Iron & Gold, Curse of Strahd
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Being The Curse of Strahd, with Mything as GM, using Iron & Gold
17 - Planning A Rebirth[1]
The meal was a simple affair of pasta, a vegetable sauce, and cheese. Dmitri said, “All of it is local, though we trade between families. We’re reasonably self-sufficient here.”
“It’s very impressive,” said Ireena. “We have grains in our village, of course, but are not nearly as self-sufficient as you are. You make nearly everything?”
“We must import wine, yes.”
“So must we all,” said Ireena.
Dmitri continued, “We can repair many things, but sometimes you need metal. There is a tiny hamlet in the mountains, built at the entrance to a mine, that trades us metals for cheese.”
“Ah!” said Ireena. “We must trade with the Vistani for metals.”
“Trading! That reminds me,” Hrelgi said. “Felewin, you told Ireena that your father was like a ruler but you’ve talked about him making money selling bears. Which is it?”
“Both. We are a small tribe. Father insisted on our independence but we have to make money somehow because all the other nations insist on coin. I am told the rules are somewhat different here.”
Dmitri nodded. “There is some limited trade; the Vistani can provide some things and you can request items from them, but never very powerful things because Strahd could be listening. Fortunately, the Vistani buy some things as well…I think that’s how the winery continues.”
The abbey bells began to chime again. Uthrilir looked puzzled. “Is there some event that we should know of?”
“The bells ring at strange times,” admitted Dmitri. “We are cordial with the Abbot, but many suspect him of being an agent of Strahd or Strahd himself.” He held up a hand. “I myself do not believe this: I have seen him at the shrine of the White Sun, and a vampire could not go there. However, he has been at the Abbey since my great-grandfather’s time and he has not aged a day in that century. He is something not human. As a consequence, no one from the village goes to the Abbey. It’s a shame: once they had a hospital, and such a thing might have saved my Ilya.”
“So I should not go to the Abbey?” asked Ireena.
Dmitri said, “Why would you want to? Let me clean up, and we will meet at the inside room, where we discuss matters of state. Felewin, would you stoke the fire in the fireplace? I started the fire earlier so the inside room should be comfortable, but we need the fire to stay going while we are absent.”
While they were cleaning up, Anna arrived home. She did not see surprised to see them.
“How is the Antikov baby?” Dmitri asked.
“Healthy boy, but the midwife thinks he has no soul. He did not cry when she pricked him.”
Hrelgi, who was helping put away, said, “Is there a lot of that, babies without souls?”
“According to the midwife, almost half. Yet we seem to be functioning,” said Anna. Dmitri started to prepare a plate for her, and she refused, saying, “I will eat later.”
In a few moments, Anna, Dmitri, and Hrelgi met in the inside room. There were comfortable if threadbare chairs for everyone.
“Now we are in a place where we are less likely to be heard. Why have you come to my village?”
Ireena said, “I bring you the sad news that my father, Kolyan Indirovich, has passed away. His heart, we think.” She smiled sadly. “Precautions were taken.”
“I am so sorry,” Anna said. She took Ireena’s hand.
Dmitri said. “This is why your brother is not with you.”
“Ismark is assuming the role of burgomaster. You will hear officially at some time in the future.” She stared at her hands in her lap for a moment. “There is another, darker reason we are here. Strahd has taken an interest in me. Ismark felt it was best to get me out of Strahd’s sight. Father Donavich suggested the Abbey but of course we are not as current with the facts of the Abbey as you are.”
Anna let go of Ireena’s hand.
“How interested is he?” Dmitri asked.
“Very,” said Felewin. “But we got her out of the village of Barovia, so his attention should turn elsewhere.”
“Monsters assailed our house every night for weeks, until Father just…died,” said Ireena.
“And why would the lord be interested in you?” Dmitri asked Ireena.
Felewin answered instead. “She’s pretty,” said Felewin. “He has an eye for beauty. She’s smart. She can think tactically.”
