In reply to The Mists (msg # 500):

Ritin: "I can understand not telling us right away. I'm not sure that I would have done differently in your shoes."

Sen, to Ireena: "I assume it is your wish to be destroyed, rather than captured, should the moment arise?"

Regardless, we keep going where they lead us.

Ismark scowls and his hand goes to his sword and Ireena looks shocked, but they both quick recover their demeanor.clearly, they have not considered this before. You carry on in quiet.

The path wends up along ridges and among forest for a couple hours until you reach a bridge.

In reply to The Mists (msg # 502):

Edwin: "Who made this bridge?"
Sen: "Seems very exposed..."
Ritin: "This was the safer path?"


Imondo: "I'll go first."

“This is the only path. I do not know who made this, or if it was remade. It should be very sturdy, many carts and carriages have crossed this for many years.”

Imondo crosses without incident.

In reply to The Mists (msg # 504):

Imondo readies a crossbow bolt (mostly a bluff) and stands guard against aerial threats. Sen takes the lead, and Ritin takes the rear, so Edwin and the cargo can be in the middle--Edwin preferably in the rear to split the casters across the siblings in the center.

Imondo sees nothing as the others cross. The only sounds are the distant falls, a shill wind, and a crow's caw.

In reply to The Mists (msg # 506):

Imondo stays back a bit, watching for anything or anyone following -- but doesn't let the group get out of sight before he trivially catches up.

15:26, Today: SIRE rolled 20 using 1d20+6.  Imondo Perception.

Imondo feels confident that nothing is following.

In reply to The Mists (msg # 508):

Onward, then

You continue on once again, and travel without incident. You wind through a forest for almost and hour, all the while heading toward the mountains to the west (in which you are in the foothills of). The tress give way to mostly barren and rocky land and winds northward. You pass a fork in the road that your companions don't know anything about, just to stick to the main path. The path appears to be old, but it is hard to tell if it hasn't been overgrown because of any use, or because not much grows around here. On your map (see the map thread), you can just barely see it as a path leading to the windmill, though you see no windmill from the fork, so it must be a ways off, secluded by the land or foliage, or gone.

The path winds, and strike east for a bit then swings back west, thick forest is always to your left. To your north there are some forest and just beyond a giant lake which you see at one point through a large break in the the northern forest.

After a total of about 2.5 hours, you reach Vallaki.

In reply to The Mists (msg # 510):

I'm back. Catching up on the context.

In reply to SIRE (msg # 511):

We approach the gate with our faces clearly visible -- Casting light, if needs be.

This is how it goes.

"Who approaches?"

"Travelers!" -Ismark

*silence*

-cast light-

"We come in peace, and seek refuge from the road."

*murmuring* anyone with a passive perception of 12+ hears, "adventurers"

"Come then, in peace."

The gates open.

I actually think it is the afternoon, but since it is always overcast and misty, it could be kind of dark at anytime of day.

In reply to The Mists (msg # 513):

Ritin, to Imondo, joking: "I thought that would be more eventful."
Imondo: "Nothing is what it seems."
Sen: "At least he didn't say he was hoping it would be more eventful. That's progress."
Edwin: "I was hoping for some sense of direction, but now we're here and here seems like it was as good as there--and maybe things got interesting there once the six of us had left."

Imondo nods and says: "Where will we be staying. I would like to watch at the walls for a while, if I am permitted. I will meet you there."

OOC: Trying to get a sense of whether we were followed.

Ritin: "An inn sounds lovely. Let's go and get settled, and then our traveling companions can lay out what role, if any, they see us playing in their schemes from here."

The two guards, one male, one female, carry long pikes and they look at Imondo like, "no, you're not permitted." Then the female says, "You are not permitted. If you want to watch awhile, it will be just outside the gates. Otherwise, move along."

The female guard says, "There is an inn, The Blue Water Inn, near the center of town," she gives you directions, "There is a traveler like you lot there. Well, not just like you, he's got pointed ears."

In reply to The Mists (msg # 515):

Imondo looks for a high vantage point and, if there is not one, shrugs and follows the rest of the party to the inn.

There is not really one, unless you wanted to climb a house, which is not necessarily out of the question. Some of the houses are obviously abandoned, and even occupied, villagers might just keep their heads down. That is you 'insight'.

You notice that there are decaying and weathered garlands strung around town, along with a few more wolf heads on poles.

In reply to The Mists (msg # 517):

We proceed to the inn, but we take a look at the garlands as we go. Garlic?

