Something Wicked This Way Comes: A New Class for 5th Edition

Happy Halloween!

Here is the Witch class we made for Tabitha. If you use it and like it, let us know! We'll also take suggestions for other archetypes for witches. You can get the PDF here.

This was created at The Homebrewery, an amazing resource for people who make their own content.

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

The Lennox Triplets

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
Spot, Tabitha's Homunculus
Nikko, Tabitha's Flying Monkey familiar and Warlock
Dot, the Homunculus and White Witch
Pip, Dot's Flying Monkey Familiar
Bruenar Shieldwall, the Shield Dwarf Shield Fighter the party hired
Isabella Catalina Hazelgrove, the Human Assassin and Scritch's Knight
Isabeth Katherine Hazelgrove, the Human Assassin and Catalina's sister and Knight
Junior, the Half-Orc New Guinea Singing Dog

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
Syndal Al'Vherin, the Human girl who Tilea released from an amulet- kidnapped by Strahd, now working with Talmot

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 25, CY 745, Farrah's Lair in Mount Ghakis

       After much discussion, Bruenar eventually gave us the ingredients for a satchel for me, for only one hundred million gold. I tried to teleport back to my Temple to work on it, but discovered it wasn't working. I asked Tilea to ask Strahd to turn it back on, since she's buddy buddy with him, but she didn't do it. Catalina and I ended up working on the satchel at Bruenar's instead.

***** Hetedik Honap 27, Outside Castle Ravenloft

       Sarah was flying around near the Castle, and she seemed to have more enhanced power. We were pretty sure Talbutt was feeding her power from the Heart. We needed to cut him off from the Heart completely to take him down. Bruenar thought he could remove the souls from the Heart and absorb them into himself. Tilea wanted Junior- the half-orc boy she won in a drinking contest who was reincarnated into a dog- to be the one to do it, but I objected; that child was too weak to handle this. After a bunch of bickering we decided to flip a coin, and it landed on Bruenar. He wanted to get drunk just incase he died tomorrow, so we headed back to my Temple.

***** Hetedik Honap 28, Temple of Mystra

       Bruenar was gone in the morning. He left a note saying he went to get the souls without waking us because he didn't want to risk us doing something stupid before he could get it done. The note said we needed to just keep an eye on Sarah, and we'd know when she began to lose power.

       We decided to draw Sarah away from the front lines, to try to reduce casualties of our allies. Cat decided the best way to do this was to paralyze Sachi, turn him invisible, and throw him into the middle of the army. He blew up a circlet of blasting right in the middle of them. She turned the rest of us invisible too and we began dropping fireballs and and lightning bolts on the army, killing at least 150 soldiers. Sarah roared and began heading our way. After about two more minutes, she suddenly stopped moving and just hovered like something was wrong- hopefully Bruenar.

       After a while, we decided to antagonize Sarah a bit; Tilea turned into a gold dragon and I turned into a red. About a minute later Sarah began flying up; we followed, and she'd occasionally stop to let us start to catch up before speeding away. Eventually she stopped, and with a flurry of wings and a shockwave she turned around... She had six heads.

       Scritch randomly gave Junior, who'd been drug along with us, a potion and told him to drink it if he feared for his life... he drank it and began screaming in pain before turning into a fucking pit fiend. Sarah screamed at Tilea in rage- I think our antagonizing may have been working at least a little. I got hit with her acid breath, and it killed poor Dot, who'd just wished herself to being a living being. Nikko grabbed her and reincarnated her into a Cheetah Tabaxi Shifter.

       Three of Sarah's heads began chanting in ancient draconic. I tried to use a spell to reduce her intelligence, but my magic seemed to wash over her. Cat was hurling daggers at Sarah, Scritch was trying to use a weird staff, and Junior was launching fireballs at her. Suddenly, all of her heads looked like they were in pain and her skin seemed to be cracking open, like an egg hatching, a red light was glowing inside. Tilea shot Sarah with a massive bow and she screamed in pain and began clawing at the arrow. I raked my claws over her and sunk my teeth into her.

       A message came through from Bruenar: Get ready. The spell three of the heads had been casting went off and the bitch healed completely. Then all six heads started chanting. Scritch dive bombed Sarah, leaping off of Tilea's back and slamming into her. Energy began to spark between the six heads, so we all launched a brutal attack on her. It was odd fighting physically instead of at a distance with my magic; I didn't really like it.

       Dark clouds rolled in as Sarah's spell went off and the earth began to shake. Then the dragon screamed in agony and the cracks appeared again, more than before. We all pounced on her. Black ichor began to seep out of the cracks and the red light began to glow brighter. Her screams were suddenly cut off by an instant fortress item appearing in her neck, severing her head. I rushed to her soul, used the satchel, and instantly absorbed her soul. I don't get why the others had so much trouble doing that.

       With the Wives dead and the souls removed from the Heart, we all climbed on Tilea's back and flew toward the frontlines to look for Talbutt to end the bastard once and for all. Someone turned us invisible for this so we'd have the element of surprise. I dropped daylight on a cluster of vampires but nothing happened. Either they weren't vampires or they were protected somehow.

       We spotted a group of people in black cloaks carrying something heavy. They saw through our invisibility, so we killed all of them, while Sachi slipped off the blow up the command tent. Turns out it was Talbutt they were carrying. Catalina jumped off Tilea and called her other six duplicates and they all threw special daggers into him; fifteen appeared in his chest, burning him badly before they vanished- presumably returning to the hands of their owners. Kittie jumped off Tilea and stabbed a sharpened bone into Talbutt's chest, he screamed in pain- as did all the nearby vampires grabbed their heads in pain too- as Kittie jumped back there was an explosion of bright light.

       It took about half a minute for the light to fade, and my ears were ringing for a bit longer. There was a pile of dust on the ground and scorch marks were everywhere. Kittie was unconscious, but Cat revived her; the girl had nearly killed herself in the process of killing Talbutt.

