The Ravenloft Chronicles- Shit Storm: Book One, Chapter Nine

The Mists of Time

Dramatis Personae:
Tilea Aervavil'A'Sum, the Wild Elf Circle of the Moon Druid Barbarian
Scritch, Tilea's Squirrel Animal Companion
Sachi Kno, the Vistani Weremonkey Thief
Tabitha Marie Lennox, the Human White Witch of Mystra
Nikko, Tabitha's Flying Monkey familiar
Bruenar Shieldwall, the Shield Dwarf Shield Fighter the party hired

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
Syndal Al'Vherin, the Four-year-old Human girl who Tilea released from an amulet- kidnapped by Strahd

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. 

***** Hetedik Honap 16, CY 735, Waterdeep

       It was approaching the witching hour, which was when Agatha's people were most likely to find me. I wanted to head back to Barovia, but Tilea and Sachi wanted to keep shopping. So I used a one use item I'd purchased that gives you a pocket mansion so I'd have somewhere safe to hide from my sestra's spies. Bruenar decided to stay in the mansion with me so I'd have company and protection, while Sachi and Tilea went looking for the black market.

       While they were out, Bruenar stepped outside to get some air and a guard saw and recognized me. Bruenar lived up to the name Shieldwall as he protected me from Aggie's spy, and I shot it with bolts over Bruenar's shoulder. I didn't like killing random people, but I had to keep myself hidden from my sestra.

       Sachi and Tilea stumbled near dawn. Apparently they'd gotten inducted into the thieves' guild, and they'd gotten a ton of gold anda luck blade from an idiot who attempted to rob them; they counter-robbed this guy.

       Once they'd sorted their new items, Sachi wanted to plant a magic bean, so we went back into the woods where we fought the bunnies the day before. The bean turned into a geyser of beer. Then a nest of eggs appeared; turns out Scritch had stolen a bean and planted it while we were focused on the beer geyser. Tilea and Bruenar each ate an egg, while Sachi threw one at Tilea causing it to explode on her shield. As Tilea wound up to throw one back at Sachi, he passed out from drinking too much of the geyser. It exploded, and she threw another one at him, just for the fuck of it. Scritch devoured the last egg while I revived Sachi. He then planted another bean and it sprouted into a blue fire.

       The others were ready to head back to Barovia now, but I couldn't take anyone with me through the Mists. Bruenar knew of a way though, so we followed him. As we traveled, a fruit tree appeared in the road- another bean.

       After about thirty minutes, we noticed a stupidly obvious shadow following us. Tilea called at the figure to just come out, and the idiot made the mistake of trying to shoot her. Scritch snuck up behind the figure and knocked him out. It was the guy they'd counter-robbed last night, trying to get his revenge. A couple of thieves' guild members popped out of the bushes and told us they'd deal with the idiot; he was the guild master's son, and he was trying to win respect by getting his stuff back.

       We arrived at a quaint little cabin in a clearing in the woods about an hour later; there was faint music coming from it. Bruenar knocked and it took a few minutes before a deep, growly voice asked "who is it?" Tilea told the voice we were travelers, and the voice asked of what. She said the Mists, and the door opened. A big half-orc with long, frizzy hair and a prominent widow's peak on the other side of it. The man asked if we wished to go into the Mists, and Tilea said we didn't really wish to go. He shut the door and we could make out hushed voices on the other side of it for a couple of minutes. Then he opened the door again and asked if we desired to return to the Mists; we said yes and the door opened the rest of the way.

       Steam came billowing out of the cabin and we entered a large room- much larger than it seemed to be on the outside. The room was a stereotypical witch's den, with a large cauldron in the center and animals in cages lining one of the walls. A human and a halfling, each holding a ritual dagger, were standing at the cauldron; they used the daggers and their ritual appeared to go off.

