Iron & Gold, Curse of Strahd
Being more of The Curse of Strahd, run in Iron & Gold.
Previous chapter: In The Coffins — Next chapter: To Krezk
15 - A Vistani Digression[1]
At dawn, the group gathered in the men’s room to discuss their next move.[2] Ninefingers showed the women the tome. He asked Hrelgi, “Can you read it?”
Hrelgi gingerly flipped pages. “I don’t think anyone can read a lot of this. Look at this water damage. I’m going to have to go through the whole thing and try to find legible passages. We could stay a day and do that, I guess.”
“I disagree. Running sounds like a fine idea,” said Uthrilir, “but where do we run to? There’s only one other town in the valley, Krezk, so he’ll know that’s where we’ve gone.”
“This place isn’t exactly defensible, though.”
Ireena had been looking over Hrelgi’s shoulder, and she read out loud, “‘I am The Ancient, I am The Land. My beginnings are lost in the darkness of the past. I was the warrior, I was good and just. I thundered across the land like the wrath of a just god, but the war years and the killing years wore down my soul as the wind wears stone into sand.’ I can’t make out the next bit.”
“Read that again,” said Hrelgi. “I want to see how it is written.”
Ireena read it again, putting her finger under the words as she read them.
Hrelgi said, “Huh. Not my style of handwriting but yes, I can read it.”
“But what does it mean?”
“Other than he’s power-mad?” Ninefingers asked.
Felewin replied, “I think we need an ally. Someone who isn’t in Krezk or Vallaki.”
“Madam Eva said we’re supposed to find aid with a Vistani who’s searching for her mentor.”
Felewin nodded. “And I’m sure that will come; we’ll check Vistani camps.” An idea struck him, so he asked Ireena, “What do you know of the Mad Wizard?”
“Just rumours. He’s no friend of Strahd, and they see him sometimes on the north shore of the lake, Lake Zarovich, firing lightning bolts into the water to kill the fish.” She said, “Huh. He might be the monster of Lake Zarovich.”
Ninefingers asked, “There’s a lake monster?”
“A moment,” said Felewin. “How would you get to the north shore of Lake Zarovich?”
Ireena considered this. “Walking around the lake would be too slow and dangerous, so by boat, probably. And of course there’s a lake monster; who else would fishermen blame for a poor catch?”
“Are there boats?”
“Oh, yes. Vallaki used to be famous for fishing.”
Ninefingers asked, “Used to be?”
“Before Strahd. Now, wolves and dire wolves roam the lands around the lake. They generally don’t attack when you’re headed to the lake, but coming back, burdened with fish, they might attack.” She smiled briefly at Ninefingers. “And a lake monster eats the fish.”
Uthrilir said, “How do you know this?”
“Rictavio told Hrelgi, and I listened.”
“Hrelgi? Did he tell you this?”
“Hmm?” Hrelgi looked up from the book. “Maybe. I wasn’t listening. A lot of this is illegible, and then, listen to this. ‘All goodness slipped from my life; I found my youth and strength gone and all I had left was death. My army settled in the valley of Barovia and took power over the people in the name of a just god, but with none of a god’s grace or justice. I called for my family, long unseated from their ancient thrones, and brought them here to settle in the castle Ravenloft. They came with a younger brother of mine, Sergei. He was handsome and youthful. I hated him for both.’”[3]
“Strahd had a brother, Sergei,” said Ireena. “Father mentioned him to me once. He once gave credit to Ivan Vanyavich rather than Sergei Chekovovich; Father told me that Strahd wouldn’t accept good news about someone named Sergei.”
“The man he envied most of all, perhaps?” Uthrilir asked.
“Maybe,” said Felewin. “But finding the wizard, though.”
“If the lake area is as dangerous as they say,” started Ninefingers.
“A day,” Felewin assured him. “We cross the lake, search for a half day, come back. If we have no luck, we leave town tomorrow. In the meantime, we can’t be found in the town, which is good.”
Ninefingers said, “Only a day?”