       I felt a familiar tug and realized Sypha was nearby; at the same moment, Tilea realized Syn was too- they were together. We rushed to the Castle, crashing through the gates, and Tilea stuck her head in the window of the throne room, announcing to Strahd that assassins were on their way in. I realized my Fates cards could remove the soul brands on both Syn and Sypha; I tried Syn first and hit some sort of wall. I tried using a wish to fuel the attempt and Vecna's face appeared in my mind, saying "not now" and wagging his finger at me. I got an instant headache and my nose began bleeding; Nikko fixed me up right away. Tilea then challenged Syn to a duel, they both vanished and reappeared in the garden.

       Sypha told me she had to end this now, but she loved me and always had. As she moved to cast something at me, I used my other Fates card on her. Everything froze and I heard a voice: "That's not what I expected. You're clever; I should have gone for you, you goody-goodies always find different ways of doing things. I can't stop this, but we will meet. Thank you for revealing yourself to me and showing me your cleverness." Everything started again and Sypha doubled over, vomiting black ichor. She fell unconscious, but she was alive. I rushed to my sestra's side.

       Everyone else went to the windows to watch Tilea and Syn fight. They tried to join and help, which pissed Syn off. She told Tilea she'd abandoned her, and Tilea tried to explain that it was Zaul-Guud who held the party in the Mists for ten years. Syn summoned the fiend and Tilea tried to goad him into confessing. Instead, Zaul-Guud used some sort of telekinesis to choke Tilea and fling her away. He turned and advanced on Syn, who was shocked he'd beaten Tilea so easily. 

       With a wave of her hand, a black aura began pouring from Zaul-Guud from his mouth as he choked. Tilea stabbed him in the back three times as he stumbled toward Syn. The druid attempted to eat him, but Syn said "no," and stabbed him in the thigh with a twisted-looking dagger. He screamed and energy burst from him, surrounding both Syn and Tilea. The energy split in half, with half of it dissipating and the other half running through the dagger, up Syn's arm, disappearing when it reach a mark on her arm. 

       Syn drew her Sunblade and stalked toward Tilea, swinging her sword at her- Tilea parried each swing. They danced around the courtyard, dodging and parrying each swing, the sun and the moon at odd, until Tilea landed a painful blow on Syn. Tilea told Syn to leave the dark and come back to her. The girl responded by swinging her blade, and after missing again, she said "curse your magic" and crushed a crystal and an aura began swirling around her. 

       The defiant teenager thought Tilea was just trying to manipulate her, because she'd chosen the soul brand. She wanted her real parents and if she did what Vecna wanted, he said he'd tell her where they were. Supposedly her parents were gods, because only the offspring of a god could wield the true power of the sun as she did. 

       A gray form slipped into Tilea and Tatyana took over her, just as Syn scored a nasty blow to the druid; it hurt the spirit instead. Tatyana told Syn this wasn't how any of this was supposed to go; Syn, of course, placed the blame squarely on Tilea. Tatyana told her it was truly Zaul-Guud's fault, not Tilea's, and that she could give Syn exactly what she sought, if the girl would be patient. 

       Sypha came to a few minutes later and asked how long she'd been out; I remembered Grant telling me she'd been taken about twenty years ago. Sypha wasn't evil anymore, thank gods, and I spent the next few minutes catching her up on everything I could. She had a way to fix Agatha, and with all three of us, we could save Syn. We needed someone fast and stealthy to make this work, so I recruited Sachi, giving him hexbags to plant on Aggie.

       Sypha said we needed to leave now so that Tatyana could get into Syn. I scryed for Aggie and she pulled Sypha, Sachi, and I right to her coven; Sachi was well hidden though. Agatha forced Sypha and I to sit as her coven disarmed us; she began ranting about the Demon Queen wanting her to turn both of us to her side... The Demon Queen in question was Lolth, of course she's the one who duped Daddy.

       Aggie and I went back and forth again, with her explaining that I should join her and me stubbornly refusing. I told her she could just come back to me, but of course, she insisted it should be the other way around. This was a dance my sestra and I had done many times since she was taken. Sypha watched our exchange in silence. I didn't know where Sachi was, but I knew he'd pop out when the time was right. Suddenly, Agatha said we'd join in death if not in life, and Sypha and I were strapped to tables. She held two twisted, vile looking daggers, one in each hand, and was standing between the tables, a dagger poised over each of our hearts.

       Sachi appeared, grabbed Sypha and I and pulled us into his paradise. We had to go right back, since we hadn't enacted Sypha's plan yet. Aggie began slowly killing me, draining my life away, while I glared at her stubbornly, refusing to let her see the pain she was causing. I would rather die than turn away from the light. Besides, we still had Sachi as backup, and I knew he'd save me.

       Sypha couldn't handle watching me be slowly killed, and just as she said "stop, I'll do it," Sachi appeared and yelled "surprise!" Then he threw two philters of love into Aggie's face. Sypha said "this works too, pulled down the collar of her dress to reveal a twisted looking rune carved into it, and slapped a bloody hand to it. A wave of energy pulsed out and Agatha began puking black ichor. One of her witches tried to do something to Sachi, but he countered it and stopped time.

       While Sachi froze time, he set up philters of love next to fans to blow the potions onto the members of my sestra's coven. It worked... Oddly... I grabbed my sestras and took us back to Castle Ravenloft. Sachi followed a few minutes later with nine of her witches, who were currently madly in love with the little monkey.

       Outside mist was clearing, Tilea was behind a barrier and Syn looked like she was about to launch herself at Tatyana. Aggie and Sypha said we needed to be able to see Syn, and we needed the Book. I went to get it while Agatha went for the ingredients. She manipulated Sachi into making the circle for us while we worked. I found it mildly amusing that we were setting all of this up in the middle of Strahd's throne room. I'm not sure where he ended up.

       We got the ritual going, and I tasked Nikko and Dot with standing guard for us. We'd be too focused on the ritual to deal with anything else that may come up.

       Tilea made it through the barrier just as the triplets began their ritual. She invited Tatyana back in, and her dragon took the opportunity to try to fight Tatyana and escape. Tilea was frozen in place while the two spirits battled inside her. Syn still threw herself at Tilea, intent on fighting, not even aware of what was happening inside her surrogate mother. 

       A gravelly voice startled Sachi, as Corvane said she was disappointed no one invited her to this party. 