       They were all a bit creepy, made my skin crawl. They asked what we would pay for them to send us through the Mists, and Sachi asked how much money they wanted. He was sitting on Tilea's shoulder, in his little monkey form, and these people thought he was awakened; they asked us to awaken a few of their animals, and I told them I could do three tonight and a couple more in the morning. That was a sufficient payment, and they told us their home was open to us if we didn't question their practices.

       In the night we heard chanting to Zaul-Guud, whoever that was; it sounded like they were warlocks or attempting to make some sort of deal. I felt an unnerving energy rise, and heard an animal squeal in pain, followed by a plunk as something was dropped into liquid. We heard this repeated two more times... I managed to keep Tilea from killing them because we needed them to get back to Barovia to save Syn and Lythana. She asked me to put the thorn whip spell in a gem for Scritch, she wanted to pull them to Barovia with us.

***** Hetedik Honap 17, Cult of Zaul-Guud's Cabin

       The odd people asked us to awaken a ghost scorpion, a wolverine, a badger, and a king cobra in the morning; there was no sign of the animals I'd awakened yesterday. Tilea wanted to awaken a flying snake, but they wouldn't let her. She asked them to just send us now, but they had to perform a ritual first, which required them to kill the animals I'd just awakened.

      Before they could kill any of the animals, Sachi tried to steal the athame from one of them, but he caught him and hit Sachi with a nasty-looking spell. Scritch popped up and hit the halfling and Tilea stabbed it; it attempted to hit Tilea with a spell, but she resisted it. Sachi killed the half-orc with ease as Tilea beheaded the human, calling out for their god to manifest on this plane. Since there was no way in any of the Hells we'd be able to get home from these people, I shot the halfling with two blasts of pure arcane energy, killing it.

       We began letting all of the animals out of cages, and I attempted to befriend the flying snake, but it bit me and flew away. I chased it and awakened it. But just as I awoke the snake, a large demon rose out of the cauldron, and all of the people's animals died; Nikko and Scritch were fine. The demon asked who awoke it, and Tilea responded by telling him to send us to Barovia or we'd kill him. He said he could only bring the Mists here, the people we'd just killed were the only ones who could send us there.

       Tilea opened an iron flask and released an ultroloth, then offered it Zaul-Guud's soul... It saw through that, since we didn't actually have his soul. It tried to convince Tilea to release it, but she didn't fall for its nonsense. She told it to take us to Barovia, but it couldn't do it, so she put it back in the flask. Zaul-Guud got pissed and took us to the Hells with it; guess it was a devil, not a demon. Bruenar somehow wasn't taken with us.

       Zaul-Guud moved his hands to cast something, but I countered it. He got pissed and screamed in rage, deafening Nikko, Scritch, and Sachi. Sachi let the ultroloth out of the flask again and told it to defend us. I sent a bolt of electricity at him, but he dodged it; I also had Nikko restore Sachi's hearing. Tilea shifted into some kind of enormous moth, and the ultroloth summoned a swarm of demons as backup. It told them to destroy the flask, but it was safely stored in a haversack. Zaul managed to banish all but one of the demons the ultroloth had summoned, but at least that took its attention off of us long enough for me to take us to the Beast Lands.

       After some debate, we decided to wish to rewind time to just before we met the cultists. We erased Tilea's memory of the first encounter, and would not reveal that we could awaken animals.

***** Hetedik Honap 16 (take two), Cult of Zaul-Guud's Cabin

       We paid the cultists twenty-five thousand gold to send us back this time, and we camped outside in a Hut to hide from Tilea the animal sacrifices.

***** Hetedik Honap 17 (take two), Cult of Zaul-Guud's Cabin

       In the morning their ritual was ready to go when we went back into the cabin, and they were all at their cauldron. They instructed us to line up, and the Mists swirled around us, whisking us back to Barovia. We were just outside the Village, and we went straight to my Temple to send a message to Syn.

       There was a message waiting for me from Belmont asking where the Hells I was and saying serious shit was going down. I sent Belmont a message: "Strahd kicked us out, took a couple days to return. Where do you need me? What's going on? Tilea wants to storm castle and get Blessed One." A moment later he responded with: "Blessed One is currently assaulting the Village of Barovia. Talmot and Wives are at Ravenloft. Army is amassing to assault Faerun and other planes."

