tl;dr Survived the revolution in Vallaki, found the tower of Ricktavio, got attacked by vampire spawn who stole the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind and Grayson Black blew himself up.
In Vallaki, we barely survived the revolution. We were on our way to Ireena Kolyana in the tavern when we saw the Baron Vargas Vallakovich, his wife and his son hanged. Additionally on a very unrelated note, Kevdormu has five pointy things growing on the sides of both his feet. Yum.
We retrieved Kokmadon's armour suit which was 85% completed by the blacksmith before the revolution. We checked the orphanage and they were doing okay despite the uproar. Then, we dusted our boots and set off to Krezk, only stopping at Ricktavio's place since he invited us so kindly. We brought Ireena along since she had nothing better to do and we do NOT think the Vallakians would protect her from the Dread Lord all that well.
Ricktavio's Tower on the lakeside was magically protected. Our ranger snuck up close while we were having a snack and watching very interesting bugs fight over a leaf I guess. When we looked up we were confused, Narmo was dancing. Somehow her moves impressed the door so much it simply opened. When we came closer we saw the door needed the passcode "Khazan" and two moving indicators. Once inside we were greeted by nothing, only a dark empty room with an elevator and 4 robots that operated the elevator. Our spirits lifted since we expected a trap, then we lifted up with the lift. We passed two rotten floors until we reached the top of the tower, which was decorated as if someone lived here. There was a set of armour there (which Kokmadon replaced his 85% set with) and a chest containing a severed head.
The severed head was Yan: a Vistani in life, a severed head in death. He was friends with Ricktavio until Ricktavio stabbed him in the gullet. Ricktavio was traveling with Yan and stole his wagon and monkey, not nice. He thinks Ricktavio plans to harm the Vistani, and is secretly researching a whole bunch about Strahd Von Zarovich.I guess Ricktavio could be aligned with the Dread Lord.
We hunkered down in Rick's comfy penthouse suite for the night. However, the night had other plans. Not mosquitoes thank goodness, no it had something much worse planned. An inending game of Insane Monopoly with three overlapping boards and an additional two boards- no luckily that wasn't it as well. It was just some howling wolves on the hills. And a simple knock on the door. We didn't open. A handsome man stood outside and asked us if he could come inside. We didn't open. He said he really wanted in. We didn't open. He said well your choice, then I'll send my friends to take your gift from you. We knew he meant the Symbol of Ravenkind but didn't open. We set up defenses on the lift, hoping it could lift us out of here.
Four vampire spawn climbed the tower and jumped us. We fought them, hard. But the Tower was working against us since it nullified all magic within the building. We had to fend the spawn off without spells. The spawn were determined, knocking Kokmadon off the elevator, unconsciousness followed. Sierra Del Panadero jumped down two stories to defend his body, only to get knocked unconscious too. Grayson Black followed soon after, blacking out. The spawn got the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind and gave it to the handsome man outside, who happily vanished with it. Sierra Del Panadero woke up, vengefully called all plants to aid her and managed to trap three spawn. The party killed those spawn.
It was a phyrric victory, barely getting away with their lives but losing a strong artifact in the process. It seemed all hope was lost, since the artifact is necessary to defeat the evil Dread Lord.
Outside of the building, a carriage was parked all along (I ignored it until now lol it was there when we got to the tower). Grayson went to investigate the carriage, which promptly chose to blow up entirely. Grayson got blasted with streaks of white-
hot ashes, flooring him. He moaned in pain. We gave him a quickie heal and he got better.