       Just as Syn swung her sword, Scritch threw Talmot's Heart between Syn and Tilea. 

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

Dragon Souls

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
Nikko, Tabitha's Flying Monkey familiar
Dot, Tabitha's Homunculus
Bruenar Shieldwall, the Shield Dwarf Shield Fighter the party hired
Isabella Catalina Hazelgrove, the Human Assassin and Scritch's Knight

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
Syndal Al'Vherin, the Human girl who Tilea released from an amulet- kidnapped by Strahd, now working with Talmot brainwashed by Belmont

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 23, CY 745, Myconid Paradise Under Tser Falls

       Syn told us she knew we'd been looking for her and that Tilea had called to her. Gesturing to the dragon corpse, she said that was quite the spectacle, but it probably wasn't our reason for calling her. With the impatience of a teenager, she told us to hurry up so she could get back to what she was doing. The girl had a plan to take down Talbutt, by using Vecna. She insisted we needed to stop worrying about it...

       Then Syn froze and Belmont stepped out, saying that's quite enough story time. He had a plan to break the loop Strahd was stuck in, and to do it he'd take over Barovia and bring law to the land. Something was terribly wrong with Belmont; the man standing before me was not the same man I'd known for years. He said he'd served his purpose, and what was the point in life after your purpose was served?

       Sachi yelled "money" and began chucking coins at Belmont. With a flick of his wrist, Sachi was entangled in Belmont's whip. Syn was suddenly at Belmont's side, her sun blade glowing. Belmont told us if we didn't stand down now, he would end us all, and he would not do it kindly; we would all know true fear before meeting our deaths. I was stunned by the monster my friend had turned into. I asked him what happened to him, and he said "reality happened."

       Syn told Tilea the next time she saw her, she'd have her heart; Tilea told her they were supposed to do this together. Belmont briefly entertained the notion of allowing Syn to destroy Tilea now, but he didn't act on it. He told us if we wanted to help, we should keep hunting down the dragons and leave both Syn and himself be. Syn threatened again to destroy Tilea, then both of them vanished.

       The apparition of Tatyana appeared, told Tilea she'd failed, and vanished; Tilea said she was cut off from contacting the spirit. We'd lost our chance to do this right, and we'd used Grant's plan B on Sachi and Clarah. My attempts to end Grant a message to see if he could get us another satchel didn't work, so Sachi went to hunt him down.

       While Sachi was looking for Grant, the rest of us went with Bruenar to his home in Mount Ghakis so we could gear up to fight the three remaining Wives. We didn't know what to do about the other dragons, what we'd done with Clarah wasn't something that would be easy or pleasant. I suggested using a soul gem ritual and putting the soul there; Bruenar and Catalina began talking about some sort of blood ritual from there, and said the Archivist could help us with that. I could go visit her after we finished at Bruenar's.

       The transportation to the mountain wa bumpy because of wards, and Scritch got sick from it. We seemed to be stepping into a nasty winter storm, though it was still the middle of the summer. Thanks to wards, we couldn't just transport straight to his home, so we had to hike up a mountain in arctic temperatures. Eventually Sachi sent us a message and we summoned him. He'd learned we needed Sestra to help to make another one of those satchels. Tilea rummaged through a haversack that was apparently Lythana's and found a bunch of hexbags inside, but those would not bind a soul to something. Sachi said we needed to get into Sypha's lab; apparently that was the name of my secret big Sestra.

       When we finally reached the top of the mountain we could see all of Barovia. It was breathtaking to see the entire domain, enduring this Stygia-esque temperature was nearly worth it just for this view.

       To get the hatch to Bruenar's house open, he told Sachi to breath a little fire on the door to melt the ice. He seemed to have some trouble with it, until Bruenar told him to try using his ass... The monkey farted fire...

       We were led into what appeared to be the chambers of a dwarven king; Bruenar said this was his personal collection. There were display cases all over the chambers that were holding tons of what looked like extremely powerful magical items. Looking around, I didn't think I'd see anything that would work for me, since there were mostly weapons in here, until my vision settles on a black tome. Bruenar told me it was the Black Grimoire- the spellbook that belonged to the Wicked Witch of the West, Morgan Le Fay. I took a couple steps away from the case when he told me that.

       While Bruenar handed the others some items to help them, I couldn't take my eyes of the book. I remembered the book could supposedly undo any curses, hexes, brands, and more. This could possibly help me save Aggie, and probably Sypha too. While I wasn't desperate enough to use it, having it on hand might be a good idea. I wouldn't look at it though. As I reached toward the case, it unlocked on its own, and the moment my hand touched the book, it flipped open and my name appeared on the inside cover... Aggie and Sypha's names were there too. It then began speaking to me, telling me it had the magic I needed to save both of my Sestras. I wouldn't give in... I can just put it behind some serious wards and ignore it. It certainly can't talk to me through my wards. I would just tune it out until I got back to the Temple.

       Once we finished up I dropped off the book at the Temple and headed to see the Archivist. Sachi followed me so he could go shopping. Kithri gave me the list of ingredients for the satchels... this was not going to be cheap or easy to put together. We needed two ounces of kraken ink, fur from a white stag, an act of God frozen in time, an angel's feather, the blood of a Demon Prince, and the soul of an alpha stuck in a gem.

       We also talked about the book- which had not stopped talking since I touched it. It could even reach me on Faerun, when it was locked up behind wards in the Temple. The book kept offering me quick fixes to things, and I was doing everything I could to just ignore it. When it wasn't being a peanut gallery, it was humming. Yes, humming.

       When we got back I found the others standing in front of a heavily warded hallway that supposedly led to Sypha's lab. The others were convinced that since we're identical I'd be able to go down the hallway. That didn't work out. I got super woozy and couldn't take more than a step down the hall. There was a blue candle at the end of the hallway that only I could see, it was probably a bloodline thing.

       I tried opening a dimensional door straight into the lab and there was an explosion, killing some of Sachi's people, along with Dot. Catalina suggested I cut myself and bleed into the hallway, then everyone went into another room. I did so and said the family words: Prosperity and glory to the Lennoxes forever. The entire building exploded this time.

