romania ♔ in the end of the night i can feel you breathe

[pickyourbattles]

♬ Night - Zola Jesus

WHO || Willow, Paige, Nathan, Henry, Aurelius, Dovan [Closed]
WHAT || The Knights travel to Romania to investigate a mysterious, magical fog
WHERE || Romania
WHEN || April 11th [back dated]
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread, don't worry about maintaining tagging order.

February in Romania isn't very comfortable, so hopefully everyone bundled up for this little trip into the countryside.  The appearance of a mysterious bank of fog into which several locals have gone inexplicably missing upon entering, has caused Wynn to speculate that it might be connected to the mist that appears when the Veil brings people from other worlds.  Could this be the first instance of a door going the other way?  If so, here's hoping it's a round trip...

Comments

[somepagesturn]

I have my whip, but- [OOOH stuff. Paige gathers around Henry to see for herself.]

[olreliable]

Just a knife and some spell stuff over here. [But she's also super curious about what Henry might have found.]

[wanttobeahero]

[ Standing up, Henry holds both pieces of paper out so it's easy for everyone to see. ] There's a letter here, and a map.

These people - whatever attacked them, it just...killed them. It doesn't look like they wanted to eat them. [ Which wouldn't be normal for a wolf. ]

[somepagesturn]

They were going to save that woman I bet. [She looks pleadingly at Aurelius and the others.] Oh, we can't just ignore this. Maybe the people in the village know where to find Dovan.

[autorevive]

[just blurts out several seconds late] I have grenades!

[olreliable]

[Slow head turn towards Nathan.]

Maybe don't jump right to grenades. But we should definitely try to find out what happened. And we have a map! Which should help, right?

[pickyourbattles]

Barovia... [ aurelius frowns deeply at the name. ] I know this land. It's found on another continent in the world I hail from - from the Shadow World. [ he looks up, taking a concerned second look at the landscape ] We're actually here.

[autorevive]

So we're at your place? [he wrinkles his nose and instantly blames aurelius for why they are not dinosaur vikings rn.]

[somepagesturn]

Well, at least you're familiar with.... the customs. [you know, the... outdated weird shadow world customs.]

[wanttobeahero]

[ This is both amazing and concerning - he doesn't miss the look in Aurelius's eyes - but it's probably better not to stick around these bodies for too long. ]

Should we...check out the village then, or head somewhere else?

[olreliable]

I'm voting village. [Are they voting? Who knows.] We can try to talk to people to see if anyone has any more information. Or if anyone has seen Dovan.

[pickyourbattles]

[ aurelius nods numbly ] Yes, that's... likely for the best. [ he frowns down at the bodies. ] And I certainly wouldn't call myself familiar with this land. I hail from another continent entirely. Barovia has always been a mysterious and insular community - there's not even that much about it in the books I've read.

[somepagesturn]

Better than all of us. [she looks at her... bright pink camo jacket.] Let's get going. The sooner we make it to the village, the sooner we can find Sir Dovan.

[autorevive]

So we're in South Korea? [north, nathan. NORTH.] Well, fuck. Good thing I packed that holy water.

[olreliable]

[Willow's eyebrows raise slowly. Not much in books? She knows how many books Aur tends to read, so that's saying something.]

We'll just have to be... extra careful.

[She takes a look at the map and turns around to get her bearings... then lands a nat 20 nav check, so apparently she knows exactly where they are and where to go.]

I think... that way.

[pickyourbattles]

Just... stay alert. One thing I do know about my world versus yours is that monsters are ... much more common.

[somepagesturn]

Oh dear... [she pulls her whip out of her belt and swallows as they start walking.]

[autorevive]

So should I keep out the holy water or go straight to the grenades?

[wanttobeahero]

[ Henry grabs his knife out of his backpack and follows the group, just staying alert, looking for signs of trouble from all directions. ]

[olreliable]

No grenades. [Willow says with a pleading look]

[somepagesturn]

Please no grenades. [trying to be... polite???]

The cold fog draws in closer, grasping... cloying...

[count_strahd_von_zarovich]

[Black pools of water stand like dark mirrors about the muddy roadway. A pall of thick, cold mist spreads over the ground. Giant tree trunks stand guard on both sides of the road, their branches clawing at the mists. In every direction the fog grows thicker and the forest seems more oppressive.]

[Willow's Navigation skills supplemented by the area map lead the party on a two hour march through the oppressive Barovian countryside, following the winding Old Svalich Road. Your journey takes you south, across a slick but sturdy bridge overlooking the Tser Falls. From there, it wends dangerously near the haunting boughs of the wood surrounding Lysaga Hill, before turning eastward. Yellow unblinking eyes constantly monitoring them from the edge of the wood, the grating howls and caterwauling of Barovian wildlife flitting about at the edge of their senses. They become quickly and keenly aware that they are being permitted to walk here. The land itself seems to be watching, and waiting.]

[Leaving the hills of west Barovia, the road passes through an old Crossroads.
An old wooden gallows creaks in a chill wind blowing down from the high ground to the west. A frayed length of rope dances from it's beam. The well-worn road splits here, and a signpost opposite the gallows points off in three directions: "Barovia" to the east, "Tser Pool" to the north, and "Castle Ravenloft" back in their direction of origin. Across from the gallows, a low wall, crumbling in places, partially encloses a small plot of graves - presumably housing those who died at the end of that sad rope...]

[A yell grabs your attention as you approach the crossroads, and you see an armored man charging towards the small graveyard, drawing a gleaming sword as he runs. A jet-black raven flies at his shoulder. Then you see three dark smears of air encircling him, like shadows cast by clouds. The man has long black hair and a neatly trimmed beard. He wears full plate armor and carries a shield and longsword. An amulet shaped like a Raven's head hangs heavy from his neck.]

[Battle Layout with a Roll20 Link, for us to update as needed. You don't need to use Roll20 at all if you don't want to, it's just an easy way for me to track & communicate positions without having to keep track of a Photoshop file.]

[autorevive]

Uhhh ... fuck that, it's time for grenades! [fuck all y'all, pretty much. nathan young is a honey badger and does what he wants. he takes a few steps forward (updated on roll20) so he doesn't ... bonk willow in the head with a grenade, and tosses it at the dude charging towards them with a ranged atk 18. it's going to explode in a 20 ft burst radius and do 14 dmg unless dude (and his monster friends??) make a dc 15 ref save.]

[somepagesturn]

[Paige stays behind with poor scared Willow and clasps her hands together, singing a few notes as she casts a Prayer spell, which gives +1 luck bonus on attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saves, and skill checks to all her allies, while each of the enemies takes a -1 penalty on such rolls.

Unlike Nathan, she assumes the guy fighting the monsters is... not an enemy and just a poor traveler, so he gets the bonuses too. HI FRIEND. This effect will last for eight rounds.]

[pickyourbattles]

[ aurelius is too freaked out to even identify what those monsters are beyond NOT GOOD so he will just raise one finger and cast ray of frost at the one standing next to the gallows (ranged touch... 12???? ... one... damage... if that hits. sob. ]