Tabitha Marie Lennox, the Human White Witch of Mystra, youngest of the Lennox triplets
Isabeth Katherine Hazelgrove, the Human Assassin and Catalina's sister and Knight
Kithri "Quickshadow" Tealeaf, the Lightfoot Halfling Werebat Order of the Lycan Blood Hunter and Ruin Raider- left to become Archivist
Forgrotken Anvilrocker, the Blugrim Forge Cleric of Moradin- killed by the Talmot Wives
Bruenar Shieldwall, the Shield Dwarf Shield Fighter the party hired- became the Harbinger of Apsu
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Tabitha's perspective, anything in italics is from a third party view since the Witch can't be everywhere at once.
***** Kilencedik Honap 7, CY 745, Temple of Mystra
I stared at Grant's mangled corpse in horror, falling to my knees at the sight. I tried to use a spell to speak with the dead on him, but it didn't work... he didn't really have a mouth anymore. Book cheerfully informed me that because Grant had been killed, there was no way I could use speak with dead on him. I was crushed... totally because we forgot to ask him where he'd stashed our weapon... not for any other reason...
Book told me a lot about consecrated souls, for some reason it had a ton of information on the subject. Apparently consecrated souls were originally created to combat the Outside, the pure energy of their souls protected them from the Outside's taint. Strahd made a deal with the Outside to begin the time loop, so the Belmont twins were created. Two consecrated souls: one to beat Strahd, the other to protect the people. But over time, the one who protected the people became twisted with jealousy, because the twin who beat Strahd was always the hero. Because of this, Shaft became the Dark Priest he is now.
Since we didn't know where Grant had stashed the weapon, Sachi decided to search his room. He found a bag and got hit with three serious curses. The Book started laughing hysterically over the curses Sachi was hit with; they were serious, but they would wear off in 24 hours. It took me seven tries before I removed the first one, and then Sachi asked how I could handle not being cute... I had no patience for that little monster. I stormed out. He'd be fine tomorrow. A few minutes later my coven asked me for permission to remove the curses on the monkey- I told them no, he'd be fine tomorrow. After hearing what the little monster said to me, they had no further questions.
I studied what was happening with my Sestras, since they were still unconscious, and discovered their souls had been hurt. It would take time we didn't have to repair their souls. Of course Book had a ritual for it, but it required me to siphon off the souls of others. I couldn't resort to something that drastic.
***** Kilencedik Honap 8, Temple of Mystra
Around midday, my clerics contacted me saying Tilea had brought Sachi in to have curses removed. I told them not to remove them, they'd be gone in a couple hours and I was teaching the little shit a lesson. A little bit later, I was informed that Tilea had tried to trick them into removing the curses, so they responded by renewing the curses on Sachi and placed new curses on Tilea. They'd be fine tomorrow, so whatever. Taking care of my Sestras was what mattered right now.
***** Kilencedik Honap 9, Temple of Mystra
A little after breakfast this morning, there was some commotion in the bazaar. People were arguing and yelling, accusing one man of killing another, but that man had no memory of doing it. There was an odd black goo trickling a little from his nose. It definitely wasn't blood.
Before we had time to do anything, another murder was committed. Sachi engaged the man and I used magic to hold him in place. Sachi tried to kill him, but Nikko put the man into a cage made of arcane force where he could safely stay while he calmed the fuck down. I turned to scold Sachi for attempted murder, when the cage suddenly fizzled out and the man punched Sachi. The two fought for a moment while every spell I cast seemed to just wash over him, he was somehow impervious to my magic. After a few moments the man bolted, and when we found him he was unconscious with no memory of what had just happened.
A Shieldwall was the next person taken over, and he managed to kill a couple people before two other Shieldwalls cleaved him in two. I spotted a little black squirmy thing leave the dead dwarf, which I guessed was the culprit. Tilea grew a tree around the outside of the Temple while I locked the entire Temple down. We would stay in quarantine until this was sorted out. I had agents on every floor searching for this thing, but it seemed to be in hiding. I couldn't even sense it with my magic.
It briefly took over Sachi, resulting in the death of thirty of my people.