       I found myself in a dark, lightless void. It had to be some kind of pocket dimension. I tried saying the family words and everything lit up; I was in Sypha's lab. I began quickly looking around for something helpful, but I couldn't find anything before Tilea called me. I tried to get back there and ended up in Strahd's throne room. I tried a second time and got the same fucking result. I hoped third time was the charm... and I found Strahd in the bath. Thankfully there were bubbles so I didn't see anything... I certainly didn't want Strahd to be the first nude man I ever fully saw. The thought makes me shudder.

      Back in the Temple, I gave everyone our ingredient list, and Tilea began trying to trick Sachi into saying he was an alpha so we could put his soul in a gem... This spiralled quickly into a rather irritating argument about the alphas, because apparently that would be the hardest thing to acquire. Bruenar got sick of the arguing after a while and told us he had everything on the list and would sell it to us for one billion gold. Which then launched an argument on how to get the money. I suggested a dungeon crawl, but everyone just talked over me. Then Bruenar got sick of that arguing and said he'd give us everything for a single satchel if we'd shut the Hells up.

***** Hetedik Honap 25, Temple of Mystra

       Catalina and I spent 24 hours on the ritual to make the satchel, and we were pretty sure we'd gotten it right. Cat scryed for Farrah, the gold dragon, who Tilea insisted she had to be the one to have, but was countered. It seemed like Farrah had gone into hiding after seeing what we'd done to Clarah; I couldn't blame her, I didn't like what had been done either, or what we were still planning to do. But we had to get those dragons off the board before we had a chance to take down Talbutt.

       Tilea went to the myconid paradise to commune with nature to try to find Farrah, and found it ablaze with undead everywhere. She started a massive earthquake to kill the undead, collapsing the cavern and part of Vallaki. After that she learned that Farrah was heading toward Mount Ghakis.

       Apparently there was a dragon lair under Bruenar's. A hole was in the ground that led down, deeper into the mountain. Sachi jumped down it first, turns out it was a 30 mile shaft. After calling him back a couple times just to mess with him, we all decided to jump down. Rolling down that shaft in my bubble was way more fun than I would have thought it would be.

       When we finally spilled out of the shaft, we found Farrah, and she tried to flee, but Scritch hit her hard enough to knock her out of her dragon form. We all beat on her, and Bruenar came flying out of the tunnel and slammed into her shield first, killing her. It was gruesome.

       Scritch used a high resurrection spell and we did the satchel thing again. Tilea only died three times. It was then that we realized her hoard wasn't there. Instead, there were tons of portals open to other planes. We'd never find it, that hoard could be anywhere on any of those planes. Sachi began talking to Clarah out loud, saying he loved her and stuff, I think he was trying to get her to tell him where the hoard was. I was pretty sure he'd lost his mind, so I used a restoration spell on him. Turns out he was only insane in the sense that he always was.

       Cat used an amulet of the planes to open up a bunch of portals at once, while Sachi searched them all quickly. I kept her alive while she was doing this, while trying to get her to stop this madness. It would never work.

       Bruenar had wandered off while we were doing this, and came back about an hour later having claimed Tarah's soul. The only one left was Sarah's, the black dragon- the white witch had to take the black dragon's soul. Fast. Bruenar had used a dark blood magic rune to take Sarah, and that was offered to me as an option, but I couldn't use dark blood magic, nor was I willing to risk something that could destroy my soul if I failed. The ingredients for the final satchel would cost us 300 million gold.

       Since I was about to do something so risky, Cat pulled out a Tarokka Deck of Many Things to do a reading for me, and I got the Raven card- the one I'd been wanting, that could fix everything. After everyone else had their own reading done, Bruenar pulled out a Deck of Many Things. Catalina got a knight of her own. I got two Fates cards, Nikko got a card that ended up making him a warlock under me, and Dot got three wishes and some gems.

       I used the Raven card to undo the circumstances that got us trapped in the Mists for ten years, and the dragon souls began to leave the others' bodies. Scritch used his own card to undo what I was doing; he feared I was killing everyone and the card wouldn't be able to save us.

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

Draconic Drama

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
Nikko, Tabitha's Flying Monkey familiar
Bruenar Shieldwall, the Shield Dwarf Shield Fighter the party hired
Isabella Catalina Hazelgrove, the Human Assassin and Scritch's Knight

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
Syndal Al'Vherin, the Human girl who Tilea released from an amulet- kidnapped by Strahd, now working with Talmot

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 20, CY 745, Myconid Paradise Under Tser Falls

       Scritch woke me up in the middle of the night asking for my blood. Since I'm Mist Marked, Tilea wanted to try to use my blood to get her moonblade back. I rolled my eyes, gave her some blood, and went back to sleep.

       Not long after that, we were awoken by a massive earthquake, and mist was pouring in from everywhere. Tilea and Scritch were in a circle and red energy was crackling all around them. The light turned silvery and an arm appeared, holding Tilea's moonblade. Then the blood I'd given began to purify and tingle as if it was alive; we were all flooded with ten years of memories, adventures, experiences, etc. I suddenly had a few encounters with both of my Sestras, and some interesting new spells came into my head. That was... unexpected... to say the least. I went back to sleep, I needed to finish my rest, that flood of memories was exhausting.

***** Hetedik Honap 21, Myconid Paradise Under Tser Falls

       Sachi went on a shopping spree in the morning, and brought my Temple six thousand healing potions! While he was gone, the rest of us began debating what the Hells to do to get the myconids out of here. The druid said there were around seventy thousand beasts and three thousand myconids we needed to relocate.

       I thought the easiest way would be a magnificent mansion spell. We could load them in there, I could leave Barovia and find a place for them, and let them out. The problem was none of us could cast that spell. Bruenar had an extradimensional tent, but after testing it, we discovered it ejected people when closed. The best course of action was to just go buy a couple items that cast the mansion spell. Bruenar decided to test Sachi's staff to get us to a shopping area. The monkey ended up in Strahd's throne room.