       While I was sending my message to Belmont, Tilea realized her dog and cat had aged... significantly. Somehow, they had aged ten years in just a couple of days. Something was very wrong.

       Zaul-Guud remembered the party's actions even though they had wished it away, so as revenge he held the party back for ten years instead of letting them through immediately. 

       We went into the Village, and it was as peaceful as ever. The priest of Lathander at the church that had been fully rebuilt, told us Syn was in Vallakai, threatening to lay siege to the town. Of course Tilea wanted to head straight there to talk to Syn, so we decided to use a spell to step through a tree, and we'd summon Bruenar when we got there. Just as we were stepping through the tree, Sachi called Bruenar, slamming him into it. When we got to the other side, we were about an hour away from Vallakai; and Bruenar greeted Sachi by slamming a tree trunk into his face.

       We were almost there when Tilea decided to venture into the army encampment alone to look for Syn. She flew off as we continued walking toward it, just off of Lake Zarovich, and as we grew near, a voice called out and asked us to state our business. We told him we were just passing through and he told us to turn around, then the idiot shot and poisoned Sachi. I asked Bruenar to retrieve him alive, and after he'd been knocked out, we found a symbol of the Resistance on him; apparently the encampment was a Resistance installation.

       Belmont looked like he'd seen a ghost when we walked into the camp, he'd thought I was dead. I pointed out I'd just talked to him like an hour ago, and apparently he hadn't gotten the message- Strahd must have intercepted it and sent the reply. He quickly brought us up to speed on the last ten fucking years. Evidently Strahd had figured out a way to send an army through the Mists, and Syn was the key to that. Since we never came back, Lythana was never rescued and eventually fell to the other side. Thanks to our appearance in the camp, and the message that had been intercepted, the Resistance was warned that trouble was coming, and everyone began to pack up quickly.

      Around that time, Tilea arrived- apparently after seeing that the encampment was Resistance, she'd flown to Vallakai to look for Syn. She said they were sending dragons from both the south and east to pin us against the lake. Someone came up with the idea to fabricate a bunch of boats to evacuate the camp, but I pointed out the flaws in that plan: Talmot had Vallaki, so we couldn't go there, and there were no other towns on this lake. And the fucking dragons could easily just sink the boats and drown everyone anyways. At least on land we had a chance to fight, in the water we'd be sitting ducks.

       Tilea pulled me aside and told me Agatha was here and Talmot instructed someone to tell her I was. I hoped I wouldn't have to face her, I just wasn't quite ready yet.

       Bruenar went out to scout and found the army wasn't heading here, it was heading to Castle Ravenloft; Tilea took off to warn Strahd, since he was better than Talmot, or Talbutt as Tilea had started to call him. With this new information, we decided to come up behind Talbutt's army and flank it, hoping that between the Resistance and Strahd's forces, we could take him down. I hunkered down to make candles to protect our front line as much as possible, using a spell to help ward against death and one to protect from evil. It wasn't much, but it was the best I could do in the little time I had. Belmont sent Sachi to get Grant, we'd need him in this fight.

       Tilea called upon the spirit of Tatiana, Strahd's love who he's in a constant loop losing. She thought having the spirit of Tatiana, since she hadn't been reincarnated yet, would help her deal with Strahd. 

       We were preparing to march when two of the wives began flying in our direction. I sent Tilea a message to get her butt back here, but she was still at the Castle. Bruenar decided to go deal with the dragons on his own and charged off.

       Sachi went out with the scouts and saw Lythana and Corvane. He came crashing into camp saying they were behind him; we saw Corvane, but no sign of Lythana. I tried to banish Corvane, but it didn't work. Belmont went at her with his whips, and our forces tried to take hit her, but they weren't trained to fight something like her. Corvane hit Sachi hard, just before Lythana flew at me, landing a blow that made me see stars for a moment. Sachi wished Lythana wasn't evil and she stiffened for a moment, something shifted in her. I told her I would never abandon her, we had planned to save her, and instead of a couple days we were gone a decade.

