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Monday, December 10, 2018

The Ravenloft Chronicles- Shit Storm: Book One, Chapter Twenty-one

Barovia Blows

Dramatis Personae:
Tilea Aervavil'A'Sum, the Wild Elf Circle of the Moon Druid Barbarian
Scritch, the Weremonkey Squirrel Thief and Tilea's Animal Companion
Sachi Kno, the Vistani Weremonkey Thief
Tabitha Marie Lennox, the Human White Witch of Mystra, youngest of the Lennox triplets
Spot, Tabitha's Homunculus
Nikko, Tabitha's Flying Monkey familiar and Warlock of the White Witch
Azure, Nikko's Witch Light Familiar
Dot, the Tabaxi Cheetah Therinthrope Homunculus and White Witch
Pip, Dot's Flying Monkey Familiar
Speck, Dot's Homunculus
Isabella Catalina Hazelgrove, the Human Assassin and Scritch's Knight
Isabeth Katherine Hazelgrove, the Human Assassin and Catalina's sister and Knight
Sypha Alohrea Lennox, the Human Sorceress, eldest of the Lennox triplets
Agatha Leah Lennox, the Human Black Witch, middle of the Lennox triplets
Syndal Al'Vherin, the Four-year-old Human girl who Tilea released from an amulet,- kidnapped by Strahd, now working with Talmot Now cleansed of the soul brand clouding her mind
Clarah Kno, the Silver Dragoness and Sachi's insane wife

Comrades we have lost:
Pineck, Anvil's Horse- turned into soup by a cursed crate
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
Lythana, the Human Werewolf Order of the Ghost Slayer Blood Hunter- captured by the Talmot Wives, then turned evil mauled to death by Tilea
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 9, CY 745, Barovia, near Tser Pool

       I didn't want to kill this boy, but I knew the brain worm wouldn't leave him any other way. Tilea pointed out that it was essentially a parasite and I should try casting it out of him like I would any other parasite or disease. He resisted the spell, which did not surprise me in the least after seeing them shrug off my magic earlier. Then Sachi pissed it off and it began weeping blood-ooze. It was fucking gross. Kittie and Cat realized they were too vulnerable and went to Sigil to gear up. Sachi and Scritch flanked the boy and while Scritch managed to land a couple blows, they didn't do anything because he didn't have a dagger. It screamed in agony when Sachi's dagger plunged into its side.

       The scream sounded unearthly, as if four voices were screaming in perfect unison; it hurt out ears. Little black veins began crawling up the boy's neck, then it began swinging wildly- its last swing connected with Sachi and sent him flying; he went down when he landed. I revived the monkey and gave Scritch a blessing to help him in this fight. Sachi leapt back to it and stabbed it a few more times, prompting more of those bone chilling screams. It said it "wanted to do this nicely, but fine," then it began beating on Sachi, stole his dagger, and stabbed itself with it- exploding.

       The dagger was fine, it was like 500 feet away. Sachi was fine too. I decided to test if the daggers would return to our hands, just in case this happened again during our hunting- they did. Not long after this Kittie and Cat returned, geared up and set to deal with the worms. It was getting late by now and we all needed rest, so we returned to my Temple to rest for the night. We'd be back in to morning to start destroying the worms. Strahd said he'd locked down travel so they shouldn't be able to escape through the Mists.

       Once we were back I used a dream spell to contact my Sestras. I filled them in on the death of our parents and everything else. As I'd feared, neither of them wanted the title, nor could they take it; the soul brands had made them both barren. I didn't tell them about losing the Book or the strange amulet that had appeared around my neck after it vanished. I didn't want to worry them too much, they needed to heal. After filling them in, I went to bed.

       I knew I was dreaming. Everything was in greyscale. I was standing outside the manor, it looked exactly as it always had. Then suddenly I was in the halls, and I heard a faint buzzing or humming sound. For a moment I thought I'd imagined it, then I realized it was the tune of a lullaby Mother had sang to Aggie and I before giving up Sypha had turned her into a complete mess. Then I was suddenly outside, looking out over the gardens, and I saw a figure in the gazebo. I was now at the bottom of the steps to the gazebo, looking up at the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen. She had pale skin that almost appeared to be glowing and her hair was a beautiful black, in tight curls.