       When Tilea called Sachi back to us, Strahd followed, and screamed in agony at the Forever Sun. He hid under a tree and demanded we get all of this out of here- meaning the sun and creatures. Tilea pulled out the box with Talmot's Heart and opened it to show Strahd what we'd found; when the vampire drew near, it tried to suck him in. Talbutt had trapped his Heart to keep it out of Strahd's hands. Strahd angrily ranted that the paradise could go back to where Tilea came from, and demanded we use the Forever Sun and the Heart to destroy Talbutt once and for all. We agreed and Strahd vanished.

       Once Strahd was gone, we realized there were no sounds of wildlife around us. He'd sent them all away.

       I flew up toward the Forever Sun to get it so we could get this done, but it got too hot too fast. It truly had the heat of the sun. I wrapped myself in my bubble, a new ability I learned from those ten years of memories, and tried to grab the stone in a sphere. It flared and I fell, badly burned, but I was able to heal myself quickly.

       Tilea tried next, turning into a fire elemental first, then pulling out the crystal blade. As she drew closer to the sun stone, an eclipse began, and eventually the entire thing was pulled into the blade. It was too hot for even a fire elemental, and Tilea had to drop it.

       Bruenar ran and grabbed it, slammed the blade into the ground, and smacked it with his hammer. It flared and was encased in stone, as Bruenar went flying backward from the blast, laughing his ass off.

       The paradise was now completely dark. We needed to get that blade to Syn, but with her against us, it was an unbelievably stupid idea to do that. Tilea thought she could reach Syn, hopefully get through to her.

       In the meantime, we had work to do. Sachi went to scout the siege, and saw Talbutt had ten times the number of soldiers than Strahd had. Tilea decided to set up another grove where the Bonegrinders was, and link it to the paradise so it wouldn't die. I helped her by burning out items to fuel the ritual, which went off beautifully. Sachi and Scritch went shopping while we worked on that.

***** Hetedik Honap 22, Temple of Mystra

       Tilea had an idea to try to destroy the Heart, but whatever it was she and Bruenar were up to failed.

       In hopes for some magical intervention, we turned to a Tarokka Deck of Many Things. Tilea and I both ended up with Good Blood- blood that can heal someone. Scritch was attacked by an air elemental, which he killed instantly, and Sachi got a quest- now Strahd had to pay him for our services.

       Since that didn't work, we tried a Deck of Many Things. We didn't get the card we were hoping for, but Tilea got three wishes, Sachi got one wish, I got an item and had to kill a spectral reaper, and Scritch got a knight- a human girl named Catalina. Sachi tried hitting on Cat right away, and she completely ignored him.

       Later that night, Grant gave us a bag and said we needed to hit Syn with it. It would allow Tatiana's soul to enter her body and fight to merge. He said we should keep it as a plan B, it would be better for them if the souls could join naturally.

***** Hetedik Honap 23, Temple of Mystra

       I communed with Mystra in hopes for some guidance. Since Tilea had three wishes, I asked if all three would make Syn not give up on Tilea returning, since it seemed like her giving up on our return was what led to our current situation. Mystra told me "she never gave up, something took over."

       Tilea communed with nature and learned of something fey-like on the frontlines, Krampus, Kringle's opposite. Bruenar went to deal with Krampus while Tilea went to speak with Kringle. She learned that Syn's deal was with Vecna. Since The Bane of Vecna hadn't destroyed Vecna's phylactery, he wasn't dead, he just lost too much power to continue being a threat. 

       Til decided we should just talk to Syn, against my protests. We returned to the paradise, and as we arrived, a portal opened in front of me. Bruenar stuck his head through and said Syn could hurt him; I healed him and he told me to call him in two minutes. When he appeared there was silvery fire wrapped around him, and he yelled "call her now!" Syn appeared, blade drawn, fire swirling around her. Tilea began making wishes. She wished Syn had never turned away, had never left the light, that she'd embrace Lathander and his blade with all her heart and soul, and allow her spirit to rise.

       Everything froze. We saw four-year-old Syn with a beautiful, golden haired woman who could only be Tatiana, and together they approached teen Syn, who was frozen. They touched her and with a flash of light and wave of energy, they vanished. I hoped this would work.

       Before we could even take a fucking breath, Tilea announced the trees were afraid, and Talbutt stepped out from behind a tree. He said he could smell the radiance of the Forever Sun and asked us where it went. Tilea told him it was with its rightful owner. Talmot was pissed that Bruenar got Kringle onto the battlefield, and said we'd been a thorn in his side for long enough and vanished.

       Clarah's laughter echoed throughout the cavern, it was bone chilling. Everyone hid except Bruenar and I; I did get in my bubble though, to keep myself alive. She stepped out into the clearing we were waiting for her in, looking much younger, and said she knew there was a monkey here. "Where's my monkey?" She asked in a disturbing, singsong voice, rocking back and forth on her heels. I told her he was a party pooper, and she asked if I was joking. As I was saying that it kind of was, Sachi jumped out and threw shit at her. Clarah whipped around and deflected it right back at him, making him hide again.

       "See?" I said, "party pooper." Clarah said my Sestra wouldn't let her burst my "pretty pink bubble," but she had a vendetta against Sachi that she needed to fulfill. With that, Clarah was on Sachi in a flash, and she hit him hard. Tilea popped out of the bushes and started mauling her. I attempted to make her mind feeble, but it didn't work, so I rushed to heal Bruenar before he joined the fray and began beating on her with his shields.

       We beat her down surprisingly fast, considering that she's a fucking dragon; Scritch even lopped off one of her arms. She was down, not dead, but stable. The problem was we couldn't kill her. Catalina told us as we shook ourselves off, that there was still another dragon here. Clarah reverted to her draconic form and her paralyzing gas leaked from her mouth, paralyzing Sachi and Scritch.

       A draconic roar echoed through the cavern and a gold dragon came into view- Farrah. Clarah got up, whacking Bruenar, Sachi, and Tilea with her wings as she rose. Her arm had grown back. Fucking regeneration. I had to cast a restoration spell on Sachi to get him up and moving again, and he began shooting at the Wives. They concentrated their breath on Sachi, a whirlwind of fire and ice swirling around the monkey. He was in bad shape after that hit. Catalina threw something at Clarah that seemed to hurt her pretty bad.

