[Curse of Strahd] Session V

 Following Ismark, he gets approached by some villagers who need to talk to him about stuff. He asks them to wait. During this time, the party sees an old woman selling pies, who has a short conversation with them. Granny offers each a free one, "because you must be so tired after such a journey, dearies." They each pick a different flavour of her three options; meat, maple nut, & bread. After a short bit of gossip regarding the town, Ismark returns & they resume their trip to the tavern Blood on the Vine; during which they notice a raven with blue-tipped wings following them.

At the tavern, they hear of the story of the village, of which they're inadvertently a part of. About nine months prior, Doru (son of the village priest) gathered up a dozen men to fight back against Strahd; but never returned. Shortly after, an elf approached the village, announcing that Strahd would give them nine months to put their affairs in order before he punished the entire village. Since then, much of the village had left for the other two settlements; those that remain include those too old & young to travel, as well those convinced by Ismark that it's better to stay & fight. Undead have laid siege to the town for almost a week now, every night breaking themselves against the barricades.

There's a big argument between Ismark & Bildrath, the town merchant only staying because his nephew was convinced by Ismark's rallying cry, clearly upset (Bildrath's sister died in one of the attacks). After that scene, they head up to the Burgomaster mansion to meet Ismark's father & his sister, Ireena. There's debate of what to do next, & the Burgomaster explains that the party is trapped until the siege ends; as literal thousands of undead wander the forests surrounding the village, inexplicably sending but a tiny fraction to attack at night. They're assigned to the Western Barricade, and wait.

It's a rough fight, bringing Soorsha to ~3HP, as they fight multiple waves of zombies, a couple ghouls, a wight, & even a hulking undead with virulent miasma streaming from its mouth. Ultimately, they prevail with only a minor breach in the barricade, of which none of the undead manage to actually cross.

[Curse of Strahd] Session IV

It's a rough and tumble fight with the mass of flesh, pustules & muscular tendrils flailing about. Eventually, they carve out enough to reveal a ghostly infant in the center, umbilical cord tied to the mound & partially shielded by something akin to a rib cage. This horror of the remains of Walter bounces around, smacking & getting stabbed, until it's finally defeated.

A spectre of Mrs. Durst appears, swearing to tear down the entire building down upon them before dissipating. As collapsing begins, they run into the ghost of Gustav, who meekly asks them to stay because that's the only way to keep her calm - to which they just blast him with radiant weapons & swords. Upon reaching the surface, they jump out the window, willing to risk the mist; but find that it's receded & they are safe outside as the building is consumed by the earth.

Bebriska, Nyanka, & Viggo come out of the stables nearby, saying that the mist enveloped the building right after they entered. They were too scared to venture far, even though they lost track of the children. At this line, the children reappeared as ghosts themselves to thank the party for putting Walter to rest, at which point they passed on.

Heading for the gates into Barovia, the mist following them close behind. They eerily open before them, welcoming newcomers & closing behind them as they walk down the path. A mile later, they come upon the remains of someone just off the road. Viggo recognizes it as another member of their group that tried to leave, who was supposed to bring a horse, but never met up with them; so they supposed he had gotten cold feet. There was an arrow (& 13 tally marks) carved into the tree right next to the corpse, following an animal trail. Checking along it, they found the corpse of a horse next to another tree with an arrow (& tally marks) leading deeper into the woods. This third tree had the same markings, but no additional corpse was to be found, & the path lead into a wall of mist. Rather than investigate, they retraced their steps, noticing a complete absence of either corpse (not even indents in the earth where they had laid).

As they approached the village of Barovia, they noticed it was set up for defense. Outer buildings were abandoned. Barricades were set up. A blonde fellow in armor was organizing a major barricade for repairs. This blonde calmed down the two armed rooftop villagers who got very accusative of the party being undead. With introductions over (blonde being Ismark Kolyana, son of the Burgomaster), they are asked to join for additional conversation while he has a moment. Ariadne attempts to help with barricade repairs, but the villagers aggressively avoid her - being a stranger w/white hair, traveling with what seems to be monsters, setting them off according to Ismark.