“No more. And if we get lost or attacked, I deserve every insult you can think of.”
“I can think of a lot of insults,” said Ninefingers, “if we’re alive to use them.” The goblin thought. “Strahd hasn’t been able to catch this mage yet, so he must have something going for him.”
“I agree also,” said Uthrilir.
They had to nudge Hrelgi, who was looking at the book again. “Huh? I’d rather stay here and read.”
“We do need to protect this young woman,” said Felewin, “except…dealing with mages is your department.”
Uthrilir said, “What if I stay here with the lady? You do have three healing potions.”
Felewin said slowly, “I hate splitting our group…but I also hate exposing Ireena to more danger. All right. Stay here. Go no farther than the privy. Do not spend time in the great room. Do not mention last night to anyone.”
“We’re not stupid,” said Ireena.
“Promise.”
Both Uthrilir and Ireena agreed. Hrelgi reluctantly closed the book and handed it to Uthrilir. “Keep it safe.”
Hrelgi was already at the door before she turned and said, “Let’s go.”
The guards at the lake gate were reluctant to let them out. Eventually they relented, but warned Ireena of the group to be back well before sunset.
It was a short walk to the shore of the lake; the road was overgrown but clearly travelled.
The lake was a dark mirror showing reflections of the cloudy sky and the mountains around. There was very little mist, so they could see all the way to the other side of the lake, and see the one rowboat out on the water. Three rowboats were pulled up to the shore.
“No one to ask,” said Ninefingers. “So we’ll just borrow it. Felewin, can you row? These are built human-sized.”
“Don’t know,” Felewin admitted. “I’ve seen it done. I know I can’t swim.”
“I’ll coach you,” said Hrelgi. They pulled the boat into the water and then sloshed in. “No, face away from the direction we’re going. I’ll give you directions to steer. Ninefingers, you sit in the bow and keep an eye out in case of rocks; I don’t know this lake.” She looked at Felewin for a moment and then removed her spell books and tied them to the boat. “I know you won’t capsize us but in case.”
“In case I capsize us. Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Felewin said.
She missed the sarcasm. “No problem. Now pull the handles of the oars to your chest while you keep the paddles in the water. Pull!”
Once he got the hang of it, Felewin was strong and swift. Swift enough that they were headed[4] straight for the other boat. Ninefingers said, “Uh…”
Hrelgi noticed. “Drag the one oar so we turn. The other one! No, not both!”
The fisherman in the other boat didn’t even notice Hrelgi yelling; he was in a trance-like state, fixated on what he was doing, and mumbling to himself. Ninefingers could see that he was a short paunchy man with a rosy glow to his nose from broken blood vessels. Not fights, but habitual misuse of alcohol..
The man picked up a wriggling bag from the bottom of the boat, a bag about Ninefingers’ size, and said loudly, “Receive this gift and give me your bounty!” He opened the bag and started to take out a human child, a girl, bound and gagged. From the way she was wriggling, she did not want this.
Their boat hit his boat. Nothing broke because Hrelgi had gotten Felewin slowed down, but the collision made the other fisherman drop the girl. She hit the gunwale and then tumbled into the water.
“You dropped the girl in the lake!” Ninefingers accused him.
Hrelgi dove in, leaving the boat rocking. Felewin twisted to see what was going on but that made the boat rock worse.[5] “What is going on?” Felewin asked. “Why did Hrelgi jump out of the boat? Where is she?”
“She’s trying to rescue the girl,” said Ninefingers.
The man yelled, “No! That’s my sacrifice! It will bring fish to me!”
Ninefingers said, “You’re sacrificing her.”
The man looked at Ninefingers. “It’s only a filthy Vistani anyway.”
Felewin said in a low voice, “Hit him.”
“Hand me an oar.” Ninefingers had to swing twice with the unwieldy tool, while Felewin held the two boats together. The fisherman was knocked flat and bruised; Ninefingers hit him again, and the man sighed as the urge to fight left him. Ninefingers took the man’s oars, and then they waited, looking for Hrelgi.