       Sachi summoned Bruenar and Tilea to help him fight Clarah, and Bruenar jumped to Farrah's back as Clarah began flying straight up in an attempt to shake them. She slammed her back into the top of the cavern to hurt Tilea, but she only hurt herself; Tilea began ripping into her. I could never catch up to them through flight, but I needed to heal Sachi before Clarah hurt him, so I tried to will myself to him. It worked! Apparently, Bruenar had included me in that part of the wish; Sachi and Tilea had both tried to do it and failed, but I hadn't bothered to try, since I didn't need it.

       I saw Bruenar on Farrah's head, holding her mouth shut and laughing his ass off. The rest of us began beating on Clarah, and I hit her hard enough with a witch bolt that she tumbled to the ground. Since Tilea was still holding onto her, I was able to get down and stabilize her so she wouldn't die and power up Talbutt. Sachi began painting a stockade to put Clarah in, but Tilea had an idea to have my sequester Clarah, for her to "awaken when the Heart of Talmot is destroyed." As I was about to cast the spell, Talbutt killed her.

       Sachi cast the most potent resurrection spell in existence and Clarah's soul hovered in the air, trying to go to the Heart. I tried to sequester her soul, but my attempt was countered. We pulled out an iron flask, but we couldn't draw the soul into it. Sachi pulled out the bag Grant had given us and used it to try to draw Clarah's soul into him. I lit a candle that would ward off his death as the dragon's soul began to burn him up from the inside. Every time he died, the candle brought him back, and I just kept lighting them to keep it going.

       While I was occupied with Sachi, Tilea went to deal with Talbutt. I didn't really see what was going on, but I know they exchanged blows before the cowardly vamp turned to mist. Scritch tried to absorb him with dust of dryness, but from what I gathered, it didn't work. Bruenar inflicted a deadly blow on Farrah, and she did the smart thing in retreating. Then Scritch called for Bruenar's Shield... All 500 members of his clan- who were living and working in the Temple- appeared. I was able to send them back as easily as they'd appeared.

       Sachi died seventeen times before he finally absorbed Clarah into his soul. These were brutal deaths, of his body being completely vaporized and reforming over and over. He seemed to handle it okay, which I'm not sure if that was good or bad. In absorbing Clarah, he gained some of her abilities, which we learned when he turned to speak to me and paralyzing gas leaked out instead. I was glad for my bubble.

       Faint laughter was heard from the trees and Syn stepped out, saying we needed to chat. She pulled out her fully intact sunblade and said if we tried anything stupid, she'd destroy us.

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

Treasure Hunting

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
Belmont Von Richter, the mysterious Human who tends to show up just in the nick of time
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, then turned evil
Syndal Al'Vherin, the Four-year-old Human girl who Tilea released from an amulet- kidnapped by Strahd, now working with Talmot

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 19, CY 745, Death House

       Upon hearing the chanting, Tilea asked if we needed to give the trespassers notice before killing them. I hoped we wouldn't have to kill whoever was down there, but this was Death House.

       There were several stone sarcophagi down here, and Bruenar opened one. Inside was the skeletal remains of a child, which Tilea promptly covered in fungus to decay them. As they decayed at a much faster rate than they should have, a scream rang out that shook me to the core. The bones burst into blue flames, and fire rose from the other coffins in the room. The column of flame materialized into my Sestra- not Aggie, the one I didn't know I had, I suppose I should probably learn her name at some point. Apparently destroying the bones called her. I told her to fuck off and tried to banish her again, but she was prepared this time.

       Lythana appeared before Sestra could do anything to us, and stabbed her, telling her we were her bounty. Tilea used the distraction to slip around the corner and turned into a huge beast- I think she'd called it a savager before. Lythana got in Tilea's face and began stabbing her- though she did take a hit from Sachi as she approached.

       Bruenar got right in Sestra's face and hit her a couple times with his shield. Sestra tried to banish us, but I countered her. She tried a second time and failed. Like she'd hit me with my own trick. Sachi began stabbing Sestra, and I hit her with one of my bolts of arcane lightning, though I had to counter her attempt to counter me in order to successfully cast the spell.

       Tilea cut Lythana's head off and destroyed it completely. There would be no bringing my dear friend back.

       Sestra used a misty step to get away from Bruenar, leaving a glowing blue orb in her place. It burst in a cloud of cold, killing poor Nikko, and leaving Sachi and Bruenar staring blankly into space. I revived Bruenar first, then tried to harm Sestra with a candle, but she deflected the magic. Tilea was too big to reach Sestra, so she began looting Lythana's corpse instead. Sestra dropped a fireball on everyone, and Bruenar got back to beating the Hells out of her. I found and revived Sachi and healed all of us, and then I suddenly couldn't sense my Sestra's presence... she'd left. I told the others she was gone, but they decided to smash walls to search for her instead of listening to me.

       I realized that all of us were cursed, except for Bruenar, so while they destroyed our surroundings, I removed the curse from each of us. As they continued their rampage of destruction, a grick popped out of something Bruenar smashed, and he killed it instantly. When Tilea broke down a wall she nearly tripped over a ghoul; there was a group of ghouls and shadows on the other side of it, which we killed instantly.

       We entered a room that looked like it had once been a torture chamber of sorts. There were skeletons hanging from the walls, and a statue was in the corner of the room, holding a large crystal. It didn't look cursed, but there was some hardcore necromantic magic on it. I told the others not to touch it, but then the statue floated for a moment. Then the crystal floated, turns out it was Scritch playing with his telekinesis, and apparently when he did, he felt Talmot smash at his mind, but he didn't break through. Then Tilea messed with it and got the same result. The crystal was shaped like a heart... this was Talmot's heart and phylactery.

       We didn't think we could destroy it, but we needed to do something with it. As we debated what to do with it, there was a slight glimmer from it and a massive wave of energy came from Tilea. She had to quickly drop the heart, which seemed to be trying to fuse itself to her hand. Thick mists swirled around us and Tilea set off a spell to create a druid grove where Death House was. Scritch realized there were five lives inside the heart just as the mists swirled us away.

