Iron & Gold, Curse of Strahd
Chapter 22: An Invitation — Chapter 24: Assassination, Interrupted
Being a campaign of Curse of Strahd, with Mythic as the GM, and played with Iron & Gold.
If you have ever played or run through Curse of Strahd, let me know in the comments. I suspect it plays differently with this magic system.
23 - An Unexpected Side Quest[1]
Davian was not at all dismayed when Felewin said they would probably not return to the winery; the encounter with Strahd had shaken him.
They left the winery at dawn and arrived at Krezk before noon. Rather than letting them in, the guards called for Dmitri, who came to the gate.
“We have brought your wine,” said both Felewin and Hrelgi.
Inside there was a commotion as news of the wine wagon spread, and villagers arrived to help unload. The gates opened and Adrian guided the horses through.
Hrelgi muttered, “I said it because I promised him.”
“You’re right,” Felewin said. “I should have let you say it. If you want to deal with Dmitri, I can go talk to the Abbot about Ezmerelda.” Hrelgi looked shocked, as if this consequence hadn’t occurred to her.
“You shouldn’t go to the Abbey alone,” Ninefingers said to Felewin.
“I wasn’t planning on going alone.”
Ninefingers sighed. “Fine. I’ll come.”
“Uthrilir,” said Felewin apologetically. “If I take Uthrilir, we would be just two religious fellows.”
“Oh.” Grudgingly Ninefingers said, “Good point.”
“I don’t want any of us to be alone, so I was hoping that you’d stay with Hrelgi.” He looked down at the goblin. “Please.”
The goblin blushed (he turned a slightly darker shade of green), and he said, “All right.”
The barrels were off in moments, it seemed, and Felewin said to Dmitri, “We can come back in Krezk if necessary, correct?”
“Well…”
“You have your wine,” said Hrelgi.
Dmitri called to two of the men. “The barrel of Purple Crush goes into my wine cellar.” He saw the Abbot walking toward him. “Oh, no.” Dmitri fixed a smile on his face as the Abbot came up. “Good morrow, Your Eminence.”
“Dmitri! ‘Reverend Father’ or ‘Father’ is sufficient, as I have told you. One barrel for the Abbey, please.”
“The Purple Crush,” said Dmitri to the men carrying his wine.
The Abbot turned to Felewin for a moment. “Ah, Felewin, good to see you!” To Dmitri, he said, “Dmitri, my plan goes well, but I need a wedding gown for Vasilka. Not immediately, but in the next month. Vasilka is…well, about the same size as your beloved wife, Anna, though perhaps thinner. Unfortunately, there is nowhere in Krezk to get such a gown. Only Anna has the status for a gown of the right type, and she has none.” He said, “I do not trust my servants to procure one that is suitable.”
“There…there is no place to get one, your…uh, Father.”
“Oh, there must be seamstresses in Vallaki or Barovia.” He waved his hand carelessly.
“But we are not in Vallaki or Barovia,” Dmitri protested feebly.
“You can travel much more effectively than I can,” said the Abbot. “I have responsibilities at the Abbey. Now that Lord Strahd is not distracted by the soul of Tatyana, my plan to get him a bride is much more likely to work. I must present her at her best, so need a wedding gown for her. Otherwise, so many will die needless deaths. Possibly including you, hmmm?”
Dmitri asked the Abbot, “Is that a threat?”
“No,” said the Abbot. “Of course not.” The Abbot smiled. “If I know Strahd, it’s a promise.” The Abbot turned to the group. “Felewin, if you have a chance to come up and be Vasilka’s dancing partner again, I should most appreciate it.”
“I am afraid I will be busy fetching the wedding gown,” said Felewin. “The people of Krezk are not used to traveling and there are dangers on this road.”
The Abbot scowled and then brightened. “I am sure you will succeed, and then you can help Vasilka practice dancing. When you return.”
Felewin bowed his head. Ninefingers was busy punching Felewin in the back of the thigh to get his attention. Felewin held his hand out to get the goblin to stop.
The Abbot waved a cheery goodbye and walked off.
“What was that?” asked Ninefingers. “We are checking out a tower, then tomorrow night we’re meeting Strahd and dying. This is no time to be promising you’ll undertake a quest!”
“I couldn’t just let him threaten everybody. And we won’t die,” said Felewin. “Not before tomorrow night. Strahd seems dedicated to keeping his promises. Dmitri, it was the Abbot who took Ireena to the pool, correct?”