“Thank you,” said Ireena[2], smiling at Felewin.
“I also think there is more. I think she’s the reincarnation his lost love,” said Uthrilir. “I need to see a painting of Tatyana to be sure, though.”
“I could not be!” Ireena said.
Anna and Dmitri looked bewildered. “Who’s Tatyana?”
“Strahd was enamoured of a woman Tatyana, who was engaged to his brother Sergei, when he was alive,” said Hrelgi. “Because of logic we don’t actually understand, he became a vampire to be more attractive to her, and he killed Sergei.”
“For some reason,” said Ninefingers mildly, “she didn’t want the vampire as a husband, partly because he’d just killed her fiance.”
Dmitri shook his head. “I am too kind to exile you at night but in the morning you must leave Krezk. I cannot allow you to bring Strahd down on our heads.”
“What if we did something for you? Like the winery,” said Felewin.
Dmitri seemed unmoved. “If you brought wine back to the village, you could come in, but I would not let Ireena stay here.”
“We might be able to restore your son to life,” Hrelgi said.
Anna started. Dmitri said, “I… No, he is dead. It would be black sorcery.”
“No, it’s not black at all,” said Hrelgi. “We could do it, but only once.”
“Maybe,” said Uthrilir.
Anna said, “How would you do it? Ilya is four days dead.”
No one spoke. Felewin took a deep breath. “Yesterday we came into possession of a magical scroll. To work, it must be read by a wizard. It will raise one person from the dead, if they have not been dead for too long.” Felewin said, “I only found out just before dinner, Ireena. I was planning on telling you once we were alone, but someone decided to blurt it out.”
“Dmitri was going to throw her out,” Hrelgi said. “That would be bad.” She explained to Dmitri and Anna, “We would have to do it tomorrow, in the light. I don’t want to mess up, and there’s a lot there. We make sure there’s nothing black about it. But it’s powerful magic that I can only do once, ever.”
“If you can honestly bring Ilya back to life, Ireena can stay,” Anna said.
“Anna!” cried Dmitri.
“This is our last son! I cannot have more children! Without this chance, the Krezkov line ends.”
Dmitri took her hand. “All right,” he said heavily. “But Ireena, you must sleep in the wine cellar tonight.”
“Oh, it’s going to be cramped,” said Ninefingers.
#
Later, in the wine cellar, they had to move one of the trestles with empty barrels, creating a precarious pile on one side of the room. That gave Ireena enough space. Hrelgi heated the rock of the wall so it radiated heat for a few hours as it cooled.
In the darkness, Ireena said to Felewin, “When did you get the scroll?”
“When we met Rictavio. Apparently Ninefingers stole it to look at it and never got a chance to put it back.”
“Oh.”
“I just wanted to look at it. I was meaning to give it back,” said Ninefingers, “but the scroll can only be used by a wizard, so Rictavio is probably a wizard.”
“Or he was holding it for someone,” Hrelgi said, “but that’s really unlikely.”
Ninefingers said, “Now you’re making me feel bad.” Ireena giggled.
“So we’re going to use it in the morning?” Uthrilir asked.
“Better than my other plan: kill Strahd and then revive him so he can work to amend his actions,” said Felewin.
“Wouldn’t work,” said Hrelgi, “because he’s been dead too long. Same reason we couldn’t use it on Doru.”
“I was joking,” said Felewin.
“I never know when you’re joking,” said Hrelgi.
Ninefingers said, “Felewin never jokes. He’s just wrong sometimes and passes it off as a joke.”
Ireena giggled again.
Felewin said, “Go to sleep, people. We have a busy day tomorrow. We’ve got to revive someone from the dead and find an ally in the abbey.”
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Mechanics
[1] Mythic suggested theme: NPC Negative - Mistrust Love
[2] Everyone has the info from Tome of Strahd; everyone knows about reincarnation from Kasimir. Now it’s time for idea rolls. Felewin rolls 9; Ninefingers 12, Hrelgi 3, and Uthrilir 2.
