Wizard of Wines

Previously: Thalion and Ireena were invited to dinner by the Baron Vargas for uncovering the plot to steal St Andral’s Bones. Other members of the Gang tagged along posing as servants. The dinner was cut short when Izek, the Baron’s Henchman, attempted to capture Ireena. Thalion, with help from Moss and Roos, killed Izek in self-defense. The Baron, the Baroness, and Captain Korga were shocked by the whole ordeal. Baron Vargas canceled the dinner and asked the Gang to leave, and they complied.

[Yor was not present for this session]

Back at the Taproom

They sipped their wine and ate some stew discussing what to do next. They decided leaving Vallaki for a while would be best, so followed through on a promise that they made to Urwin. The proprietor of the Blue Water Inn had asked the Gang to visit the Wizard of Wines. The winery was the sole supplier of wines to all Barovia, and they were late with their latest shipment; the Gang had heard the same thing back in the Village of Barovia from Bildrath. The winery was roughly four hours’ travel west of Vallaki. They decide to leave first thing in the morning.

Unwanted Attention

The Gang arose after precisely eight hours sleep, enjoyed some lukewarm stew, and left the Blue Water. They made a pit stop at the outhouse; this high fiber Barovian diet was great for the digestion. Now feeling lighter, they set out on the Old Svalich Road towards the west gate of Vallaki. It wasn’t long before Skarther noticed something odd.

The town was quiet in the early morning and no one else was on the street, except for a humanoid figure that was darting into shadowed doorways. The creature was obviously attempting to inconspicuously follow them, but not well enough for the sharp-eyed Goblin. It was roughly a hundred feet behind the Gang. The Goblin Druid whispered his discovery to the rest of the Gang.

Roos, making use of his Roguish skills, vanished down a side street and doubled back; he was now a hundred feet behind their pursuer. The rest of the Gang continued onto the west gate. When the man spotted the Gang exiting out of the west gate, he veered south down a side street with Roos still in pursuit. The Dark Elf now sprinted ahead of him along a parallel street and hopped out in front of him.

“HAH! GOTCHA!”

“AHHH!” The man squealed, clutching his nonexistent pearls.

“What are you doing following us? Who are you?”

“Um, uh, I was hired by Lady Wachter. My name is Ernst. Your group interests her greatly. I’m sure she would like to meet with you.”

“We’re busy right now. Tell her we’ll meet with her in three days.”

“I will, sir.”

Roos met up with the Gang and they continued with their journey.

Travel to the Winery

Travel through western Barovia was largely uneventful. They came to a few crossroads with signposts.  The first signpost was broken with the signage being torn off. The writing on the broken sign was Krezk, Tsolenka Pass, Lake Baratok, and Vallaki. The second signpost was intact with the arm pointing north reading Krezk, east Vallaki, and southwest Wizard of Wines. At some point between these signposts, Skarther discovered a bundle hidden under some bushes. Within this bundle were some peasant’s clothes. The Gang took the clothes.

After traveling southwest from the latest signpost for about a half mile, the road turned into a muddy trail with deep wheel ruts. The Gang came upon their last split in the path; one branch headed south into some dark woods, while the westward branch headed into a valley. A wooden sign pointing towards the valley read Vineyards. The Gang headed west.

Meeting Davian

A light drizzle continued to fall as the Gang followed the westward trail. Lining on the south side of the trail was a fence and beyond that was a sprawling vineyard until the path turned south and the Gang could see a stately two storied manor within the vineyard. To the north of them was a large stand of trees. A cloaked man stood within the copse of trees beckoning to the Gang. They approached.

“Hiya, be careful there’s enemies about.”

“Hello, all is we-“

“Yeah, you don’t have to do that. We’re not in Vallaki.” He spoke.

The Gang was relieved. The man was a little older than most Barovians, probably beyond middle aged judging from his white hair and the lines on his face. His well-trimmed beard was also mostly white with a few dark patches.  The Gang could see a handful of humanoid forms standing about twenty feet behind him.

“My name is Davian and the folks behind me,” he gestured, “are my family. You came at a rough time, I’m afraid.”

“We were asked to find out why the shipments of wine have ceased.”

“Thank the Morninglord you’re here. Well… it started as harassment from a few Druids a week or so ago. We were able to fend off their attacks until two days past when they overtook the winery with a mass assault of blights and a handful of Druids.”

“We’ll clear out these Druids and Blights for ya, if you give us free wine for life.”

“Sure, no problem.”

“How many Druids are in there?”

“I think… six. Yeah six. We were busy trying to get out of there, but that’s my best guess.”

Approaching the Manor

 The old two-story stone building with multiple entrances was situated amid the vineyard. Thick ivy covered every wall with iron fencing along its roofline. A stable of more recent construction was attached to the east side of the winery, while a crumbling well and outhouse was situated on the west side.

As the Gang approached the building, they heard a rustle of dead vines around them. It was small at first, but quickly the noise spread out dozens of feet around them. Humanoid vegetive shapes emerged from the rustling; they consisted of pine needles and vines. They began to lurch towards the Gang with obvious malicious intent. There were too many to count. Trapped between the vineyard and the manor, the Gang had no choice but to find refuge in the house. They ran to the west side of the manor and found an open door inside.  