“Yes.” Dmitri looked worried, but added, “I have a message for you from Strahd. It’s back at my house. I didn’t think you’d be coming back.”
“Please run and fetch it.” Dmitri turned and walked briskly to his cottage.
“I’ll bet the Abbot had something to do with Ireena’s fate,” said Felewin.
Hrelgi said, “Maybe. I can get us to Vallaki, but they don’t exactly like us.”
“True. But we should be able to get in with your nifty new spell, arrange for the wedding gown, and get out before they find us.”
Ninefingers said, “Big ask. That ‘should’ holds many assumptions.”
“We just need to get to the business area—where the coffin maker was—find a seamstress, and make the arrangements. If all else fails, we go to the Blue Water Inn; we should apologize to Rictavio for stealing his scroll anyway.”
Hrelgi said, “We can give him one of the scrolls from Baba Lysaga.”
“Does one of them raise the dead?”
“Yes, but not the same way.” Felewin looked at her. “The body can only have just died, and the spell won’t grow back missing parts. Just brings the person back to life, and very weak.”
“It’s what we have,” said Uthrilir.
“I hope that’s good enough. What was the other scroll?”
“That one heals up to six people at once. I’ve made copies of them that might work, but I’ve never made scrolls before.[2]”
“When did you do this?” Uthrilir asked. “On what?”
“Last night. Uh….on wine labels. I had spares.”
Felewin started to say something and then shut his mouth. “Sure.” He looked around. “I wish we knew where Ezmerelda is.”
Ninefingers shook his head. “I still think it’s all a fraud. The quote-artifacts-unquote are items that Strahd couldn’t get or wants us to get.”
“Still possible,” Felewin agreed.
“He’s had hundred of years to find them.” Felewin shushed him.
Dmitri came running up with two folded sheets of paper. One was fine vellum with Strahd’s seal; the other was plain paper torn from a grimoire or journal. Felewin knew the vellum note was a copy of the invitation; he opened the other.
“Friends — Have received word that my mentor is in Vallaki; I must find him. I will be back in one or two days.” Felewin looked up. “Maybe we’ll see her in Vallaki, but I’m not going to look for her.”
“Well, we’re all going to go,” said Hrelgi.
“You don’t have to. We’ll set up a time for a rend so I can return…”
Hrelgi waved her hand dismissively. “Too much trouble and you should not be ordering a wedding gown for anyone. I doubt you can tell a gusset from a grommet.”
“Of course I can.” He paused. “Unlike gussets, I’ve heard of grommets.” Smiling, Felewin said. “Thank you.”
“We’ll see if there’s a Vallaki when we get there,” said Uthrilir. “I told you it was unstable.”
Felewin shrugged. “We try. It’s all we can do.”
The distance was such that Hrelgi had to make three rends, one after the other, to end up in St. Andral’s church. Ninefingers was most disconcerted by the change is smells: sweaty workmen, followed by pine forest, followed by some musky animal in pine forest, followed by the close smell of beeswax tapers in the church. “Well, at least we’re inside the wall of the village.”
Uthrilir said, “Father Lucian can tell us where to head.”
Hrelgi said, “I think that’s going to be a problem.” She pointed to the body of the father, prostrate by the door. Uthrilir gasped and started toward him.
A voice stoped him. “I doubt the late Father Lucian can tell you.”
Milivoj detached from the shadows, swinging his shovel at Ninefingers. There were three other young men there, all armed with clubs.[3] Ninefingers stepped up close to Milivoj.
“Hrelgi, check Lucian. We’ll cover you,” said Uthrilir. He stepped between the body of Lucian and one of the youths.
One of the boys said, “Who’ll cover you?”
Felewin strode up to the boys[4] and batted two with the flat of his sword. He said conversationally, “Problem with a club or shovel is it’s long and unbalanced. If the small guy gets in close…” Ninefingers was already trying to move in.
“You didn’t say there’d be fighters,” complained the youth opposite Uthrilir.
“Shut up!” said one of the ones opposite Felewin. “He’s paying us a lot of gold!”
Hrelgi checked Father Lucian for breathing. “Not breathing,” she said.
“I hit him and I killed him!” Milivoj hissed.[5]
“In a place of worship? Really?” Uthrilir said. He had his mace out and hit the young man’s side. They could hear ribs snapping. Hrelgi started reading from one of the scrolls.
Felewin hit again but one of the youths skipped back[6] out of range.
Ninefingers said to Milivoj, “I’m not a good enough fighter to try and not kill you, Milivoj,”[7] and stabbed him again.
