Mother knows best - CoS

"Death is nearer than you think." What a night! As we contemplated our next step and how we wanted to approach the other 5 undead in the Dragon manor, Dante feeling dare devilish walks across the hallway and kicks open the door, sending it flying into the room. The room is elegantly decorated with a long table where 5 undead knights in tattered chainmail armor are seated. Only one lifts up his head and declares in a weary voice, "who disturbs the rest of the dead?" Thrown off his guard, Dante decides to speak with them. We all enter the room and Castiel sees the crystal chandelier hanging above them and says, "Ooooo, shiny." The speaking knight warns him not to touch. We find out that these knights only fight at the behest of Vladimir and since we took him out already that we don't have to worry about them. We decide to leave them in peace (Too bad Eravan doesn't know the Mend cantrip to fix their door).

As we leave the manor, we come upon a casket sitting on the front doorstep. This is odd and it becomes even more creepy for Eravan when he notices his name written on a plaque on top of it. Eravan, being curious, decides to open the coffin lid and to his horror, sees himself lying in repose inside it! What is even weirder is that he is the only one who sees himself lying there. For everyone else, the coffin is empty. He starts to freak out. Quickly, Dante and the others try to calm him down and as they succeed, he notices that his image is gone and that he hears the sound of an approaching horse. As the group turns their new attention to the approaching rider, they notice that it is a woman, and she rides straight for us. She introduces herself as Esmerelda and asks us about Rictavio. We talk with her and Eravan perceives that she is telling the truth but that she is not telling us the whole truth about her mission...and the fact that she stole a horse. As we are talking with her, we hear the sound of riders approaching and notice the dude (what's his name? Rigaletto?) who hired us in the first place to come to this cursed land leading the horse that Esmerelda had just dismissed and two other guys who are riding on the backs of Dire Wolves (really? That is a clear sign that they are fighting for Strahd). He demands that we hand over Esmerelda for stealing the horse (like Eravan is going to let these guys have their way with a pretty girl) but as he is talking with us he notices the amulet that Banshee has around his neck (Dorol, we let Banshee use it while you were out cold drunk) and says, "My master has been looking for that amulet. It was taken from him and he wants it back. If you give it to me, we will not worry about Esmerelda." Banshee replies with a metallic, "Negative" and with that quick response, we entered the battle. It wasn't as hard of a fight as we thought it would be.

But, with them trying to take Esmerelda and the amulet we felt that we were in our rights to dispatch them. Though, Eravan did want answers to some of his questions and when Dante was in battle with the last ruffian, he called out, "Wait, don't kill him!" Dante, nonchalantly, runs him through and turns to Eravan with a fake, "what? What did you say? I couldn't hear you over the sound of my blade slicing through the air." No one listens to kids these days. "UGH! We need answers to questions! If we kill all of the henchmen that Strahd sends, we might miss out on useful information!" Both Virgil and Dante don't see his point and continue to wipe their blades clean on the cloaks of the dead. Eravan mutters under his breath, "BLOODTHIRSTY FOOLS!"

Esmerelda urges us to go to Rictavio and meet up with him while she enters the manor with her sword drawn. "what a woman!" We now have enough horses for each of us to ride with the 2 that we take from the bandits, though Virgil looks longingly at the dire wolves and wonders how cool it would be to ride one of those. We head towards the abandoned town where Babi Yaga has made up her home. As we approach, the land has sunken and become flooded by a nearby river and turned into a swamp. Gnats, mosquitos and flies abound. Pools of muddy water are everywhere, and the road is virtually gone beneath the streams. As we get closer, we see a lantern on the other side of the river. Castiel flies over and notices that it is being held by a raven lycanthrope who is in hybrid form. Banshee attempts to cross the river and eventually does but ends up 100 yards down river before he emerges on the other side. Meanwhile, Castiel ritual casts Water Walk on the rest of us and we simply walk across the river. Banshee mutters at why he wasn't included in this.  