I realized that the only way it could have gotten in here was if it was on one of my Sestras when we pulled them out of Shaft's realm. I found some of that black goo on Aggie, she was the delivery method. This was bad... There wasn't proof of any on Sypha, so hopefully this meant we were only dealing with one of this things.
Sachi wanted to try to catch it in his iron flask, that had a fuck ultraloth in it. I told him no, but Scritch released it anyways. The demon said the worm thingy was in Bruno- Tilea's dog- then it vanished. Sachi caught the dog in the flask, then opened it and said "if we didn't get you, kill someone." It killed someone... I hate that monkey sometimes.
The figure it was possessing told us it was here as a warning. If we didn't back off, Shaft was prepared to use thousands of those things and destroy everything. Literally. They wanted us to leave Barovia and not interfere with their plans; we had 24 hours to decide.
Sachi decided to instead toss a Well of Many Worlds at its feet; which did nothing. Tilea unleashed fire breath at it, aiming into the Well. Sachi did the same, they wanted to throw anything they had at it to find something to kill it. Turns out that well led right to Tiamat's domain... They'd been tossing attacks into it at her...
The Dragon Goddess responded with breath from all five heads... I evacuated everyone and everything except the person the worm was in, emptying the entire Temple with a thought. My Temple exploded, destroying the entire Village of Barovia. Again. The worm thing was in Sachi and he turned into a black dragon. I ordered my coven to grab as many people as they could and teleport everyone to Faerun. Our reduced numbers allowed us to get everyone. We lost 25% of the Shieldwalls and 50% of the Villagers.
I set up the Temple here and once everyone was safely inside, I went to speak to the Archivist. She had a book on these things- brain worms- but it was badly damaged.
It had been in Potidaea when Pharin blew it up. Kithri had a ritual that would allow us to see the book as it once was, but it's risky as fuck.
Since I was stuck in Faerun for the moment, I decided it was time to see my shitty parents. The manor was gone, completely destroyed. It looked like it had happened just a couple of days ago... If I'd followed up on seeing them after that maze I may have been able to save them. This means I'm probably the new Lady Lennox. A title I never wanted. But I didn't think Aggie would accept it, and Sypha didn't know our people, so she probably wouldn't want it either. I moved the Temple to my treehouse in the back of the property and put Dot in charge of planning a funeral for my parents in two days. I hoped my Sestras would be awake by then.
Sachi arranged for us to meet with Mask, to beseech him for aid. We had to meet him at a casino of Mask's I guess. While Tilea and I had been working on things, the stupid monkey had been partying. Tilea had found Krynn, Syn's twin and the two were together now. I stood off to the side, waiting for our audience, while the others enjoyed themselves. As I watched them, running through the list of things I needed to deal with, a familiar voice commented on this "den of debauchery." I turned and it was Grant! As I turned to hug my friend, excited he wasn't dead, he told me that he still was. Mask had favored him and decided to bring his soul here to run the casino. I was elated that he was here and not gone forever... because he's my friend... not for any other reason...
Grant told me we should head to the back room in about half an hour, and to tell the dealer "there's mice in the lair and we're here to check the drains." He also told me that the weapon was near Krynn.
When it was time, we were led to a hidden panel that opened into a private room. Grant was sitting at a table, and informed Sachi that Mask was not happy with him for saying the explosion of my Temple and Barovia was a group effort. As Grant talked to Sachi, Cat and Kittie decided I
liked Grant and began poking at it. I insisted I was upset he'd died because he's my friend, but they kept poking. I accidentally rose my voice a little, then turned beet red when everyone heard me. It was awkward...
Even if I did like Grant, we couldn't be together. He's
dead. Besides, if we were together, we'd have to have the sex, and I really didn't want to do that. With everything Mother had told Aggie and I about the sex, it sounded like if I had it with someone I cared about, it would be awful enough to change my feelings. I realized if I was stuck being Lady Lennox I'd have to do it at least once to produce heirs. Shit. I hoped Aggie or Sypha would take the title.
Grant put a large case on the table, pulling me back to the present and out of my internal embarrassment. The case contained three daggers made of a blackish-blue metal; it wouldn't open until it had blood from all three of us. He informed us that we were going to Barovia to murder all the leeches before they escaped into the Mists. The Mists couldn't stop the leeches from leaving, and there were three thousand of the fuckers in the Realm now.
