In reply to The Mists (msg # 25):

Ritin motions to Sen, who walks over.

Ritin: These lovely folks have said we can travel with them for a time AND we will get a fortune telling.

Sen: There are only two fates, Ritin. Death and worse.

Edwin: *tentatively* Is it ok if I write this down?

Imondo: *silent, but now intensely interested in the woman and her cards*

"Do what you will."

One of the other vistani starts softly plucking a guitar and the ambient noise of the inn lowers to match the music, which seems discordant at first, but always resolves as some foreign sounding scale.

The lighting is poor in the tavern, but not so much that you can't make out the details of the cards. She splits the cards into two decks, one much larger than the other and shuffles both decks.

"This is the low deck of fortunes, but tells you where to find your greatest strengths."

"This card tells of history. Knowledge of the ancient will help you better understand your enemy." She flips over the 1st card which reads Transmuter,  "Go to a place of dizzying heights, where the stone itself is alive!"

"This card tells of a powerful force for good and protection, a holy symbol of great hope." She flips over the 2nd card which reads Avenger, "The treasure lies in a dragon's house, in hands once clean and now corrupted."

"This is a card of power and strength. It tells of weapon of vengeance; a sword of sunlight." She flips over the 3rd card which reads Necromancer, "A woman hangs above a roaring fire. Find her, and you will find the treasure."

"This is the high deck, with fortunes of weal and woe."

"This card sheds light on one who will help you greatly in the battle against darkness." She flips over the 4th card which reads Artifact, "Look for an entertaining man with a monkey. This man is more than he seems."

"Your enemy is a creature of darkness, whose powers are beyond mortality. This card will lead you to him!" She flips over the 5th card which reads Seer, "He waits in a place of wisdom, warmth, and despair. Great secrets are there."

See email for graphic. I would not hate it if it ended up hosted somewhere and linked here.

In reply to The Mists (msg # 27):



Everyone talking over each other, says the following:

Edwin: We have an enemy? How?

Ritin: Dragons?! Swords of sunlight?! Most prestigous! It's a metaphor, though right?

Sen: *to himself, quietly* Finally... *and then to Ritin* You are going to wish.

Imondo: Looks at the Necromancer card and thinks about a sword made of sunlight Sunlight is no harm, and none of us use swords

Ritin: Well I do. Well, I did. Anyway, I have.

Sen: Shut up everyone. and then to the woman Do you know anything beyond what you have said about what the cards have shown?
This message was last edited by the player at 19:19, Fri 20 Mar 2020.

"I can say this. The cards reveal to me that you know something of what you are getting into. It was not mere chance that brought you to us. Or perhaps us to you.

"I cannot speak of your enemy. But my man speaks truth, you will come to no harm as you travel with us. The cards tell me your errand is not hopeless, but hope can die."
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:00, Fri 20 Mar 2020.

In reply to The Mists (msg # 29):

Ritin: As a matter of fact, we kn-

Sen: As a matter of fact, we should seek some privacy.

OOC: I stopped myself from saying what Sen would say next in private because I am not sure if you want to skip things like that or not. Fine either way.

How do you become private? What do you say?

I figure there should be a chance for the NPC's to hear if it is a situation I would let a player make a perception check.

I realize that to a degree it is for flavor as you are in control of all characters, so in order to not penalize roleplaying, I am just going to lay down that under normal circumstances you can whisper 1:1 with no chance of detection unless someone has enhances senses of some sort, in which case it would be a high DC of 20 or so.

Private group conversations would probably have a DC of 20, and enhanced senses would likely provide advantage.

In reply to The Mists (msg # 31):

Sen rips a page from Edwin's notebook, making sure to keep the note from prying eyes, as he writes a single word:

Strahd

He would then walk the note to the fire and watch it burn completely before walking back

The vistani give you your space, though the man who spoke to you seems a little anxious to whomever in your group has the best passive insight.