In the cold dark water, Hrelgi dove until her lungs burned then she brushed the fabric of the girl’s coat. She grabbed the girl and started heading up, to the surface. As she broke the surface, she said, “Here!”
Hrelgi got the girl’s head above the water’s surface and swam her to their own boat. Hrelgi lifted the girl up, Ninefingers grabbed her and hoisted her up, and on instruction from Hrelgi, Felewin leaned back to keep the boat steady as the girl was hoisted in. Then Ninefingers helped Hrelgi in.
Hrelgi spat out water and said, “Great. Now I’m all wet.”
Felewin ungagged and untied the girl. As soon as the gag was off, the girl started yelling at the man. “I am Arabelle of the Vistani and you have tried to kill me! I curse you to never to be able to tie knots again, whether they are on a person or a fishing line or anywhere else![6]” Bedraggled but triumphant, she looked at Hrelgi. “Now I would like to be taken home.”
Hrelgi looked at Felewin. “We can’t look for the wizard with her.”
Felewin said, “I agree. Where in Vallaki do you live?”
“You must be foreigners. I am Arabelle of the Vistani clan Drovarin, and I do not live in the town of Vallaki. I live in the Vistani camp outside the town.” She looked at Felewin, who was wearing his mail, and said, “I am sure that my father will give her a reward.”
“You weren’t by any chance looking for your mentor when you got abducted?” asked Ninefingers.
Arabelle frowned. “Don’t be silly.”
“There’s an arrow dodged,” Ninefingers said to Felewin. “You okay to row?”
“If we can get turned around,” said Felewin.
“What about him?” asked Hrelgi, indicating the man.
Ninefingers said, “She’s cursed him, we have his oars. What he did is reprehensible but we aren’t the law here.”
Felewin added, “We don’t want to meet the law.”
Ninefingers nodded. “They don’t even allow Vistani in the town, so I’m not sure there’s more we can do.”
“Take me home,” said Arabelle.
“That we can do.”
“It just now occurs to me that I can make the boat go faster,” said Hrelgi. Her teeth were chattering.
“I will go as fast as I can,” said Felewin, and in fact they were on shore quickly. Beaching the boat took as long,
Ninefingers asked Hrelgi, “What happened to your cloak?”
“In the lake. It was dragging us down.” She took a deep breath to try to stop her teeth from chattering.[7] “Can’t concentrate to cast a spell.”
“A brisk walk will help both of you,” said Felewin. “We’ll walk around the town so we don’t have to worry about Arabelle entering.”
If there had been sunshine, Hrelgi and Arabelle might have dried on the hour walk, but there was none, and they remained cold and wet. Both Felewin and Ninefingers loaned their cloaks, which helped a bit, but the wet clothes sucked heat from them.
Felewin, whose boots had only just finally dried out after the adventure in the Durst house, felt for them. He carried Arabelle on his shoulders and kept Hrelgi to a faster pace than she might have chosen, in an attempt to keep her limbs warm. Fortunately Hrelgi was nearly as tall as Felewin, and she carried Ninefingers for some of the time.
Ninefingers kept asking Arabelle leading questions, so she told them about her father, Luvash, and her uncle, Arrigal, and the elves in the camp. “But no girl elves,” she told Hrelgi.
“I’ve been told there are no girl elves.”
“Kasimir will like you.” Arabelle shared with Hrelgi that she was certain that she, Arabelle, had a grand destiny set out. “I will remember you,” she told Hrelgi.
Not far after the town Arabelle said, “Down here,” and directed them along a footpath in the woods. “You can take the road but it is longer,” she explained.
After a little distance the woods parted to reveal an expansive clearing—a small grassy hillock with low houses built into its sides. Felewin couldn’t make out the details in the fog, but the buildings had elegantly carved woodwork and decorative lanterns hung from their eaves. At the top of the hill was a colourful tent ringed by wagons. They could smell the wine and horses and smoke from the edge of the clearing.