       The mists deposited us where the front gates to Death House had once stood. I talked to the crowd that had gathered and explained that Death House should be gone forever now; at least that was the hope. They began an instant party in the streets to celebrate. Sachi suggested we head to the tavern and a good chunk of the crowd followed. As we drew near we heard screams from inside; we walked in to find Bruenar attacking people with a cursed pipe... I tried to put him in a sphere of force, but I couldn't hit him with it. The crowd began turning on Bruenar and I couldn't calm them.

       Tilea decided not to join the party, but to instead bring Talmot's heart to Grant. She'd first thought to bring it to Strahd, but decided against that. The druid had a theory she wanted to test. Grant began working on it immediately. 

       Suddenly, everyone stopped. It seemed the Heart may have been causing this somehow. Then Bruenar discovered Tilea's grove had destroyed his root cellar, and all the alcohol inside it. He was vibrating with rage, but at least he didn't start murdering my people over it. Forty-seven had died during the original altercation; I had the bodies sent to my Temple so they could be brought back to life.

       Bruenar summoned Tilea and punched her. She told him Grant was going to die, and icy fear wrapped around my heart. We hurried to the guild hall, where he was, and couldn't enter the secret room he was in. Bruenar drank something to get it open and we walked into an incredible arcane lab; it was my Sestra's. Grant was standing in front of some sort of apparatus with spikes through each of his hands, with black and red energy crackling everywhere. The entire place was cursed too.

       After watching him silently for a few minutes, he put the Heart in a box and said that as long as it was in the box it couldn't be detected. He had garnered some information from it that was so powerful that he could trade it to Strahd for all of Barovia. Grant wanted fifty million gold, or something of equal value, for it. Then he learned that Tilea had destroyed the entire root cellar of the tavern, and the price rose to seventy-five million; I chuckled to myself as he worked to extort gold from Sachi and Tilea. For that price raise, Sachi produced Lythana's ring of mind shielding, offering Grant our friend's soul. Grant raised the price to one hundred million.

       I then explained to everyone that I couldn't bring her back. Whatever it was that had bound her in a contract had most likely put it on her soul, so even the most powerful resurrection spell available would still have the contract intact.

       Sachi finally paid Grant and he told us there were five dragon souls in the Heart, former Wives, and the current Wives were bound to the Heart- if we killed one her soul would be trapped inside. Talmot's soul wasn't linked to it, but it was literally his Heart. Things just got a lot more complicated as far as Talbutt was concerned. Grant was going to visit the Archivist for some books to research, but Sachi and Tilea were opposed to letting Grant just do the research. They just didn't know him as well as I do, he wouldn't betray our cause or keep vital information secret. Tilea wanted to give the Heart to Bahamut or Tiamat to see if one of them could extract the souls from the Heart. We didn't come to any conclusions, and went back to the Temple. I held a small funeral for Lythana.

***** Hetedik Honap 20, Temple of Mystra

       In the morning, after Bruenar used the feast in the Temple to restock the tavern, we headed to Tser Pool; apparently Tilea had learned of a powerful treasure there by communing with nature. Our trek to the Pool was much longer than it should have been. We encountered several groups of travelers and told them of the Temple. Unfortunately, many of them freaked out and attacked us, forcing us to fight them... most of them died.

       The Tser Pool encampment was eerie. There were fires lit, meals sitting out uneaten, toys dropped in the middle of play, but no signs of people or animals. It was as if everyone had just vanished in the middle of what they were doing. At first I thought the camp had somehow been removed from time, but after thinking about it for a moment, I realized that couldn't be the case. I attempted to dispel any magic here, but nothing happened.

       Something was odd about the pool itself too. Sachi put his hand in the water and it got stuck for a second. He decided to attack the water next, and in the spot he hit water splashed back at him much faster than it should have. We realized the lake had been covered in dust of dryness; the water wasn't nearly as high as it was supposed to be. Before Sachi re-watered the lake, I looked around the camp to see if what we were after was here.

       A small wave crashed over the encampment, putting out the long-abandoned but still burning fires. We found the people, as their corpses floated to the top of the lake. From the look of the bodies, this happened ten years ago. Sachi grabbed a small piece of flesh from every corpse so I could resurrect them later. Of course, after we water the lake, we learn that the item we're here for is at the fucking bottom of it. Tilea shifted and went to look for it. There was an odd ripple across the surface of the lake before Tilea told us to get ready to breathe water. Sachi used an item that would affect all three of us, and just before Tilea summoned us, we heard two draconic roars.

       We were in a small underwater cavern surrounded by nothing but diamonds. There were no curses here, nor was there any magic. That meant this had to be a trap. Sachi began collecting diamonds as we looked around. On a brightly lit dais was a sword, that when Tilea tried to touch it, it seemed to fire a warning shot at her. She tried a couple more times to grab it and it froze each time. The blade didn't feel sentient, but there was a stubborn presence to it. Finally, she managed to grab the icy-looking steel blade and shoved it in a bag for us to deal with later.

       As we worked to mine the diamonds, there was a ripple in the water above us. Tilea put up a wall in the opening to the cavern above us, then told us there was a giant octopus up there. A few hours later, it broke through Tilea's wall, so I decided to banish it... not the best idea. I'd just displaced a fuckload of water, and caused the amount of water in the lake to drop instantly. Sachi went shooting out, Bruenar used a bag of winds, and I grabbed Tilea and we swam out. The octopus didn't come back, not that that was surprising, most things in Barovia aren't from here.

       From there we went to Tser Falls next, since that was the direction of the other powerful magical artifact Tilea had learned about. Tilea did another spell to commune with nature and a myconid named Taki appeared. He was going to lead us to the forever sun in his home, which was nearby. Myconids don't move very fast... Sachi offended him by picking him up to try to have him just direct us there. To make up for it, Sachi smeared shit on it... giving Taki enough power to become the High Shroom- leader of its people.

      Eventually we reached a cave, that got warmer the further into it we went. He paused at one point in the tunnel and announced the new ways were over and he was taking control. After a brief fight with the old leader, Taki was declared the High Shroom and we continued our tedious journey into the cave. We eventually emerged into a lush underground forest, in a dome about a half mile high, with a glimmering sun at the top.

