Iron & Gold, Curse of Strahd
Previous Chapter 27 27 Dinner With Strahd — Next Chapter 29 The Undercroft
Being an actual play of Curse of Strahd, using Precis Intermedia Games’ Iron & Gold, with Mythic as the GM.
Chapter 28 — Hunted![1]
The five of them were wet, standing in Ismark’s mansion, in the same room where Felewin had tested Ireena days ago. The furniture had been pushed back into place, and there were signs that Ismark had had people in, in the meantime.
“You can come out now,” said Ninefingers, his hand on the hilt of his sword.[2]
Ezmerelda d’Avenir appeared, in a dark grey cloak. Ninefingers sighed and took his hand off his sword; he had known that someone or something came with them, but wasn’t sure it was Ezmerelda.
“I thought it better to come with you than have to escape the castle myself,” she said. “It is good to see you all. Where are we?”
“Barovia, the village,” said Uthrilir. He took Ezmerelda’s hand and checked: she was as warm-bodied as any of them. “You are not a vampire.”
Ezmerelda smiled, curling her upper lip back from her teeth. “I am not.”
Hrelgi looked at her, checked her grimoire, and cast a spell.[3] “One magic spell active and a buttload of magic stuff, so I can’t get a clear view.”
“Dark vision,” said Ezmerelda. “So I can see in the dark. It helps in an unlit castle.” She waved her hand. “Gone now. Try again.”
Hrelgi cast the spell again.[4] “Magic armour, magic weapons, potions, nothing else except that she can also do magic.”
“Thank you,” said Ezmerelda.
Felewin said, “You appreciate why we had to check.”
Ezmerelda unwrapped her cloak. “Of course.”
Felewin looked around. “This is where the burgomaster Ismark lives and where his sister Ireena…lived.”
There was a small front hall; each of them hung up their cloaks and Uthrilir set up a fire; Hrelgi[5] lit it, and soon there was some heat.
Ezmerelda looked around. “I have never been here. Can we be heard from outside?”
“Not easily,” said Ninefingers. “This room is set inside the other rooms, so only the fireplace connects to the outside.”
“We’ll speak quietly,” said Felewin.
“I haven’t checked,” said Ninefingers, “but I suspect there’s a grating above the fire, in the chimney flue, below the chimney cap. I think Ismark once said that Strahd also controlled bats,” (Ezmerelda nodded) “so they’d want to keep them out, or at least unable to listen.”
“What’s on the other side of the fireplace?”
“Kitchen. This fireplace is also the oven,” said Ninefingers.
“Don’t use their food,” said Felewin. “His food.”
“It’s for guests,” said Hrelgi. “And we’re guests.”
“He might not want us. We failed him. We couldn’t protect Ireena,” said Felewin. “I don’t feel right about taking his food.”
“Do you want to go elsewhere?” Hrelgi asked
“No. I need to apologize to him.”
“We couldn’t help it,” said Ninefingers. “All of that happened while we were away from her. No one could have known!”
“We shouldn’t have left her alone,” said Felewin.
"We should sleep. By tomorrow’s light, Strahd’s agents will be looking for us,” said Ezmerelda.
“I don’t think I can sleep,” said Hrelgi.
“Tell us what you know about this tower,” said Ninefingers.
“Tell us about the mentor you’re hunting,” said Hrelgi.
“The tower is easy. I believe it belonged to the wizard Khazan, who was in the employ of Strahd.” She looked at Hrelgi. “Magic does not work inside the tower — be wary of that.”
“But you can get in?” asked Hrelgi.
“Yes. There are two ways. First is a puzzle on the door; if you perform certain actions, the door opens. Second is a rickety scaffold out back that leads to an upper window. Felewin is too heavy for it, maybe Uthrilir too. There are golems inside but they seem to be only to raise and lower a cage that traverses the levels.”
“An elevator,” said Ninefingers. “If magic doesn’t work inside the elevator, how do the golems work?”
“I believe it is ensorcelled so that only Khazan’s magic will work. But Khazan is long gone.” She shrugged, and pulled out her spell book. She took some blank pages from the rear and sketched quick maps. “Four levels. I know that my mentor has slept in this fourth level — I recognized some of what he left behind — but he is not there.”
“He’s not a half-elf, is he?” Felewin asked. “Your mentor is from elsewhere, like we are, and the half-elf is the only living outsider we’ve met.”
“No, my mentor is human,” said Ezmerelda.
“Not him, then,” said Felewin. Hrelgi caught Ninefingers’ eye. The goblin looked back at her and gave an almost imperceptible shake of his head.
Ezmerelda said, “He has been cursed, he says, so that those near him will die, but this is not a land in which to be alone.”
“What’s his name?” Ninefingers asked.
“It is not safe to tell you,” said Ezmerelda. “If he is hiding, his name should remain hidden.”
“Of course.”
There was silence. They listened to each other breathe, and they did eventually fall asleep in that room, taking comfort in each other’s presence. The rooster woke them at dawn.
“We’ll wait until Ismark returns,” said Felewin. “But we should plan how we will get to the tower that Ezmerelda knows.”
“I’ve never been there, have I?” Hrelgi asked.
Ezmerelda shook her head. “But it is near Krezk.”
“Have we got a map of Barovia?” asked Hrelgi.
“There I can help you,” said Ezmerelda. She reached into her bag and pulled up a folded map. “I found this in the tower. It was created by my mentor.” She held up her hand to forestall comments. “At least annotated by him.”
“If we are here…then we’ve been there, and there, and there….” Felewin pointed to places on the map. “This is much better than the maps my brother the priest draws; his are very preachy.”
“His maps are probably moral arguments,” said Uthrilir.
Ezmerelda said, “My mentor is not one for arguments like that.”