       "I've  been so looking forward to meeting you," she said. I'd moved again and was now in the gazebo with her. "I never thought this day would come. His plans never come to fruition. I thought you were too pure, too good to use it. I've got to meet you, to find you, because..." Her beauty began melting away, revealing a hideous, evil looking woman. "You're the one who released the Black Witch."

***** Kilencedik Honap 10, Temple of Mystra

       I awoke with a start. I hurried to the chamber my Sestras were in and used the dream spell again. I told them about the dream, losing the Book, and the strange amulet. They both had the amulets too, they'd appeared in the dreamscape for them. The amulets couldn't be removed either... This was bad.

       My Sestras said she had to find me and take me down, then she'd kill my Sestras. In order for Morgan Le Fay to reach her full power, she has to kill all three of us. She was our ancestor, a grandmother with several "greats" attached to the prefix. Somewhere along the line Le Fay turned into Lennox to remove the stain. The prophecy didn't mean that the three of us would become corrupted and destroy the world, it was that we'd use the Black Grimoire to release the Black Witch so she could kill us and destroy the world. Fucking prophecies need to be more specific.

       My Sestras said if I saw her I needed to run. We could not let her get me. They'd research what they could from the dreamscape; apparently Clarah had already visited them to fill them in on a few things. The Archivist was already on it, so hopefully between all of us, we'd find out what to do to take the Black Witch down. They reminded me to use my coven, something I wasn't used to having. The odd amulets we were now wearing would allow me to connect to my coven, my Sestras, and their covens. I had the Power of Three plus three covens backing me in this. I hoped it would be enough.

       They said we needed to protect the girls, as long as they were together they were safe. I needed to monitor them through Syn's blood. I was so glad I had that.

       Sachi and I met up with Tilea back in what was left of Barovia and the moment we got there I felt the Black Witch's presence. I warned Tilea and pulled Sachi and myself to the Sun Tree. I tried to pull Tilea too, but it didn't work for some reason. Morgan had found the girls. I told Syn to grab hold of Krynn and I'd pull them to me, but it didn't work. We'd have to get them away from her physically.

       Sachi got to the girls a little before me, and the Witch used him to try to get the girls, but they managed to fend him off. I did exactly the opposite of what my Sestras had just told me to do, and put myself between Morgan and the girls. Nikko "accidentally" sent Sachi to Tser Pool to keep him busy- I don't know why that worked when other things hadn't. I handed Syn a broom and told her to get herself and her sestra out of here. I tried to send Morgan into a maze, but the bitch resisted it. Scritch shrunk both of the girls, grabbed them, and bounced away. Morgan attempted to stop him, but he resisted her spell.

       Tilea crashed into the ground at Morgan and tried to slap the Witch into the ground. I realized she was the distraction, so I buffed her and got away. Tilea had turned into some kind of earth elemental, and she swallowed the Witch and began tunnelling down, deep into the earth. I eventually pulled Tilea out, leaving Morgan trapped deep underground, but I knew that wouldn't keep her busy for too long.

       We explained everything to Syn and Krynn, and poor Krynn became upset, the girl was sensitive. After much debate, the others decided that we were going to entrust a witch Tilea had gotten some big hexbags from in Sigil with the girls. And give this witch Grant's weapon. I refused to have any part in this. Unfortunately this witch- Rowena- insisted I come before she'd deal.

       Under her pale skin, red hair, and pointed chin, Rowena almost looked like a blood hag, but slightly different. Unlike a normal blood hag, but she wasn't a hideous mess that normal blood hags are. Whatever she was was powerful. I had a bad feeling about this, but as usual Tilea ignored me. This would bite us in the ass, I just knew it.

     Tilea traded the weapon for some bigger hexbags, and she wanted one of the Cats to be her apprentice in exchange for watching the girls. We offered to let her kill Sachias payment, since the little shit thought he was immortal, but he didn't want to test his belief. Once Cat agreed to be her apprentice, she instructed her to kill Sachi. She got him to near death, then healed him. Then the idiot ran his mouth, so she did it again. This was another witch's territory, so I couldn't interfere. Okay, I probably could have, but Sachi deserves to be taught a lesson about consequences every once in a while.

       Once the girls were "safely" with Rowena, we went to meet Clarah, who said we all needed to talk. We were supposed to be strategizing for dealing with the worms, but somehow Sachi and Clarah got on the topic of blowing up the entire domain of Barovia. They wanted to get Shaft and Morgan to Barovia first, and destroy it with them inside, but I doubted this would work.