OOC: Point of fact, monks are proficient in short swords. I say this since he is the one saying this, so he would have trained in the use of a short sword as a monk weapon.

In reply to The Mists (msg # 34):


Re: swords - Excellent point, but still none of them use swords.

Re: Privacy, I meant that we and the Vistani should get some privacy, as Sen is ready to tell them what we're really after (as it Ritin, Sen just thinks we should do it away from prying eyes and ears)

Quietly replies, "The folks here are no strangers to our tales, living right next door to hell, as they do. But even so, we can wait the locals out and be private in our corner. I am not sure there is much more we can tell you though."

In reply to The Mists (msg # 36):

Sen: We are in no hurry, which draws a look from Ritin.

OOC: We can fast forward. The only thing I want to do is to make sure that Sen is keeping an eye on the people who are in the room to see if anyone is lingering, trying to listen, etc.

The speaker introduces himself as Stanimir. The vistani continue to drink into the night as the rest of the patron leave or go to their rooms. Your party and the vistani migrate to a large fireplace and Stanimir gives the innkeeper a coin and asks for him to stoke the fire.

Stanimir looks into the fire and begins to gently wave his hands in front of him. The flames turn from orange to green. As they dance and sway, a dark shape appears in the fire's core.

"We come from an ancient land whose name is long forgotten-a land of kings. Our enemies forced us from our homes, and now we wander the lost roads."

The dark shape in the fire takes the form of a man be­ing knocked from his horse, a spear piercing his side. Stanimir continues. "One night, a wounded soldier
staggered into our camp and collapsed. We nursed his terrible injury and quenched his thirst with wine. He survived. When we asked him who he was, he wouldn't say. All he wanted was to return home, but we were deep in the land of his enemies. We took him as one of our own and followed him back toward his homeland. His enemies hunted him. They said he was a prince, yet we didn't give him up, even when their assassins fell upon us like wolves."

Deep in the fire, you see the dark figure standing with sword drawn, fighting off a host of shadowy shapes. "This man of royal blood fought to protect us, as we
protected him. We bore him safely to his home, and he thanked us. He said, 'I owe you my life. Stay as long as you wish, leave when you choose, and know that you will always be safe here."'

The figure in the dancing fire vanquishes its final foe, then disperses in a cloud of smoke and embers.

Stanimir's face becomes a somber mask. "A curse has befallen our noble prince, turning him into a tyrant. We alone have the power to leave his domain. We long for heroes to end our dread lord's curse and put his troubled soul to rest. We have not yet found such heroes, but perhaps..."

He leaves the words hanging.

In reply to The Mists (msg # 38):

Ritin and Edwin are on the edge of their seats. Imondo keeps looking over his shoulder to peer into the shadows. Sen looks much the same and speaks first:

Sen: Tell them, so they know. That one [Ritin] would sign up for anything you said was heroic. That one [Edwin] would only realize life is not like the stories when if a book told him so. And that one [Imondo] is sensible enough, but would follow Edwin into the fire that Ritin walked into without looking.

Ritin: Hey!
Edwin: *hangs head in shame*
Imondo: *puts hand on Edwin's shoulder*

Sen: *continues* The man is the vampire king. His land is Barovia. We will not be the first to try, and fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Tell them the dangers so they can make an informed decision. These boys will fail to die if you don't put the fear into them that he warrants.

Stanimir responds, "I will not speak ill of our master. You are adventurers, no? Death stalks you like a cat. Heed the words of the fortune. Without aid you will surely fail. There are forces greater than the our dread lord in Barovia. He was made, he can be unmade."

He stretches and yawns.

"But I will speak no more of this. We have business tomorrow, then we are off down the old Svalich road. You may accompany us or not. If you go on your own, you can enter the valley at the fork in the path at the dried riverbed. The fog is thick, but you can make your way.

"It is left to you to decide. We did not come here looking for you, but I think you came looking for us, no?"