“My father does not use my brother’s maps,” agreed Felewin.
“I have no idea,” said Hrelgi. “There’s places I know I can get to and places I know I can’t. I suppose there’s a fuzzy region at the edge but I don’t know what it is. From here, I can’t get all the way to Vallaki, for instance.” She closed her eyes. “That road leading to the old mill, I can get to that intersection. I know I can. Maybe farther along the road.”
“I don’t know how safe it is along the road,” Ezmerelda said. “The mill is here and”—she almost said his name—“my mentor has a squiggle here that means maybe it is occupied.”
“Not a place to hide, then,” said Ninefingers. Felewin was looking at him. “Ireena didn’t know why the mill was abandoned. If it were friendlies living there, they would have told the nearest villages, ‘Hey, we can’t run the mill because the main shaft is broken,’ or something. Ergo, if occupied, it is occupied by nasties.”
“I suppose,” said Felewin. “We could look, maybe clear out whatever is there. Then it becomes a hiding spot for us.”
“Or we die trying to fight whatever lives there. We have to keep our eyes on the purpose.”
Felewin sighed. “Yes. I just…if it would help Ismark. We’ve already failed him…”
“If we can deal with Strahd, we will be helping him,” said Uthrilir.
“Then we need to deal with Doru,” said Hrelgi.
“No,” said Ninefingers.
Ezmerelda said, “Who is Doru?”
“Vampire, kept under the church,” said Ninefingers. “Why do we need to deal with Doru?”
“First, helping Ismark. Second, practice against vampires and the fancy holy symbol. We’re not going to find a lone trapped vampire anywhere else. Third, while Doru exists, he’s a weapon that Strahd can free and use against us.”
“But if we kill him, Strahd will know,” said Uthrilir. “And the holy symbol might be one use only.[6]”
“No, I have found stories of the holy symbol in the records at the Abbey,” said Ezmerelda. “The symbol was used repeatedly, even after the original owner died. It can be exhausted, yes, but it always regains its abilities.”
“What do the stories say the symbol can do?” Uthrilir asked.
“I only know that it can create sunlight. The stories say that no vampires approach a holy person who is carrying the amulet, and that it can create sunlight, but that is…taxing for it.”
“You’ll need holy water,” said Ezmerelda. She reached into her bag and pulled out two flasks. Uthrilir nodded grimly and pulled out another one.
Felewin said, “Strahd has spies everywhere. Our only hope is appearing somewhere, striking while he’s trying to find us, then disappearing. If we kill Doru, he knows we’re here.”
“I expect he’s got a rough idea of Hrelgi’s range,” said Ninefingers. “He knows we didn’t go out the front gate. From his viewpoint, we either traveled by rend or got into that room we saw from the overlook.” The goblin shrugged. “He can check the castle, and if we traveled by rend, he knows we’re in this village. If we’re in the village, we’re here, we’re in the Durst House (assuming it has rebuilt itself), we’re in the church, or we’re in the tavern.”
“Assuming he knows that Hrelgi can only go where she’s been,” pointed out Felewin.
“It’s part of the magic,” said Hrelgi. “You have to have been there to go back.”
“He knows magic,” said Ezmerelda. “I do not know if he knows this kind — I do not — but he knows magic.”
“All right,” said Felewin. “You’ve convinced me. We have to deal with Doru.”
“Now, if possible,” said Ninefingers. “It is just past dawn; we finish Doru and leave. I do not think we’ll have time to wait for Ismark.”
Felewin sighed. “I suppose you’re right.” He asked Hrelgi, “Can you get us into the church?”
Hrelgi nodded. “But I don’t know the way to the undercroft.”
Uthrilir said, “We were in the hall and the sanctuary proper, not the other rooms. The passage to the undercroft is either in the sanctuary, as with Saint Andral’s bones, or one of the other rooms.”
“That’s helpful,” said Ninefingers.[7] Uthrilir bristled.
Felewin put in, “I trust Ninefingers didn’t mean it that way.”
Ninefingers apologized. “Tired and on edge. Sorry.”
Felewin went on, “We’re all tired. Let’s check the other rooms instead of the sanctuary. Donavich is probably in the sanctuary; we don’t want to face him right away.” The others looked at him. “In his mind, we’re killing his son,” explained Felewin. “Just so I’m clear: there’s no way of curing the lad?”
Uthrilir said, “None. The Maiden might be able to intervene if Strahd is dead, but while Strahd exists, there is none.”
“And magic to bring people back to life works on very short time frames. Someone who has been a vampire for a whole year can’t be brought back by anything I know of,” said Hrelgi.
“There is no way,” added Ezmerelda flatly.
Felewin nodded. “All right. Do we walk?”
Hrelgi said, “I can do better than that.”[8]
Previous Chapter 27 27 Dinner With Strahd — Next Chapter 29 The Undercroft
Game Mechanics
[1] Mythic suggested theme: Failure Energy (PC Positive)
[2] Ninefingers’ Awareness is 4 and he has night vision. He knows that there was an invisible figure in the rain with them, even though the difficulty was Complex.
[3] Hrelgi rolls a 9 on F. Sphaera, so margn 0. She rolls a 7 on R+C, so margin 3.
[4] This time Hrelgi rolls a 3 (margin 6) on Fabrica Sphaera, and a triumph on R+C. Pity it wasn’t the other way around.
[5] Hrelgi rolls a 6 on the spell; and 6 on the R+C.
[6] Ezmerelda rolls a 6, making her Legends roll by margin 1.
[7] Ninefingers rolled a 10 on his Influence+Composure roll (4-) for a margin of -6. Ooops.
[8] Hrelgi rolls a 4 for a margin of 6, which is enough for a rend.
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