       I tried banishing Corvane again and noticed this time that she had something to keep me from doing that to her again. Tilea asked Corvane why she was working against Strahd- apparently she'd quit working for him ages ago. Lythana seemed to be thinking about stepping out of the fight, but Corvane reminded her she was bound and had to take us to Talmot whether she wanted to or not. Grant stepped out of the treeline then and approached her. He'd been preparing for years to take her down.

       The woman who looked like me- not Aggie- stepped out then too. Apparently she was my eldest sestra, mother gave her to the Mists when we were days old to prevent the prophecy. Mother wasn't drunk when she spoke about the prophecy... This was not the place for a peculiar family reunion though, Corvane and Lythana wouldn't just sit by and wait to continue the battle until my apparent sestra and I talked things out.

       Tilea turned into a draken and went for Corvane, while Sachi tried to use one of the trapped spell gems on her, but it didn't work. A couple of our troops managed to hit Corvane- I was amazed. Bruenar was back and he picked up one of our guys, using him as a weapon to beat on Corvane. Corvane unleashed a series of attacks on the ones closest to her and collapsed. Sestra dropped a ton of fire on our army, decimating our numbers. Sachi tried to put her in the flask, but it didn't work.

       I didn't want to fight my sestra, but I couldn't have her killing my army, so I banished her and shot Corvane with bolts of pure arcane energy. Tilea lunged at Corvane and missed, then Belmont hit her with a blue fire and she screamed in agony. A deafening roar belted out over the trees as a gold dragon and a silver dragon- Farrah and Clarah Talmot- flew into view. Belmont and Sachi ran in terror just before they both used their breath weapons on the army; everyone was dead except for one human.

       Corvane hit Tilea and knocked her out of the air, then Bruenar began beating on her; I smacked her hard with a bolt of lightning. We called out for everyone to fall back, but Tilea couldn't get away from Corvane. Bruenar solved that problem by chopping the bitch's arm off to free Tilea, then as Corvane lunged at him, he farted and fled- I was glad I was in the air for that. Tilea grabbed Bruenar and flew off, and I grabbed the one mother fucker who'd survived and used my dimension door to get away.

Waterdeep: Map by Wizards of the Coast

Adventures in Oerth- The Bane of Vecna: Book Two, Chapter Eleven

Infiltrating Castle Ravenloft

Dramatis Personae:
Aurora Isilime, the Valley Elf Bard of Valor and Bae'qeshel of Lolth, the Silver Tongued Siren, Knight of Summer
Charlotte, Aurora's violet Faerie Dragon familiar
Eurydice, the Faerie Dragon Feylock, formerly Aurora's familiar
Aiden, Eurydice's Sprite familiar

Dervish, the Kasathe Brass Dragon Fighter and Dragon Blood Sorcerer, Knight of the Erl King

"Shadewing" Corvis Cairunis Umbrusalarim, the Shadow Elf Hexblade Warlock and Knight of the Raven Queen
Cloak, Shadewing's Empty Cloak familiar
Alfred, Shadewing's Raven familiar 
Alucard, the ancient all-powerful wizard; formerly Oryn Talus, the ancient and mysterious halfling who has employed the party; also know as Cinder, the ancient power that is said to destroy every world

Lan El'Mandragoran, the Human Paladin of Pelor

Aerathema, the Wood Elf Druid

Narg, there's really no way to describe Narg, Narg is just Narg
Elder Vish, Dervish's friend and mentor from his world, Knight of Spring
Sil'ilos'anon Braz'Dracon, the "Drow" Warlock Blood Mage of Lolth, and the new DEATH
Ralliakkan, the Drow Rogue, Knight of Fall
Ceidil Rein, the Human Champion who serves as Eurydice's Knight
Mara Nemestk, the Human Champion who serves as Ceidil's Knight