“You did kill Lucian,” Felewin said. “We’re fixing that.”[8] He hit the one youth with the flat of his blade, knocking him out; the other youth screamed and ran to the far end of the room, unable to leave.
Hrelgi finished reading: Father Lucian suddenly screamed.
Milivoj cursed.
Uthrilir said to the youth against him, “I’d like you to consider carefully what you’re going to do.”
The young man said, “Milivoj will kill me!”
“I’d say that the late Milivoj will not be able to kill you,” Ninefingers said. He used his knife to guide away the next wild blow from Milivoj so the shovel thudded hard against the floorboards. They could hear Lucian sobbing.
Felewin[9] grabbed hold of the shovel. Milivoj refused to let go, but Felewin wouldn’t let it move.
Felewin said, “Who offered you money?”
Milivoj clutched one of his wounds. “A nobleman named von Holst. He offered me money for the bones. More than I’d need in a lifetime!”
Ninefingers said to his friends, “Fake name? Or fake nobleman?”
Uthrilir nodded. “Dmitri told us that sometimes Strahd goes about disguised. He’d gain by the loss of the bones. I assume this man paid part in advance.”
Hrelgi cast a second spell and Lucian’s sobbing quieted.[10]
“That doesn’t matter,” said Milivoj.
Uthrilir said, “It does to them.” To the youth opposite he asked, “Did Milivoj offer you more money than you could use in a lifetime?”
“Not that much,” admitted the youth. “Twenty gold pieces.”
The one at the end of the church said, “You promised me ten!”
Uthrilir said, “If he promised thirty, he must be have at least sixty.” He added to Ninefingers, “When you kill him, do not do it in the church.”
“Don’t kill him at all,” said Felewin. To the youths he said, “Go. Let your friends take you out of here and try to get their money.”
Felewin wrenched the shovel from Milivoj’s hands; the young man nearly fell over. Milivoj grabbed at a pew to steady himself.
Cautiously eyeing Felewin, one of the youths moved towards Milivoj in a crab-like motion and grabbed him. Felewin let the four of them go.
“Is that wise?” asked Ninefingers.
“I don’t want to defile a holy building. His associates will probably kill him. He might survive; belly wounds are not always fatal. I knew a fellow who was impaled and lived, though he couldn’t lift a bag of flour ever afterward.” Felewin turned to Hrelgi, “How is Father Lucian?”
“Alive. Barely. He will not be crippled, however, but he might take a couple of weeks to recover full strength.”
Felewin nodded. “We will help him to his bed.”
Lucian said, “No….no bed. I must…must do the noon service.”
“Is that wise?” asked Uthrilir. “I have never been dead, but I am sure it is not restful.”
“It was….awful. I did not feel the presence of Lord Morning at all.”
Felewin nodded. “I am sorry to press you on this, Father Lucian, but we need a wedding gown. The request was made with a threat of death.”
Lucian shuddered. “I do not wish death on anyone, not even Milivoj. Do you need the gown already made or must you commission it? Because the seamstresses are by the coffin-maker if you need to commission one, but I think my eldest sister has one, still, from her wedding.”
“Your sister is the wife of the Burgomaster?” Lucian nodded. “We are still trying to avoid the Burgomaster’s gaze. We will try to commission one.”
“Wait,” said Lucian. “Your goblin friend is…the most conspicuous. I have an altar boy robe that might fit him.”
“He’ll still be green,” said Uthrilir.
“The robe has a hood. Let him lead, and they will think it is Yesk, taking you on an errand.”
Uthrilir said, “Our thanks.”
Lucian managed a smile. “This is much easier than trying to approach my sister. In a while, I will have Yesk summon the guard to get Milivoj. Having been dead, I do not wish death on him.”
Felewin and Uthrilir helped Lucian to sit in the pew. He told them where Yesk and the robe were, and then the group left.
As suggested, Ninefingers led the way. Without trouble, they found the sign with a needle and thread. All of them went in.
The woman in the shop was short and slight and pinch-faced, as if decades ago, she had been left in the sun to dry. She looked at the four of them and paid attention to Hrelgi as the one most likely to wear a dress.
“You are strangers here,” she said. “I am Goodwife Janek.”
“We are strangers.” Felewin said, “We need a wedding gown.”
“Of course. I can prepare all kinds of wedding gowns, regardless of your cultural needs. I had a woman in here once, an adventurer like yourselves, and she wanted her gown in red. That was a difficult task but we were able to help. What kind of gown were you thinking of, young one? And is there a rush before…” and she held her hands in front of her tummy to indicate pregnancy.