As we approach the raven girl, she informs us that Babi Yaga has taken some of the raven people and asks if we would rescue them. She was just sent to scout out the area but now that we are hear, she pleads for us to help find them. We of course say yes and decide to use the amazing charms that Castiel gave us in the beginning of the day. Eravan summons 2 giant eagles for him and Banshee to ride while the others use Water Walking to search the ground. There is a thick mist that covers the land that makes it hard for us to see clearly or more than 20 feet but we eventually come upon a small home with a pen full of goats guarded by a scare crow. We approach and see if the scare crow is more than it seems AND IT IS! We enter battle! As we fight, we realize that it is vulnerable to fire and... that it has friends. Lots of friends! They keep coming and adding to the battle. Eravan fights from the back of his eagle while Banshee decides to drop to the ground to fight with his halberd. Castiel also fights with fire sending flaming spheres after them but these agile constructs dodge them pretty easily frustrating our flying druid. When we dispatch of our last scare crow (and Banshee bids his fellow construct brothers farewell) Eravan notices a loud swooshing as something is flying around them at top speed. It takes a while, but he finally sees, thought it is hard to believe, a flying dragon skull! It says in a high-pitched voice, "Come into my home and think you can get away with taking out my minions! I think not!"

Eravan thinks fast and pulls out a cocoon husk and utters the incantation, looking for inspiration he spots his inspiration slithering across the ground beneath him that turns her into a slug! He gives a short cry of triumph as she succumbs to the magic. Yet, during her transformation she quickly mutters, "EGH! Come house, come do my bidding!" 

After she is turned into a slug, Castiel, in hybrid form, scoops her up with his beak. Yet, the rest are distracted by the rumblings of a huge shape materializing out of the mist. It is a HOUSE on branched legs! Large roots shoot out and land next to Virgil, nearly crushing him. He scurries across the roots and up into the house with Banshee behind him. They see a room cluttered with different house wares but also ravens in cages and as they search the room, Virgil notices what he is looking for; a soft green light emanating from beneath the floor boards in the far right corner and under a crib that has a baby in it. A baby? She has a baby? Who saw that coming? The poor child!

He rushes over, slides the crib over and tries to pull up the boards with his two bladed scimitar but without success. Banshee decides to help but feels that his halberd is too long for the task and so he utters the words that will change his pact weapon into a battle axe. But they are not all safe in the house. Branches, as thick as Banshee's torso, crash through the windows and knock each of them aside causing major bruising. Well, they bruise Virgil, but they dent Banshee.

Outside, Eravan asks Castiel for the slug...I mean witch and flies as high as he can with the intent to sling her hard against the ground. Meanwhile, back on the ground, Castiel and Dante...do something that I forgot so hopefully they will edit this line and enter what they did.  

Inside the hunt, Virgil tries again to pry up the floorboards and this time he succeeds! As he reaches down and grabs the green glowing stone, the house stops moving and settles in the swampy earth. He then exits the hunt to see how things are going outside, ignoring the caws of the ravens inside their cages.

Banshee follows but decides to release the ravens who fly away. Incidentally, as both looked to the crib after the branches attacked, they saw no baby in it. Weird. An illusion? Maybe.

Outside, Eravan had reached what he thought would create maximum damage and with some teenage glib, chucks the slug as hard as he can to the ground and then points his fey world eagle to follow. Babi Yaga crashes to the ground taking considerable bludgeoning damage that transforms her back into a human...thingy...is she human? We really didn't find out. Yet, she cries out the words for a fireball to erupt right in front of Eravan destroying his eagle and even though he reacted with absorb elements, he still couldn't withstand the entire blast. and he hurls to the ground mumbling, "Well, I thought it was a good idea."  

Castiel, seeing Eravan crumbled in the mud, rushes over and performs his innate Assimar gift and heals him. Dante, a good 30 feet away, shoots her with his crossbow and then moves forward. Virgil exits the house, changing his mood from winter to summer and misty steps over to Babi Yaga to exact the most fiery damage he can. Eravan awakes to the battle sounds, realizes he is in a lot of pain and drinks a healing potion while he pulls out a piece of fur and amber from his pouch to start the process for a lightning bolt that he sends at the hag. She retaliates with the Finger of Death and sends me back to the porch of death's door. Castiel again comes to Eravan's rescue and pours a potion of Greater Healing down my throat while Dante and Virgil keep the hag busy. Castiel should get the medal for most assists! Eravan is pulled back from the pearly gates and again launches a bolt of lightning that finishes the witch off!

With the battle over, Banshee turns around to inspect the house and sees a chest. He goes over to it and opens it without inspecting it for traps. To his surprise, he is shot with a spell that knocks him out of the house and knocks him unconscious. Again, Castiel helps him and brings him back. We all share in the loot of spell scrolls for the druid and paladin, gold and gems for all and now we have the last of the magical stones taken from the winery!

We decide that we don't want to rest here and Eravan conjures another set of giant eagles to fly him and Banshee back to the Dragon Manor and also to take the skull back to lay it to rest with it's body.