COS 071 - Princess In Another Tower

Amidst lightning and rain, The Heralds of Dawn avoided the front portcullis of Ravenloft after Ez spotted a patch of Green Slime clinging to its gate. They crossed the rotting drawbridge and crept invisibly through the courtyard, slipping past vampire spawn and Strahd's Animated Armor patrolling the parapets. Izek, Ghalwin, and Geronimo hauled the party upwards with the aid of Tobias’s spider climb solution, and the group quietly slipped inside the north tower's door.

The Heralds followed a string of auburn hair, carefully avoiding the Hall of Heroes where Ghalwin felt faint necromantic energy. Their path led them instead to Strahd’s study, and trusting Lance's nose, they found a door to Strahd's bedroom, where Vasilka was waiting, the only "survivor" of her wedding. Invisible and unheard, Ajuni lured the construct’s attention across the room, causing her to thrash in fury while the Heralds quietly turned around. Noting odd footprints and scattered charcoal by the study's hearth, Tobias threw himself into the flames and found a hidden door in a room beyond, though not without burning himself.

Rather than do that, Ajuni discovered the proper solution by raising an attached fire poker, extinguishing the flames to reveal the concealed passage. Within lay a skeleton holding a torch and a chest surrounded by coins, which Tobias hastily opened. A burst of nerve gas filled the chamber, which paralyzed Tobias, Ezmerelda, and Izek. Ajuni and Ghalwin dragged their companions to safety behind the hidden hearth, before Ghalwin discovered the trick to the torch sconce and unlocked the secret door. Knowing their companions would be out for hours, they assigned Lancelot and Geronimo to guard them, then continued on.

The hallway was utterly choked with spiderwebs, but they burned their way past a set of brass doors with oil and fire. Not looking to ring a hanging bell-rope inside, they lit further webs in the belfry, which revealed an exit but also drew the attention of five giant spiders. Ghalwin slipped past and opened the door, and discovered Strahd’s Instant Fortress. Ajuni misty stepped inside through the arrow slits and filled her arms with the castle's treasury: fifty thousand copper, ten thousand silver, ten thousand gold, a thousand platinum, and a trove of gems. Magical items gleamed in the hoard, including four potions of Greater Healing, an Alchemy Jug, a Rod of the Pact Keeper, a near-full Helm of Brilliance, and a Shield of the Silver Dragon, long ago stolen from Argynvostholt.

After barring the door for a while and dodging a bunch of spider attacks, Ghalwin realized he could just misty step inside with her. As they filled the bag of holding, their pursuers grew bored, and they were free to teleport again and dash back to the alcove. It was then Ajuni's turn to realize that she could use her twinning sorcery on a spell scoll to restore their companion's paralysis. The Heralds rested an hour in the alcove, though the sounds of movement throughout the castle made even that brief pause an uneasy one.

Further exploration brought them past a dining hall with a rotting cake and a magical harp, then into a bath chamber. A strange, fleshy creature exploded out of a tub of blood, then fled; Tobias deemed it to be an illusion, so Ghalwin followed, but only found a closet absolutely chock-full of capes. They continued to the high tower, where Tobias was ambushed by swarms of rats before they ascended the long spiral climb to its peak.

There, they found Fritz von Weerg's famed metal man! The creepy clockwork construct was unsettling, a mix of childlike sweetness and merciless, but was intelligent enough to write his name: Pidlwick II. Though he was at first excited to join the group, Izek quickly got on the boy's bad side; as they climbed down the tower, Piddlewick ineffectually tried to push Izek down the stairs. Though they forgave him, he also refused to enter the dining hall, pointing toward the necromantic harp in silent dread. 

The Heralds heard footsteps below them, however, so pressed on without the boy, instead traveling to the north tower and ascending past the point where they destroyed the Heart of Sorrow. It ended in a cold chamber with chain-lined walls, water dripping through a rotten trapdoor. A bed with leather restraints sat in the center, with an iron chest resting at its foot. On the bed was Ireena, struggling to lift herself onto one elbow as her body was bound. When Izek entered, she looked at him with shock and whispered a single word.

“Jarmo?”