“The wagons! That’s where we live.” They were halfway up the hill when she asked to get down; the moment her feet hit the ground, she shouted, “Father! Father!”
Two men stumbled out of the tent. One was probably Arrigal, by the beard, and the other must be Luvash. Luvash ran forward and picked up his little girl. “Arabelle!”
“She saved me! A man took me and tied me up and threw me in the lake, and she saved me! And the green one loaned me his cloak. And the big one gave me a ride.”
“And the man who took you?”
“I cursed him and we left him floating on the lake.”
Felewin introduced them. “We found her and brought her home.”
“The man who took her…” Luvash looked concerned. “Did you kill him?”
“No,” said Felewin. “She had already cursed him so we took his oars and left him floating there. I didn’t want our punishment to overrule hers.”
“She already thinks a great deal of herself.” He smiled at his daughter. “You, Hrelgi did you say? We owe you. You can select a treasure of ours.”
“I don’t want a treasure,” Hrelgi said.
“How can we repay you?” Luvash asked.
“I would like a change of clothes,” Hrelgi said. “Dry clothes.”
“Not money?”
“Dry clothes.”
“We can do that.” He called, “Magda! Come meet this woman!”
A woman poked her head out of one of the wagons. “Now, Luvash? I am on a lucky streak.”
“This woman has brought back my daughter! You will dress her!”
Magda rolled her eyes, withdrew, and came out. “Arabelle! You’re back!”
Arabelle called, “Hi, Magda!”
“And this woman helped you?” said Magda. Arabelle nodded. “Then we should get her into dry things. Come with me. You too, wet bedraggled child of destiny.”
Hrelgi returned to Felewin his cloak and gave him her spell books. “I’ll be back.”
“You are tall,” they heard Magda saying as they walked away.
“I’m an elf,” Hrelgi replied.
Behind them, they heard, “Is she?”
Felewin turned. A tall man or elf stood there; he was dressed as a Vistana, but he wore a cowl.
“Pardon?” asked Felewin.
“Is she an elf?”
“Sure,” said Felewin. “I don’t know what kind, but she’s an elf.”
“Trapped here in Barovia?”
“Aren’t we all?”
“The Vistani aren’t.”
“Aren’t you Vistani?”
“They have adopted me but Strahd and his chamberlain remember when I was not a Vistana.” He looked up the hill. “Your friend will be a few minutes. Come in and talk with me.”
Luvash waved and said, “Go ahead.”
“Please tell her where we are,” said Felewin to Luvash, and he and Ninefingers entered the elf’s hut. They hung their damp cloaks in the vestibule and entered a comfortable room with a fireplace. There was a fire burning in the fireplace, and the smell of pine filled the room. One wall had cubbyholes with what Felewin assumed to be Elven deities, and a tapestry covered the opposite wall. “Sit,” said the elf. “I am Kasimir Velikov, leader of this group of elves.”
“Felewin, and Ninefingers.” The goblin helpfully held up his mutilated hand. “Should we be worried about Hrelgi?”
“No, the Vistani are fine for this.”
“I mean…the only female elf.”
Kasimir laughed bitterly. “Ah. No, other female elves have come into Barovia since Strahd assumed rule. Strahd has forbidden us to have women, and Strahd continues to forbid it. His chamberlain, Rahadin, is delighted to enforce this ruling.”
He stirred the fire and sat down. “Sit, sit. You have the look of adventurers about you.”
“Well, not—” began Felewin.
“Yes,” said Ninefingers.
“You know we have no woman elves because of me,” Kasimir said. “My sister, Patrina, was bitten by Strahd, but before she could turn, I had our people stone her to death. Strahd was furious that I had taken his bride, and he had Rahadin deal a punishment on me”—he lifted his hand to indicate that the punishment was under the cowl— “and slay all the women of our race. Elves are long-lived, but we do die, and when we do, the dusk elves will vanish. Strahd took her body and entombed it in Castle Ravenloft. Tea?”
“Uh, no thank you.”
