Roc N Roll - CoS

 This episode of the adventure finds our weary travelers exhausted and almost to the breaking point, yet they are determined to help the people of Barovia and free them from the tyranny of Lord Strahd.  When we last ended, the group had met the forgetful librarian of the Amber Citadel.  They help him understand that they are here and have been searching for a way to defeat Lord Strahd.  He who forgets his name, lets them know that there is much knowledge in this library, but he doesn't know how to find much.  Feeling a little tired of being in the citadel, they ask him if he can show them the way out and he points them in the right direction but not before deciding to help them by opening the vault for them to see if there is anything there that could help them on their path.

As they arrive to the vault, He who forgets his name needs the groups help to open the huge double doored vault.  He steps back and as the door opens, we are greeted with the glimmer of gold, silver, copper...and a huge amber golem who roars a challenge.

 

Castiel dashes in to meet this foe (he isn't afraid of much) and gets knocked to the side (he brushes it off with a grin).  Then Dante, Virgil, Banshee and Dorol run in to face this threat while Eravan stays back to lay cover fire.  In short order, the amber golem is turned to rumble (Eravan grabs many fist size chunks and puts them in his pack).  As Castiel swims through the shinies, Banshee's red eyes hone in on the most beautiful set of plate armor that he has ever seen.

 

He takes the time to meld with it while the rest of us stuff the remaining room in our packs with coin and gems.

We leave the vault with loaded packs, and He who forgets his name apologizes for forgetting about the golem.  He leads us to the exit, wishes us well and off we go.  We descend the spiral staircase until we get to a carved-out tunnel that travels for quite a distance.  After a while, we start to see light at the end and are excited to see that the snow blizzard is gone.  We exit the cave, heaving big sighs of relief.  Dante turns around to admire the mountainside and is stunned to see a huge 9-foot-tall mountain goat standing on a ridge above the cave entrance.  Not sure what is going to happen, we all are shocked when an eagle, 2 times the size of any of the giant eagles we have seen, swoops in and lifts the giant goat off of the ridge and throws him to the ground, not 100 feet away from the mouth of the cave.  He screeches a piercing screech of triumph when the Roc turns and notices our group.  An intelligent creature, he recognizes that we could be a threat to him and moves to attack.

 

Starting with Virgil, we all back up into the cave.  Sadly, not before Eravan and Castiel get clawed and beaked.  In the midst of this battle, all goes dark as Banshee casts that cursed spell to help us get away.  Dorol and Eravan are the last two on the battlefield. When we feel safe in the cave, we realize with a shock of horror that Banshee is not with us.  As we look out of the cave, we see him...I mean we don't see him attack the monstrosity, but we hear the shrieks of pain from the giant winged beast.  Shocked at what he is doing, we return to the open air hoping to distract the Roc from Banshee long enough to keep him alive.

We come to the suicidal warlock’s aid.  Virgil misty steps to the back of the bird striking it with his flaming blades, Eravan shoots it with a lightning bolt, Castiel blinds it, Dante shoots it with a bolt and Dorol rushes out with his hand axe not sure where to throw it.  Meanwhile, the Roc lands a lucky hit and is able to grab Banshee in the dark and starts to ascend into the air.  Not wanting the beast to get too high, Eravan decides to polymorph it into a slug (hey, it worked last time).  Yet, this does not go to his 16-year-old minded plan.  Banshee, the Roc and Virgil fall to the ground.  Banshee takes little damage; the Roc takes enough damage to make it transform back into the Roc and Virgil lands on top of it...luckily receiving little to no damage.

 

Yet, the battle continues and with lots of luck and sharp pointy objects, our determined group brings the flying fortress down.  We decide to make camp nearby and Dante, feeling guilty, apologizes for accusing Virgil of wiping out the crimson order.  It is nice to have the group back in good terms.  Eravan asks for a big group hug.

 

The next day, feeling empowered by what we have accomplished and by what we have learned, we head back to the city of Barovia and as we arrive, we are directed to the Father at the church.  There we find out that Ireena and ...her suitor, have gone missing.  In fact, they have been missing for days.  We decide that it is time to head to Strahds strong hold and confront him.  We gear up, buy some new items and horses and head out.  When we arrive to the imposing fortress, we are not met by sentries neither resistance.  We are able to walk right in.  Not the best feeling and it gave us a sense of foreboding and unease.

 

We enter the castle, marching in cautiously and we move from the front entrance hall to the dining room where we hear ominous organ music playing.  As we enter the room, the long table is set with scrumptious food and we see a man, elegantly dressed playing the organ.  As he turns around, we recognize him as Ireena's suitor!  Eravan is not happy!  Lord Strahd invites us to eat and enjoy the meal, but we are not having anything of his hospitality and challenge him. Dante has lit his radiant sword to cast daylight and yet, we notice that Lord Strahd does not seem effected by it.

 This is puzzling to us but before most of us to really think about it, Virgil rushes forward and teleports behind him.  He swings his flaming blades to cut him in half and as he does so, the fiery blade passes right through his body and he disappears.  It was all an illusion.

We decide that if we can find Ireena, we will find him.  Castiel casts locate creature and he senses her below their location.  We head out of the dining room and find a set of stairs heading below off of the main entrance.  As we go down, we run into one of the most hideous creatures we have ever seen.

 

Just kidding.  This creature is a walking jigsaw puzzle of parts from many different creatures.  He addresses us nicely and tells us that we shouldn't be down here.  We tell him that we were sent down here to get some food and he takes us to the torture chamber...I mean kitchen where we see things that most normal ghouls wouldn't touch.  Dorol though is excited about the barrels of wine that we passed in the hallway and asks if he could fill his canteen with some of that.  The messed-up dude complies and as he breaks open the lid, 6 shadowy figures fly out of it and surround us.

 

We sadly have to enter another battle to vanquish these foes.  Dorol takes on the mishappen creature (There was no wine in the barrel?!) who turns out to be pretty sturdy.  Banshee makes light work of the shadow on him who can't seem to get a hold of him with his new armor.  Castiel takes on 2 and Virgil and Dante team up to take on 2 others.  These creatures do not like Dante's radiant sword.  It's light effects their ability to fight well...which all of us regular living humanoids really enjoy.

In this battle, Eravan decides to try his new staff and create a wall of ice that hits 4 of the creatures in a crazy configuration.  Yet, this doesn't work for him since one of the shadows then comes for him and with bone chilling strength, saps some of Eravan's strength.  After that horrible feeling, Dante comes over and helps finish off that Shadow and the others take down theirs.  This battle tires out our adventurers and we sadly need to leave them at this critical junction.  Will they press on?  Or will they tend to their wounds.  Stay tuned to our next episode!