Comrades we have lost:
Pharin Braz'Dracon, the Brass Dragon-Drow Conjurationist Wizard and Priest of Lolth- returned to Faerun
Andolin Braz'Dracon, the Brass Dragon-Drow Fighter/Beast Master- returned to Faerun
Lothar, the Sovani Smith and semi-Cleric of Moradin, High Priest of Lolth, Cleric of Istus, forced Cleric of Asmodeus; Kas Reincarnated - sacrificed to resurrect Alucard
Oryn Talus, the ancient and mysterious halfling who has employed the party- fractured himself into 4 parts to prevent cult from taking his soul
Willow Liadon, the Eladrin Arcane Trickster- sent to Elysium through a trap and was never heard from again

NOTE: Things will be mostly from Aurora's perspective. Anything in italics is from a third person since the bard can't be everywhere at once.

***** Lacysnows 27, CY 710, City of Brass

       We got bored with Sigil after a while and decided to head to the City of Brass. It was cold, and we didn't see anyone. As we looked around, something skittered across the road... we didn't stick around to find out what it was. 

       I put Nystul's Magic Aura on my Lolth Blade to mask its energies and shifted us to Dis. Things were much more normal in the Nine Hells. There were a few more guards than normal, but otherwise, it looked pretty much normal. We spent the rest of the day shopping. 

***** Lacysnows 28, Potidaea

       In the morning, Dervish opened an iron flask he'd picked up while we shopped, and out came Rikkle- the dude we met briefly right before I put on the corrupted ring. He decided to help our defenses by making explosives, so I helped them find what they needed in Potidaea. Of course, we had a shitload of gunpowder and cannons in one of the long-abandoned rooms in the College.

       Vish was bored, so he went drinking in Dis. Shade and I went to the Shadowfell to go shopping. A shopkeep offered us draws from the Deck of Many Things; Shade and I declined, but Eurydice and Ceidil decided to draw. Eurydice got the Sun and the Rogue; Ceidil drew the Knight, and Mara joined us; Mara decided to draw and got the Gem, Jester, Star, Sun, Balance, and Vizier. Overall, it was a lucky and rather dull set of draws.

***** Needfest 4, CY 711, Free City of Greyhawk

       After our week of preparations, we met Alucard in the City of Greyhawk and learned that he was the one who had been turned into Eurydice's enemy by the Deck. Thankfully, she had wishes, so she was able to wish he didn't hate her, saving her neck. 

      We were going to Castle Ravenloft to find the scroll, and we had a wayfinder that would take us to it. Alucard said there was no way we could sneak around and there'd definitely be a small welcoming party waiting for us. He would keep Vecna occupied while we tracked it down.

       Alucard began chanting and our scenery became star-like for a moment, then the sky darkened and howls of rage echoed around us. With an abrupt lurch, we were in an old, decayed, decrepit, landscape, and there were vultures circling overhead. Standing in front of us were some twisted-looking pit fiends and balors. One of Narg's tattoos flashed, he vanished, and all of them were dusted. 

       With them out of the way, Alucard ran forward, right into a pillar, and vanished. We found ourselves looking at a pair of big stone doors. Shade began reading some of the runes on it, and of course, they were fucking exploding runes. Eurydice, Ceidil, and Mara went down instantly, but I revived them quickly. The pillars began to rumble and change. Shade attacked one of the pillars and it attempted to steal his sword. Some undead creatures began to appear around us, and Shade dusted a few of them. But there were more pillars and more undead rising. This didn't look good. 

       Dervish said it was time for one of our bombs, and dimension doored up. I grabbed Mara and stuck her on my broom, and Ceidil and Eurydice grouped together. We dimension doored up too, and Shadewing shadow stepped up. Because Dervish loves being a pain in my ass, he began arguing over who should drop the bomb. Then some of the creatures below us began to fly. Shadewing said "drop it," and Dervish and I both dropped bombs... 