With that, the vistani begin packing it in for the night. The woman winks at Ritin her way to her room. It seems that the others may be sleeping in the barrel wagon.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:52, Tue 24 Mar 2020.

In reply to The Mists (msg # 40):

Sen: We will think on it, OOC: That's a lie. His mind is already made up to go.

Ritin: We did come looking for you, yes, but we did not expect such wonderful company and are glad to have met you.

Ritin waits until the men and woman have gone, then tells the others:

Ritin: I think the woman may have more to say to me. She seemed to care for our well-being earlier as well. I think I'll go to her room and see if she is willing to talk.

Sen: More like see if we overpaid for beds. Children...

Ritin: *blushes*

Sen: Go ahead, then. This may be the last joy you know, but take care. They called him their master. The best I can do for you is this... *Sen casts Bless on Ritin (and the others, since he can)* I will wait up for you.

Ritin goes and knocks quietly. Everyone else retires. Sen and Imondo stay up, but Edwin falls asleep reading.

The woman reiterates that their purpose was to trade. Because they are free to leave and enter Borovia as they wish, they sometimes get basic supplies from outside the valley.

She confides there has been times Strahd has lured people into Borovia and that Stanimir has been complicit in doing so, but that she does not believe that is the case now. Your meeting may be fate, or bad luck.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:19, Wed 25 Mar 2020.

In reply to The Mists (msg # 42):

Well, for what it is worth, Sen would go looking for Ritin after a while and I don't know that Ritin would have done the deed. He's a paladin, after all, and I had planned on feeling the situation out before I felt it up.

Then that’s what happens. Whatever.

In reply to The Mists (msg # 44):

Well, to give you a sense of what I'm going for, here: Ritin is good. Like, actually Good. He is under the impression (in his adventuring infancy) that leaders--particularly heroic leaders--need to have a little bit of charm, and swagger, but when push comes to shove he just doesn't have it in him to do the wrong thing.

This is not unlike how [name redacted for internet purposes] and [her friend] propositioned me with a 3-way one day when riding the bus home without you guys (for some reason) as a junior. They may have been joking, but I didn't say "yes" to find out because, in that moment, I realized I had no actual interest in doing that--even though I thought the general expectation was that I, as a young man, would leap at the chance.

If she wanted to fall in love, Ritin would have been game. If she wanted a night of passion, Ritin would have learned something about himself.

Ritin learns something about himself.

Next morning.

In reply to The Mists (msg # 46):

We accompany them.

See Msg #42 for edit.

The next day a merchant wagon arrives in the village. A dreary rain persists, but not enough to stop business. Gold exchanges hands and the barrel wagon is loaded with boxes and sacks. They also strap things like ladders and shovels and the like to the outside of the wagon. The metal bits are oiled or covered with oiled cloth.

Down the road the vistani strike up another song playing instruments while driving the wagon and plodding along on their horses. (Way down hadestown, Anaïs Mitchell)

In reply to The Mists (msg # 48):

The only thing Ritin would ask the woman, based on your edited response, is whether they are allowed to help people leave Barovia or only to safely bring people in.

The answer will not change the decision to go.

OOC: Am I missing some kind of "stronger" hook in the module for a reason to go in? I'm just inclined to get to gettin'.

-----------

We check out the merchant's goods. If he has adventuring things, I will need to do gold.

Are the things the Vistani are purchasing the kinda of things we would otherwise expect a kingdom to not need to import? Like....are they buying ladders? Why import them?

I am off book as far as hooks. I am going with you are the ones looking to go. The book hooks range from reward, call for help, adventure, or railroad, but all pretty weak and assume little to no knowledge of Strahd, I think. You going in with information complicates a little, but meh.

He has some adventuring things, assume anything 10gp and under from PHB.

Hussy
"People come and go at our lord's pleasure."

Stanimir
"Barovians are a lazy and fearful sort. They mend what they have and grow what they need. Not much for industry."

Re "Kingdom"
There are three towns/villages in Barovia, subsisting in a hostile environment.