If not flowers and colorful leaves, colored bits of cloth and evergreen type wreathes. It looks like there has been some kind of a celebration.

The Inn is at N2 on the Map. You came from the east. N5 is a stockyard:




Blue Water Inn:



In the inn (taproom):



Tending bar is a human woman, she looks good-natured, but worn out.

There are about dozen local patrons in the inn. Among them is a colorfully dressed Half-elf who is regaling a few villagers with what sound like outrageous stories. Edwin is once again reminded that some people look -faded- whereas everyone else looks normal.

Ismark and his sister look to y'all expectantly. You get the sense that their plans didn't extend past 'go to Vallaki'.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:04, Mon 18 Apr 2022.

In reply to The Mists (msg # 519):

OOC: If you can remember, knowing whether a given NPC is faded or not is something I am interested in. Edwin would develop a signal to the rest of the party to convey the info. Does the party look faded to Edwin? Does he look faded to himself in a mirror?

Sen goes to arrange a place to stay the night. He makes small talk with the woman, even straying into being complimentary if she is the type of lady who one might describe as "sturdy." Point being, he is wise enough to ask about her tiredness through a compliment -- something like: "This is a lovely establishment -- I can tell you take pride in your work." (if that's true)

Edwin and Imondo find a table large enough to accommodate the whole group, and Edwin kinda motions for Ismark and his sister to take a seat as well.

Ritin approaches the half-elf's court without intent to interrupt, but wanting to listen and wait for an appropriate moment to introduce himself. If it falls to Ritin to break the silence, he'll do so by coming up with a story of the same vein as the half-elf's -- including recounting the story of what happened at Death House.

OOC: Cool. Nobody of note has been faded. I think there was a worker at the first in that seemed that way. Let's use the word 'dull'. It works better. Also, I refuse to put punctuation inside of quotations unless it is an actual quotation, where the punctuation is part of it.

Imondo notes that dull people seem to be on the edge of stupor. Still aware and alert, but a little slow to react, and slightly less responsive.

The woman thanks you for the compliment and introduces herself as Danika Dorakova, "This is a family owned and operated establishment, so we try to make it like home."

You arrange rooms to stay for the night, one for your party and one for Ismark and Ireena. "I can tell you are not from here, so I will warn you before telling you our rates, adventurers from outside the realm are often surprised at the cost of things here. Your cramped room of four beds runs 1gp a night. If you do not have much coin, we could perhaps work something out. I would not be offended at your skepticism, so if you can ask around. They will tell you the going rate here is normally 1ep per bed."

There is no silence when you approach, awkward or otherwise. His tales are travelog type stories, "I was traveling to a distant mountain city, but he mountain was on an island..." describing vista and the flora/fauna that inhabit the different places he's been. Clearly, if these tales are true, they did not take place in Strahd's realm.

Edwin realizes that he has been sunconsciously categorizing dull people as unimportant, like furniture.

In reply to The Mists (msg # 521):

Ritin tries to get the half-elf's attention by making eye contact, but if that doesn't work, we waits for the most ludicrous moment to "me too!" the story and get a laugh. It's important that it not ruin the story, that it get a laugh, that it be good natured, and that the intent to turn the interaction into a conversation is clear. I'm going to pre-emptively roll a charisma check:

09:22, Today: SIRE rolled 22 using 1d20+3.  Ritin generic CHA check.\

If I'm proficient, it's a 24.

Sen pays the 1 gold, saying: "I believe you--but at some point we become locals, since nobody ever leaves, right? Do we have to register or something?"

This last is an awkwrd attempt joke, but it is not funny because Sen is not funny.

Does Edwin look dull to himself in a mirror? Does Imondo thing that Edwin seems a little slow to react/less responsive?

Sen makes tavern-keeper small talk after paying for the room -- People we should know in town, what the garlands are for, other strange happenings in the area, etc.

I would say it would be a straight CHA check.

The half elf laughs, as do the others. He winks at you and continues with his story. The wink means, "let's chat later".

Info dump to come.

Sen roll an Insight, perception and persuasion while talking to the barkeepess.

In reply to The Mists (msg # 523):

Insight: 8
Perception: 15
Persuasion: 11

Edwin looks normal to himself.



"Strange happenings? You will have to narrow it down. What is your interest? Why are you here?"

You notice that a man in the kitchen pokes his head out to see who is chatting with Danika. After he disappears back into the kitchen, you can still hear him near the doorway, eavesdropping.

Danika is more cautious than what you are used to in an innkeeper, but more open than an average Barovian.