       Had Eurydice not used a wish, I would have dropped mine right on her head. Everything in the courtyard area we were in was demolished instantly. Oops? Ceidil and Mara were hit by falling debris and died again. Those two were fucking useless. 

       Vish said an earthquake was coming, and a couple seconds later we felt it as Alucard and Vecna burst out of the rubble. As they engaged in a fucking insane battle, Dervish figured out the general area of the fucking scroll. He took Vish and Shade to sneak around to find it. Before leaving, Shade tossed a spell at Vecna to prevent him from healing; hopefully, it would do Alucard some good. 

       Alucard grabbed Vecna and began flying; the sky started shifting and twisting violently, growing darker as it moved. Suddenly, the sky seemed to expand, then collapsed in on itself, before exploding in a flash of light. I could just make out two figures falling in opposite directions. 

       Shade and Dervish found the scroll, and I grabbed Ceidil and Mara's bodies. Dervish attempted to use a word of recall, but it didn't work; then Eurydice and I both tried to plane shift to no avail; Dervish finally managed to punch through whatever was blocking our magic. 

***** Needfest 5, Free City of Greyhawk

      The sun was rising as we arrived back where we'd met Alucard in Greyhawk. Three minutes went by before a portal opened up and Alucard fell out. We could see Vecna for a brief second before it closed. Things hadn't gone expected, but we'd gotten the scroll, so I guess mission accomplished. 

       Alucard explained to us part of how the Outsiders were turning the Beacons red. They'd created Mantles for their mortal followers- Knights and Emissaries, just like the fae had. This gave them something of a foothold in our realm and let them fuck with things. 

       By this point, only a single Beacon remained that wasn't red- the one in Blackmoor. We were in no shape to deal with the Beacon today, so we decided to rest for the night before heading to Blackmoor. 

***** Needfest 6, Eru Tovar

        We were going back to where it all began. The place we needed to go for the Beacon was the same place where the gala Oryn held that brought us all together had been. Of course, the spell to get us there didn't fucking work. We ended up 240 miles away, in the smoldering ruins of Eru Tovar. Shade found a shadow road, but it went about 100 miles in the wrong direction, so that was fucking helpful.

       I did a legend lore to see if I could find the exact location of the Beacon, and to see if maybe it was a key to stop the cults; the results were fucking weird. "The Gate lies beyond the mountains, where you're unable to see. The door is locked and has been for an eternity. The key is gone far from its homeland."

       We decided to use the Ethereal Plane to get to the Beacon, and discovered that the Beacon's light ran all the way to the very core of the world. Suddenly, Eurydice hissed and a cloaked figure appeared. He babbled as he spoke, not completely making sense: he didn't expect us to come here... we just got our Mantles we don't even know the power we have... why would we come here... we're barely a feast... it'll give us to its god. Then he began floating toward us. I told Shade to get us the fuck out of here.

       I told Shade to get us the fuck out of here. Dervish began launching arrows at him and only hit him once. Black ichor oozed from the wound instead of blood. As the ichor ran down his arm, he began looking more twisted, and we were suddenly shunted out of the Ethereal Plane. 

       "If I kill you here, I can eat your souls," he said, cackling madly. 

       Eurydice sent Ceidil and Mara to Potidaea so they wouldn't die again. Shade, Dervish, and Vish all managed to hit him- and thankfully he missed them in his attempt to return fire. I attempted to feeblemind him, but it didn't fucking work. A bright purple flame began to surround him, and suddenly there were four of him- fucking mirror image. Time slowed as the other three of him appeared; he hit Shadewing once and Shade looked bewildered; he grabbed at Vish; then he hit me hard. 

       Aurora went insane from the blow and keeled over, a gibbering mess. Shadewing exchanged blows with him briefly, before Shade was hit with madness, and keeled over, in just as bad of shape as Aurora. As Shade crumpled, the man vanished. 

All maps by Anna B. Meyer