[Curse of Strahd] Session III

 As they delve down into the web-filled spiral staircase, they reach an equally cramped hall dug through the earth. With walls 4' apart & a ceiling only 7' high, larger PCs would feel claustrophobic. Distant, unintelligible chanting doesn't help one feel at home. Neither do the empty crypts they find, each carved with names of the Durst family. To call them empty is a misnomer, though. Elisabeth's coffin explodes with a swarm of biting insects that burrow painfully into Sorshaa's fur before they're sufficiently mushed. The 'queen' still in the coffin, a disgusting vermin nearly half a foot long w/parts seeming to be undead, is saved & stored in a jar by Ariadne.

There's some heavy debate on how exactly the party will handle Merlin; whether to leave him upstairs, what kind of leash to use. It's ultimately decided that they'll use some of the curtain ropes as a makeshift, adjustable leash that they'll use to lead him from behind. Echo will keep a lantern, as will Sorshaa, to allow the latter to be able to see & for Oswald's Investigation to operate without penalty.

Continuing exploration reveals a series of long-abandoned, yet clearly used, chambers of a bloody cult that lived & operated in. Some gemstones survived, as well as a set of studded leather armor from another traveling adventurer caught some time ago. They even manage to barely evade a pit trap.

This series of ominous, yet uneventful, rooms is broken up by a hallway intersection where a pair of ghouls burst out of the walls to reach for fresh flesh. This is a rough fight, where Oswald takes some solid damage, but they otherwise overcome it.

Deeper down, they find Gustav's corpse hanging from rope (which Ariadne takes for their equipment, because it's something that's not rotted through) along with a suicide note. Along this area's wall is a hidden door that reveals the ceremonial room where a dagger waits, the chanting that had gotten clear (He is Ancient. He is the Land.) instantly stopping as they enter, & a long tendril of flesh leading to a hole in the wall. They debate some while Sorshaa adds the rusty dagger of sacrifice to her collection, before they set their weapons to aim at the wall of pulsing flesh.

[Curse of Strahd] Session II

Our intrepid adventurers enter the house of Durst, but through the windows in the back into the dining room where they heard the sound of a party. Cracking it open & parting the curtains, the sound disappears, the lights go out, but the warmth & scent of a feast within remains. Once the last member of the group climbs in, the window slams shut, a clock somewhere in the house strikes six, & blood weeps from the painting over the empty hearth.

Beneath this dwelling lurks a beast
Who hungers for a bloody feast.
He sleeps until the midnight chime
Then wakes to feed his dark design.
If morsels seek to flee their doom,
Then bring toward his secret room
A gift to soothe his savage mood
But mind the servants of his brood.

Some checking reveals that mist has moved up to the window, which means they’re trapped based on their understanding of what walking through the mist will do (thanks to Viggo’s testimony). Barefoot, only one of them even wearing regular clothes, they make their way to the central room & up the stairs. Finding several suits of breastplate armour on display, Ariadne & Cotswold suit up, the former grabbing a Durst family longsword above the mantle. This is helpful when the very fancy suit of animated full-plate attacks them as they reach the third floor.

Other than that one fight, they avoid everything creepy & even potentially hazardous, including the movement out of the corners of their eyes coming from the mirror in the room adjacent to the nursery. They open the door with a weapon, seeing dried blood marking infernal circles around a crib w/the sound of a cooing baby coming within. With incredible caution, they find a woman’s finger under the crib & the crib itself is empty (the sound disappears as they looked). At this point, they go to the mirror in the last room, where the reflection shows a fair maiden in servant’s clothes standing next to them; her eyes sewn shut, her fingers gone as well as her nose & ears & lips & teeth. Still able to hear, but clearly unable to speak, they learn that the baby is downstairs. Asking for how to get there, she steps out of view from the reflection’s PoV as the mirror swings open to reveal stairs leading to the attic.

Up the stairs, they begin looking with intent rather than making a beeline, grabbing what may be of value to toss out the window if not of immediate use (figuring the mist won’t destroy it & they can examine in greater depth if they escape). Echo has a pact weapon that he summons to use as the de facto tool for touching anything they investigate. It’s when they pick a padlock to what is revealed to be the bedroom for Rose & Thorn, their skeletons lying in rest at the centre of the room, that their ghosts appear to answer questions. Rose asks them to go to the basement, where they’re certain their mother took their baby brother, & where the monster is. Their dollhouse is a perfect model of the house they’re in, & they use this to pre-check hidden rooms & possible valuables to investigate the place.

They find a collection of (study reveals them to be high-quality shams) ritual books in the library, as well as a halfling corpse w/armour that Echo can wear. Spending some time, they learn more of Gustav’s poorly hidden affair w/the nursemaid, Elisabeth’s anger, & Walter’s bastard heritage. At the conservatory, they find a stray dog (a chocolate Carpathian shepherd dog) whose collar says Merlin, whom they adopt.

It’s at this point, they ascend to the secret entrance in the attic, which is a spiral staircase that will take them to the basement.