If we managed to kill all of them, Mask would give us the key to Shaft's realm.
Before we left, Kittie asked Grant what it would take for Mask to return him to his physical form and let him leave the casino; it would require someone to take his place, but they had to be someone who was worthy in Mask's eyes. Grant said he didn't want to leave anyways, he loved his casino.
When we got back to Barovia, we headed straight for Castle Ravenloft. The guards didn't want to let us in, because we're usually here to annoy Strahd. Then they shot Sachi and knocked him unconscious. We got in eventually. The others told Strahd the brain leeches were in his sewers, so he sent us there.
Sachi ran off and a few minutes later he was dropped right into the sewer, with lead weights attached to his wrists, ankles, and tail, and they seemed to be stuck there with a curse. Apparently he told Strahd we couldn't make stone? That monkey never makes sense. Tilea shoved gillyweed in his mouth, so now he couldn't breathe air, and shoved him into the waste.
Kittie was talking to me about being interested in taking Grant's place so we could be together, which I would love- him being alive again... not the being together part... Even if I did like Grant like that, I'm sure he wouldn't feel the same way. He loves drinking, gambling, partying; literally none of the things I have any interest in. I'm always the one who stays in while the others party.
While talking to Kittie, Cat asked me to toss some chainmail at Sachi, so I did, not paying attention to what I was doing. Then Scritch asked me to put a healing spirit on Sachi, so I did, still deep in my conversation with Kittie. If I'd been paying attention, I would have noticed that those weights on Sachi were magnetic, and the chainmail was constricting around him; the only thing keeping him alive was that healing spirit. I just couldn't feel bad about this, the monkey kind of deserved it. To get the armor off Sachi, I sacrificed it to Mystra, beseeching my Goddess to refresh my magical energy- I was nearly tapped.
Then, because things weren't ridiculous enough, Scritch planted nine beans in the sewers... A geyser of water shot up, thirty-two shriekers appeared, a treant, a statue of Scritch that started berating him, a berry juice geyser, a blue campfire, and a fruit tree appeared. Tilea in a stroke of genius, decided to use her fire breath to get rid of the shriekers...
Strahd was relaxing in his study with a fine glass of Vale Elf, thinking to himself that he didn't need to worry about the group damaging his castle from the sewers when...
As Tilea's fire breath went off, the entire Castle rocketed into orbit. Everything, including Strahd was now orbiting Barovia. I turned into a void dragon so I wouldn't be harmed by the lack of oxygen. Tilea took all of us to the moon and left Strahd there.
Back on the surface, there was an invisible, magical barrier surrounding the castle's grounds. Tilea had gotten her hands on the deed to the castle, so we were able to go through the barrier with no problem at all. We saw something streaking back toward the ground from orbit, and we were pretty sure it was the sarcophagus Krynn had been in. Tilea told Sachi to go get it, but he wasn't willing to touch it, he was afraid the weapon was in there and it would destroy him if he touched it. He wouldn't even call Scritch to him to help him change the trajectory of the coffin. So it slammed into the ruins of the Village of Barovia and slid into the Mists.
We told Sachi to go find it. I asked Book if it could help us track it and it told me to open it and it would show me how. I opened it and black goo spewed out at me. I dropped Book and hurriedly wiped it off me and Tilea used a nasty looking storm spell at it... it vanished. I couldn't feel it anymore. I realized the Book had looked like it was made of human flesh before it disappeared.
Tilea stormed off to destroy a little island in a temper tantrum, then she went looking for Sachi. None of this was killing the leeches we were sent to deal with. Together, Tilea and Sachi found the coffin, and it ended up flying into the Tser Pool, killing the handful of Vistani who'd been camped there. Tilea began making a huge storm because she was having a hissy fit for some fucking reason.
While she was being useless, I pulled out my dagger and focused on it. It pointed me to a brain worm that was slithering toward Tilea. I chucked my dagger at it and it died instantly.
By this time, Tilea was trying to melt the adamantine sarcophagus in search of the weapon. I had a hunch it was on Krynn.
I showed Sachi how to use the dagger to find the leeches, and it pointed him to a Vistani boy I recognized as an orphan from my Temple. It told us it was going to take the daggers from us.