“I brew it from a root found along the shore of the lake. It is bitter but it is better than nothing.” He waved and a kettle floated over to the fire, and hung itself from a hook there. “I mention my sister because your arrival is fortuitous. I have been troubled lately by dreams from my dead sister.”
Felewin nodded.
“I believe she has repented. I would seek to give her peace, either by passing her to the next world or by bringing her back to life.” The water was already hot; he waved and the kettle floated to him and poured water into a mug.”You are sure you do not want some?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” said Felewin. “That’s an ambitious project.”
“It is. Barovia is isolated by the mists, but it is also isolated magically and spiritually. Souls do not pass on, here: they are reincarnated. There are a few more souls than there were four hundred years ago — dead adventurers, mostly — but within a few hundred of what there have been for centuries. To allow Patrina to pass on, I need information from the same beings who made the dark pact with Strahd, who enable him to isolate this land.”
“These beings…they could provide information to hurt Strahd?”
“Perhaps. I cannot say. I seek to go there, to the Amber Temple and get the information necessary to put Patrina to rest.”
“The Amber Temple?”
“Where the Dark Powers are. The journey will be perilous, so I need people to accompany me. You will forgive me if I don’t disclose the location.”
Felewin nodded. “Only prudent in your situation. It sounds like a task that we would be glad to help with, but we have a current obligation.”
Kasimir smiled. “One that is occasionally interrupted by kidnapped children.”
“Only once,” said Ninefingers.
“I will offer you this piece of information — if Luvash or any other Vistani tries to sell you potions to get through the mists, do not buy them. The mists are controlled by Strahd or by those who gave him his power, and are not evaded by mere potions. However, do not tell Luvash I told you so. He is fond of coin.”
“Understood.” Felewin’s agreement was punctuated by the opening of the door and Hrelgi’s call of “Hello?”
“We are in here,” called Kasimir. “I am Kasimir Velikov.”
Hrelgi came in, wearing a Vistana outfit: a black flowered headband, a red blouse, a blue skirt with flowers on it, and a pair of boots. She introduced herself and then twirled to let them see.
“Lovely,” said Felewin.
“You’re wearing a skirt,” said Ninefingers. “What if you want to climb something?”
“Magda showed me.” She bunched and folded the skirt and tucked it in, turning the skirt into a pair of trousers. “It’s called ‘girding.’” She flipped the skirt back and twirled again. “I like it. And the skirt is loose enough that I can run in it. We took a while because I made her add pockets. I did buy a waterskin pouch, though. To keep water off my spell books, even if they fall in water.”
“I thought you had a waterskin?” asked Ninefingers.
“For the one spell book, but not for the other.”
Felewin had seen in the boat that both spell books fit in her existing case — but he also knew that they carried a third book that needed to be protected.
“The outfit is lovely and practical — but Magda said that the elves were more likely to provide me with a cloak.” She looked at Kasimir.
“Yes,” he said. “We can fulfill that obligation, and then you are equipped. You are roughly my height, so you can have one of my extra cloaks. That will also hide your clothing when necessary, because the Vistani are not welcome everywhere.”
Previous chapter: In The Coffins — Next chapter: To Krezk
Mechanics
[1] Mythic: Bestow News (NPC Positive)
[2] Mythic: has the Tome been stolen? Very unlikely, CF 7: 75% yes, rolled 94.
[3] Hrelgi rolls 6 on her literacy, making it with margin 1.
[4] Felewin’s totally inexperienced at this. Does he put them on a collision course for the other boat? Likely, CF 7: f2 is under the 90% needed for a yes.
[5] Rescuing Arabella. Let’s say it’s an Athletics roll. She rolls a zero, which is a success, but margin 0, so I’m going to rule that it takes her a while
[6] According to Curse of Strahd, it’s DC 8 but we’re going to say it’s a Trivial Influence roll. Too bad his influence is 2. He rolls an 11 and fails.
[7] Hrelgi rolls a 12 on Fitness+Composure to function despite the cold.
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