“Not me,” said Hrelgi swiftly “No, not me.”
“There is a hurry, however,” said Felewin. “We need it within a month.”
“But a wedding gown?” Goodwife Janek asked. “We prefer them white, if there is a special wedding gown.”
“As fancy as you can manage in the time. She’s a tiny thing, the bride, maybe a half a head taller than you,” said Felewin.
“I cannot help you,” said Goodwife Janek. “We do not have white right now. Our linen is unbleached, fresh from the loom, and will take several months to bleach. My great-great-gran told me she learned that lye and sunlight work better than just lye, but I have never seen sunlight strong enough to help.”
Felewin asked, “Does anyone have enough bleached linen?”
Goodwife Janek looked at him with something like pity. “My eldest daughter is the source of all linen in Vallaki. We have linen available right now, not silk or samite or wool. Unless you have a source of fabric, we must use linen, and ours is fresh and oatmeal-coloured.”
Ninefingers said, “Not even for ready gold?”
“I would love the gold,” said Goodwife Janek. “But I cannot make the linen whiten faster. In Vallaki, it takes two months to bleach a bolt of linen.”
Uthrilir asked, “Could magic help?”
“I do not know of any magic that bleaches fabric,” said Goodwife Janek. “There are few wizards and fewer still who are willing to work with fabric or purify food.”
Hrelgi agreed. “I have never heard of magic to do it.”
Goodwife Janel said, “If you need a wedding gown in a month or less, the only thing I can suggest is the burgomaster’s wife, Lydia Petrovna. She has her old gown. I made it twenty years ago, and fixed it for her two years ago when she thought that her son would marry.” Goodwife Janek shrugged. “They did not marry.”
Felewin said, “You have been most kind.”
“Because you are strangers, here are the directions to the burgomaster’s home.” Goodwife Janek gave them directions to the burgomaster’s mansion, then bade them goodbye.
From the narrow cobblestone street, Felewin gathered them to an alley, so they wouldn’t be in the way, or as visible to the city guard. Felewin said, “We need to get to the burgomaster’s house. If we could get Father Lucian to speak for us, that would be good.”
“No; Lucian and his sister aren’t on speaking terms,” said Ninefingers.
“He’s not up to it, anyway,” said Uthrilir.
Felewin asked, “But how do we get in to see the burgomaster’s wife?”
“Well, we can sneak over with non-humans in our group and hope no one notices, or we could present ourselves for questioning,” said Ninefingers.
“Okay, sneaking in does sound ludicrous,” said Hrelgi.
“If you prefer, we head over to the Blue Water Inn, make our apologies to Rictavio, and wait to be arrested. I doubt we’ll have a chance to apologize to Rictavio once we get the gown.”
“And if she won’t give us the gown?”
“We steal it but it’s to save lives. And we’ll already be there, so it will be easier.”
“I hope it won’t come to theft,” said Felewin.
“I’m sure it won’t, but just in case, I won’t be with the group. In case they separate you and lock you up.”
“Good thinking, but they’ll wonder where you are. They do know you exist.”
Ninefingers shrugged. “I’ll be at the Blue Water Inn, apologizing to Rictavio. Hrelgi, did you use the scroll to revivify Father Lucian or your label copy?”[11]
“Label copy. Had to know if it worked,” she said. “I could use the scroll one if it didn’t.”
“Good. I have all the faith in your version, but if I gave him back a spell written on the back of a bottle label, there might be questions about its legitimacy.”
“Should you even wander the streets alone? You do look different than the locals,” Felewin said.
“Which is where the robe comes in handy.” He shook his head. “I won’t be on the streets long: Just to the Blue Water Inn, where I’ll hide. You’ll get the wedding gown, in which case you’ll come to the Inn, and if you haven’t shown up in about eight hands of the sky, I assume you’ve been arrested and go for the gown and for you. Hrelgi, I presume you can magic your way to the Blue Water Inn?”
Hrelgi nodded. “Tap room, the rooms we stayed in, or the privy.”
“Use your best judgment; all carry some risk of being seen. I’ll be hiding in Rictavio’s room or the stable.” Ninefingers grinned. “The privy is much too busy.”
“I’ve never been to the stable,” said Hrelgi sadly.