Path the Gang followed

Fermentation Vats

After passing through a small storage room, the rich smell of fermenting wine filled their nostrils in this large two-storied chamber. Four wooden casks, eight feet wide and twelve feet tall, dominated the room. There was a ten-foot-high walkway along the east, west and south wall. The dim grey light of Barovian ‘sunshine’ showed through windows along the south wall above. There was a stairway leading up to the south side of the walkway. Scores of ravens were spotted amongst the rafters near the ceiling.

A creak in the balcony drew Thalion’s eye, who was taking the lead. A wild looking figure was pouring a viscous syrupy draught into the westernmost vat. Thalion did not wait. He hucked a javelin at the figure. She screamed in pain, snarled at the Gang, and began waving her hands; she was casting some sort of spell. Apparently, judging from the results, she was summoning twig blights. Six Twig Blights emerged from each vat, plopped down onto the floor, and swarmed upon the party.

Thalion continued to focus his javelins upon the Druid, while the rest of the party took out the Twig Blights. Skarther was particularly effective with his fire spirit because the dried Twigs were vulnerable to fire, while Smugly blasted many with his fists o’ plen’y. The ravens lent a claw by taking out over a half dozen Twig Blights. The whole battle was over in less than twenty seconds.

The Gang looted the bottle of viscous liquid off the Druid. It smelled pungent and foul. They also filled a few wine bottles from the vat of wine that she was contaminating when they walked in.

Skarther then consulted his Fire Spirit, Stephen.

“Oooooh great Fire Spirit! Upon whom I draw all power and wisdom! Where should we go next?”

The clattering of dice was heard as the Fire Spirit dwelled upon the answer to this mystery.

“Upstairs to the West” Stephen replied.

Upstairs to the West

Thalion took the lead as the Gang gathered in a single file along the catwalk in the Vat Room. He poked his head out the western door and discovered a hallway running south and north. To the south he spotted a spiral stairway going down and to the north he saw a woman in animal furs caked in mud, flanked by two vine creatures. She was in a room with a large machine that she was busy inspecting.

Thalion knew that he couldn’t sneak up on her, so he decided that the Gang was going to just rush upon her to close the distance. He gestured to the Gang that they would begin the ambush on the countdown of three. He began with “three…” Roos and Smugly moved passed him and started bashing on the two vine creatures. “Two…” Skarther and Moss entered the hallway and finished the Druid off. While this mayhem was happening, Skarther could discern the slap of bare feet on stone somewhere to the east. “One.” Thalion stepped into the hallway with the battle already finished.

The Contraption

The Gang inspected the strange machinery. It had wooden blocks with letters on them. They detected ink stains on these wooden blocks with empty ink bottles laying about. Wine labels for the Wizard of Wines were found scattered about the room. The Gang couldn’t figure the thing out. This is what happens when the party’s collective dump stat is Intelligence. OK, collective dump stat’ is a slight exaggeration but still pretty close. Moving on.

Kids’ Rooms

The Hallway turned east with three doors along the north wall and a small spiral staircase heading down to the first floor. The closest two doors led into the kids’ rooms judging from the small beds and toys lying about. The most interesting toy was a rocking horse painted black with wild eyes and orange flames painted on its mane, tail, and hooves. Along the side was engraved “Beucephalus” (*) and below that was the phrase “Is No Fun, Is No Blinsky!” The other toys scattered about the room had this same phrase. Skarther enjoyed some time on the toy horse.

*Fun Fact: Alexander the Great’s horse was named Bucephalus, which is probably the real-world inspiration of this name.

Kitchen and Dining Room

The third door led to the kitchen and dining room. The Gang found some wine in the cabinets and stuffed them into their bags. There was another door on the eastern side of the room, and they exited there.

Master Bedroom

There was a large four poster bed; the headboard had carvings of ravens upon it. There were also two wardrobes, a desk, and a chest. The Gang resisted the urge to plunder the chest. Roos inspected the desk and found a ledger; it meticulously accounted for all deliveries dating back to over a century ago. The Rogue was able to decipher the ledger’s symbols: BV for Blood of the Vine Tavern in Barovia Village, BW for Blue Water Inn, K for Krezk which is a village that hasn’t been visited yet, V for Vistani, and S for Strahd. This last symbol was marked in the book around a hundred years ago.

Skarther found a secret door in the east wall, where they exited.

Loading Winch

They entered a room with a wooden floor that had a ten-foot square cut into the middle of it. Perched over the hole was a wooden winch. There was nothing else found here. Skarther recalled the footsteps he had heard while fighting the Druid and Vine Blights, so they decided to explore the rest of the eastern part of this level. They followed a hallway south to a spiral ramp leading downward. They continued following this ramp, passed the first floor, and went into the winery’s cellar.

Wine Cellar

As the Gang entered the cellar, they could hear the mumbling of a Druid casting an incantation. Another Druid was heard moving about. The enemy was waiting for them and trying to ambush the Gang. Thalion, ever in the lead, was slow to react and the rest of the party rushed past him to join the fight. The first Druid blasted the party with an ineffective Thunderwave which did little but break a bunch of bottles. His five Needle Blights clashed toe-to-toe with the rest of the Gang. The other Druid rushed in waving a magical staff and triumphantly declared in Druidic “Nature bows to my every whim, for I have the Vampire Staff!” For all their noise and tough talk, the enemy was summarily defeated.

Moss greedily claimed the Vampire Staff for his own. It had an aura of evil about it.

END SESSION