       Clarah had found some good information for dealing with Morgan. Apparently to defeat her we have to let her get to full power first, which didn't sound like a good plan. The other option we had was to wake my Sestras and lock her away again, but we needed souls to heal theirs.

      I attempted to garner a divine intervention to help my Sestras, but it didn't work. I went back into the dreamscape and told them about the ritual that would heal their souls. I just couldn't do it myself, it was against everything I stood for. Aggie told me that I should just write the spell down and let it find its way to her coven; they'd do what needed to be done. While I didn't like it, I decided to follow her advice.

       Just minutes after I sent off the spell, Aggie's entire coven was at my door. While only two souls we needed to heal them, her entire coven sacrificed itself to bring them back. When I told them about the girls and Rowena, they told me she's been working with Morgan this entire fucking time. And those hexbags she'd given Tilea and the others were fucking microphones. She knows everything they've been up to. We had to get those bags away from our people now.

       Aggie and Sypha went to get the ritual to seal the Black Witch away again and to deal with Shaft. I tried to check on the girls through Syn's blood and couldn't sense them. I sent Sachi to collect them.

       They were gone. Rowena, Cat, and the girls had been seen going to the Hells to beseech Asmodeus to help them get through the Mists. When Kittie showed up and learned what had happened, she went to the nearest crossroads. A few minutes later, a portal opened in the Temple, and an exhausted Kittie stepped out. She was able to confirm that Rowena had the girls and was planning on making a stop in Barovia before leaving this reality completely.

       We needed to get those hexbags away from the others without their knowledge, which would be difficult. Tilea was being an uppity little bitch about the curse thing, which she fucking did to herself. I told her we had more important things going on right now than her petty bullshit and to just get her fucking ass to the Temple now. I had Kittie prepared to convince Tilea, since the bitch was apparently not going to listen to anything I had to say. We got the hexbags off of her and explained what was going on, eventually getting her to believe us.

      Tilea decided this all meant she needed to blow up Barovia. I don't know why they were suddenly so Hellsbent on destroying it, we had the daggers, so this was completely unnecessary. As always, no one listened to the voice of reason. Tilea left to blow it up while the rest of us worked on another plan. As soon as Tilea left, Clarah told us she'd recruited Narg to blow Barovia by punching the moon.

       We were going to make Sachi's paradise look similar to where Rowena would be arriving in Barovia. We planned on rerouting her transportation there, where we could ambush her and get the weapon and girls back safely. The Cats were planning on trying to reach the one with Rowena covertly, to break any hold the witch had on her.

       Sachi and Kittie went to speak to Mask once again and got him to agree to give us a sped up rest so we could take this on fresh and rested. He was not please about Barovia.

       After a while, I felt a rumble as Barovia was destroyed. I think someone warned Strahd, but I'm not really sure. That was it. The Domain that I'd felt so at home in was gone. At least I'd saved my people.

    When we were finished with our sped up rest, things were as done as they could be on my end. As we were getting close to showtime my Sestras returned, both smiling. Aggie had gotten the ritual, but we needed another adamantine sarcophagus, so she began yelling at the Shieldwalls to get it done now. Sypha had found the Black Witch and Shaft hopping around the planes, coming for me. She'd stolen his elemental sphere, so that should keep him busy for a bit. Tilea took it to hide it on the Elemental Plane of Water, now he'd definitely stay back for a little while.

       It was finally showtime. We had the ritual ready to go, the Shieldwalls were nearly finished with their work, everything was asset as it possibly could be. We opened the plane, and a web appeared over it, the energy was working, I think we may have done it! Sachi and Clarah disappeared into the paradise.

       In the paradise, Sachi found Rowena, Belmont, Cat, and the girls- bound and gagged. Sachi stepped up to face off with Belmont, while Clarah engaged Rowena. 

      Shaft was chasing Tilea through the Elemental Plane of Water, with her in the form a leviathan. 

       Aggie announced they'd found Belmont- in Sachi's paradise. We were debating how to get to him when the Black Witch appeared. She began ranting about Shaft's stupid rampage, and how little she cared about it all. She wanted her prize, she wanted her power. "And I'm going to get it," she said as her face began to melt. 

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