“If you need to, the top of the stairs outside our rooms. People don’t look up,” said Ninefingers. “Scroll, please?” Hrelgi gave him the revivify scroll, and he made sure the hood of the altar boy’s robe was up. “I’ll see you soon,” he said, and he left.
“Give him a count of ten,” said Hrelgi. “And off we go in another direction.”
The burgomaster’s mansion was quite close, and approaching through the commercial district, as they did, they missed most of the guards; those they did see were busy. Two houses away, Uthrilir stopped them and guided them into a space between houses. “Hrelgi, can you look at the burgomaster’s over for magic? I want to make sure we’re not walking into some place that’s gimmicked against wizards, and our trap expert is heading over to the Blue Water Inn.”
“From here I can’t tell you what the trap is,” said Hrelgi.
“I just want to know if there’s lots of magic or a little.”
Hrelgi took out her book and started flipping pages, muttering to herself. “Use ge to get closer…okay, got that.[12]” She muttered the words and looked at the threads with her inner eye.
“Nothing on the ground floor, a little above, probably artifacts, and a wizard in the attic.” She paused a moment. “Not a very good wizard; his wards are awful.”
“But nothing meant to keep wizards in?”
Hrelgi focused on the real world again. “Nothing like that. I saw something weird but you have to expect that with artifacts. You don’t know how old they are or what magic styles were in use at the time.”
Felewin said, “All of this is interesting, but we really need to speak to Lydia Petrovna. We don’t actually care about the Burgomaster except to get to her. Ideas?”
“Why don’t I go in and ask to see her?” Hrelgi said. “It’s not village business at all, so I don’t need to deal with the burgomaster.”
“Because you look like a Vistana.”
“I’ll change, silly. Don’t look.”
Turned away, Felewin said, “Uthrilir and I need a place to wait. Abandoned house? Not like Barovia, but we should be able to find something near.”
Uthrilir told Hrelgi, “Go ahead. We’ll wait here and if we don’t hear screaming in the next ten minutes, we’ll find a place to hide.”
“Done!” Hrelgi said. “Keep an eye out for me.”
Felewin said, “If we don’t find each other, go to the Blue Water Inn. If we don’t meet you there by tomorrow morning, we’re in trouble.”
Hrelgi looked at Uthrilir and said, “You promise you’ll be near?”
“Outside.”
Hrelgi nodded, then squared her shoulders and said, “It’s time to be an adult.”
Uthrilir nodded. “No time like the present.”
“Then I should go.” She made no move.
Uthrilir nodded again. “You should.”
“I don’t want to. I have to be a grown up and I’m barely fifty.”
“You’ll do fine,” said Uthrilir.
“You can do it,” said Felewin.
Hrelgi sighed and adjusted her cloak, then marched the three houses to the burgomaster’s mansion and knocked.
“I’m here to—” she started.
The man at the door said, “You’re a bit early for the tea, and you’re new. I suppose you’re a replacement for Goody Ulbrek, Morninglord rest her soul. Come in, scrape the mud off your boots there, and I’ll take you up to the tea room.”
Hrelgi obeyed, not bothering to correct him.
Across the street, Felewin and Uthrilir waited.
“Who knew all this social stuff involved so much waiting?” asked Uthrilir.
Felewin laughed. “It’s interminable. The waiting is one of the reasons why I would rather be a knight or a hunter than a king.”
“Don’t you wait as a hunter, too?”
Felewin shrugged. “Different kind of waiting.[13] Compared to my brothers, I’m not very good at etiquette and court politics. Beating people up for a noble cause, that’s more what I do.”
“You sound like Ninefingers.”
“I might have been listening to him for, oh, six months.”
“Huh. I thought you’d been together longer. Hrelgi and I have been exploring for four years.”
“That’s how long you’ve had the relic?”
Uthrilir shook his head. “I’ve had it longer. But it’s how I met her. She was being attacked by three men, and I stepped in.” Uthrilir smiled. “You’ve seen how I can get with the relic…berserk and bloodthirsty. It’s why I’d rather talk than fight. She talks me down, and patches me up when I can’t help myself. Should we go?”
“Let’s give her a moment; disasters have a way of happening after a pause.”
“She’ll be fine.” Uthrilir said, “We have been standing here for a long time and there has been no sign of life in this house. Shall we?” There were two doors, one front and one back; Uthrilir walked to the back door and looked at it. “Can you force it?”
Felewin looked around to make sure that no one was watching them, and then applied his weight.[14] After a slight cracking sound, the door opened easily. They slipped inside and Felewin closed the door behind them.
Game Mechanics
