) and as we push in the front doors, we see a huge hall that in it's prime, would have been amazing and a wondrous sight to see.  Stone and woodwork of dragons are everywhere.  Statues of Knights in armor, paintings and chandeliers tell of a regal house.  (Eravan loves how beautiful it once was and thinks of how he could restore it for a home of his own).  We decide to investigate.   There are many doors on the first floor and a grand staircase that leads to another level.  Castiel and Banshee go into a room and find a coffin in one corner and burnt out fire in the other.  Yet, Banshee notices there is a faint ember still burning.  Knowing that this is odd for a place that probably hasn't had a fire burn in it for a century, walks toward it and searches for the spark.  As he approaches, the ember does something that a normal ember wouldn't do; it moves.

Castiel, during this time is preoccupied with finding silver silverware on the floor and doesn't notice the ember.  Banshee eventually catches the ember, and it feels both hot and cold at the same time.  As he moves to go show the rest of us in the hallway, the ember escapes his hand and scurries over to a corner where a rotting chair leg rests.  As Banshee moves to pursue and recapture it, the ember suddenly flares to life with a brilliant blue light and forms into a small ethereal dragon.  He flaps its wings and soars out of the room and up the stairs.  Now, Castiel notices the flying dragon and the two of them give chance.

Meanwhile, Dante and Virgil are inspecting another door that seems to be blocked by a silky drape.  Virgil cuts through it and as they enter, they realize that the whole room is covered in thick gossamer strands of webs...and not the small spider webs that a daddy long legs would make...nor even a tarantula would make but these are thick strands, the size of a nail.  They decide to not tempt fate and slowly retreat, closing the door after them.  That is when they hear Castiel say in a loud whisper that he has just seen a spectral dragon fly upstairs.

Yet, Dorol and Eravan have also gone to inspect another room.  This door leads into a grand dining room.  With a large dining table and dragon carved chairs and candelabras on tables all throughout the room.  There is also another doorway, the door is gone, that leads into what looks like a chapel.  As we hear the commotion out in the hall, we also hear movement coming from the chapel.  The type of movement that one does not want to ignore in an undead living place.

 

Even though Banshee wanted to follow the dragon ("Guys, it is a cute little ethereal dragon!  I will capture it and tame it and call it George and he will be mine”) he gave in to following the rest of the group to investigate the noise.  As everyone came into the dining room, Virgil went in closer for a better look and saw kneeling at the alter of the chapel, 3 armored clad figures who all stood up and turned around.  You could tell that they were once human.  Hair and beards still clung in some places of their rotting flesh and where there should have been eyes, were sunken black voids.  Each one held a long Sword in hand and advanced towards us.  We waited for them in the dining room and the battle commenced.

After Virgil did an amazing fiery dance with one of the undead knights-hacking and slashing and searing rotting flesh, the knight gazed upon him and caught his eyes.  A sudden paralysis held him to the spot and the undead feeling that he was not a threat, decided to move past him to claim more victims.  Eravan blasted one with rays of fire, Dante fought with sword and pike, Banshee cleaved with fiendish magic and his halberd, Dorol struck with axe and hammer while Castiel lent a hand in a different way.  Noticing his comrade frozen, he flew over and calling upon his nature deity, removed the curse from Virgil, setting him free.  He also set up a totem of healing in the middle of the battle ground to help his friends recover after the fight...and boy was it a fight!  These knights knew how to move like when they were alive; parrying and dodging out of the way on rickety bones yet some evil malevolence kept them fluid.  It was with difficulty that we finally took them down.

 

After many of us bathed in Castiel's totem of healing, we received strength and energy to move on.  We decided to move on up stairs.  As we came to the landing, we investigated a couple of rooms.  Another room was like the one that Dante and Virgil found downstairs, full of webs.  They closed the door quickly.  In another room, we found our query!  Yet, the small ethereal dragon was no more.  Instead of a small hawk sized dragon, it was a large grown dragon.  Eravan knelt in reverence and we communicated with Holt Argynvost, the lord of this manor.  In our conversation with him, we found out that Strahd sent his army to destroy him and his men who protected this land.  They had first came here before Strahd had come to protect the good people from a powerful evil that was already in existence in the land but sadly with Strahd's arrival, they were beaten.  Argynvost's men were turned into undead knights and his lieutenant was turned into a powerful creature of evil who has the relic.  The dragon informs us that he is left in this ethereal situation because his bones were scattered across the land.  He had his knights collect all but his skull, which they couldn't find.  Without the skull, he can't be released to his final resting place.  We decided that we needed to destroy the undead knights and recover the relic and purge the house of the undead.  As we are leaving, Eravan notices that a panting is glowing (he had turned on his magic detection spell) and touched the panting to see what would happen.  It spoke and told him that the dragon’s skull is being held by the witch who claims to be Strahd's mother (oh that is fortuitous since we are on our way to confront her!).

We also find a letter that Argynvost wrote.  It reads: My knights have fallen, and this land is lost.  The armies of my enemy will not be stopped by sword or spell...or fang. Today I will die, not avenging those who have fallen, but defending that which I love, this valley, this home and the ideals of the Order of the Silver Dragons.

The evil surrounds us.  The time has come to throw off this guise and show these heathens my true fearsome form.  Let it speak terror in their hearts!  let them tell their stories of dark triumph against the protector of the ... mountains!  Let Argynvost be remembered as a dragon of honor and valor.  My one request is that my remains will not be...their rightful place, in the hallowed mountains of Argynvost Holt.  No doubt my bones will be scattered among my enemies like the coins of a plundered house, trophies of a hard-won victory.  Do not fear death.  Though my body will die, my spirit will live on.  Let it serve as a beacon of light against the darkness.  Let it bring hope to a land wrought with despair.

 

With those words ringing in our minds, we continue forward and find Vladimir.  He is sitting on a dragon throne in partial plate Mail holding a great sword.  His sunken blackened eyes void of life.  He rants how he hates Strahd, but he will see that he stays alive in this wretched world that he has created to suffer as he suffers.  Clearly not making sense, we ignore his monologuing and attack.  The plan was to leave a path for Eravan to send a bolt of lightning to the bad Vlad and it worked!  Yet, as with all good battles the plan sometimes doesn't always go as planned.  Yet, it is just as fierce as below because Vladimir summons specters to fight with him. What was planned to be a 6 on 1 turns into a 6 vs. 5.   It is an intense battle!  Eravan and Dorol seem off their game today.  Dorol must be sober and Eravan must still be affected by the first attack in the woods.  Luckily, we fight as a team and we worked together to create a Congo line of death (not the best strategy but it eventually worked out).  As Vladimir is struck down by Virgil, he stares into his eyes in such as a way that he communicates a foreboding fear of return and revenge upon him.  Virgil steps away with a shiver but smiles as he thinks, "we will all die one day.  I don't need to dwell on when it will happen."

We claim the amulet, a relic of true power against Strahd and his spawn.  Dorol will be the one who wears it.  He also claims Vladimir's great sword as it is magical.