       We looked around the forest for a while, exploring this hidden paradise, marveling in its existence. Sachi threw a pomegranate at Tilea, who turned it into fire seeds that detonated in the air. Then they were both hit by a fire seed pomegranate by a furious tiefling who stormed toward us. Sachi instantly began mouthing off to the tiefling and he responded by silencing Sachi. Our insane monkey decided to throw shit at him, so he turned into a huge beast that made Sachi bolt. We kept summoning him back to us enough times that the tiefling told us to just let him go. Bruenar sent him to the lake, waited long enough to where Sachi was probably just getting going on mining more diamonds, then called him back to us.

       The tiefling was the druid charged with protecting this paradise. He told us he had been given a vision of a druid who would get the myconids out of Barovia, and he would have assumed it was Tilea, except she didn't have her moonblade with her. The vision had said when the sun and moon fought side-by-side... The sunblade's hilt was with Syn, but her soul hadn't yet merged with Tatiana, so the prophecy was not yet to be fulfilled.

Maps from the Curse of Strahd adventure module by Wizards of the Coast

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

Sanctuary

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
Belmont Von Richter, the mysterious Human who tends to show up just in the nick of time
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, then turned evil
Syndal Al'Vherin, the Four-year-old Human girl who Tilea released from an amulet- kidnapped by Strahd, now working with Talmot

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 18, 745 CY, Temple of Mystra

       After cleaning the Temple I settled down to make it hallowed ground again, a ritual that would take a full day to perform. Tilea and Bruenar wandered off; I don't know where Sachi went.

       A couple hours into the ritual, Tilea and Bruenar walked in with an unconscious minotaur. Apparently they'd encountered a dead body that they thought was mine and reincarnated what they thought was me into the minotaur... who they then had to beat unconscious. They hurt my brain. Tilea thought I was Agatha at first, but she quickly realized that wasn't the case. I kicked out the minotaur and resumed my ritual.

       About fourteen hours into the ritual, Sachi emerged from the Temple's bathroom. I realized he'd been in there for fourteen hours... I sent my unseen servants in to clean up his mess. Sachi had made an amazing pooting (a painting with shit instead of paint) of Violet's wedding. The detail was incredible, but no one would ever see it except some unseen servants. 

***** Hetedik Honap 19, Temple of Mystra

       They came back as I finished my ritual to make it hallowed ground, and I told them I was going to expand the Temple, to give me space to take in the many orphans and help and protect anyone who wanted it. I wanted my Temple to be a safe space for every Barovian. I burned out several powerful items to do this, and it ended up being a five story building, with an open air market on the ground floor. Externally the Temple was only a ten by ten building, but inside it was huge and beautiful.

       In the common areas was a permanent daylight. The second floor was housing and a dining hall, and all food was a hero's feast. The third floor was more housing, half of which belonged to me and my group, and was secured so only we could access it. The fourth floor was schooling, as was the fifth, but the fifth was for my witch training specifically. I summoned twenty flumphs to help teach the children. This was a sanctuary, and a home to all Barovians who were peaceful. All who decided to work in the Temple would be able to bring their families in. None would be charged to live or eat here, nor would any be denied medical attention.

       When I was finishing up the ritual, a cursed top popped up outside the Temple, where many were waiting to be officially brought inside, and it started making children go insane. By the time the others had everything subdued, forty children were dead. I created a massive 21-point circle that covered the entire building, while the others got the bodies inside. I took a sword of legend and a bunch of diamonds, and with a swirl of my hands, all of the children were brought back. Cheers erupted from the people watching through the doors. I walked up to the doors and announced the opening of my safe, neutral space. People began filing in quickly.

       While I'd been working on these rituals, Bruenar had bought the inn and tavern, Sachi bought the guild hall, and Tilea bought Death House... This is what I get for leaving them alone for a day and a half. So after spending tons of hours working on rituals, we had to go clear out Death House.

       Bruenar broke down the door to Death House since we didn't have a key. Tilea called out for servants, not getting exactly what Death House is. Sachi found a poison trap, by setting it off, and fell unconscious. Neither of my restoration spells worked, I had to use a much higher caliber healing spell to revive him. We used mage hand to open the door, and found another poison trap on the other side of the door, which Sachi disabled.

       In the cloak room, Sachi found a top hat and tossed it to Tilea. She caught it and threw it back, and it landed right on his head. A ghost overlayed him as soon as the hat touched his head. I felt myself age a little. Tabitha aged thirty years, though it only looked like she'd aged three, thanks to Mystra; Bruenar aged 40 years, Nikko aged ten, and Scritch dropped dead from old age. 

       I used my protection candle and saw a ghost leave Sachi, but something lingered in him... a soul curse; I needed something stronger than I had with me to undo that. Tilea destroyed the ghost, and I reincarnated Scritch.

       We went into the kitchen next, and it was surprisingly well stocked and clean. Tilea found a super cursed ring, and Sachi put it on before we could stop him. I quickly used my spell to remove curses, and a voice said we had to say the secret word. Tilea told it to get rid of the other thing in Sachi, and it instead tried to turn her to stone. Sachi stabbed himself and the voice said a ten year contract was required. I tried to banish the entity and nothing happened, so Tilea hit Sachi with her moon water chalice. Bruenar grabbed Sachi and dumped a bag of salt in his mouth. A ghostly visage popped out of Sachi and the cursed ring was gone.

       The dining room was the next room we entered, and the table was already set. A piece of silverware moved on its own and Tilea hit it. Then the chandelier shook and she threatened it; so all of the chairs pulled out. We heard soft giggling and footsteps running out of the room. In the foyer was a soft breeze, and we heard footsteps in the one room we hadn't entered.

       We walked into the den, which had two stuff wolves in it that Tilea took instant offence to; she wanted to try to bring them back to life later. There was a trap door in the room, but we couldn't figure out how to get it open; not Sachi or magic worked. It must only open from the other side. More giggling and footsteps were heard, and we followed them upstairs. This place is rather ridiculous.

       The library/office was the first room we entered and I found a book with a blank spine, which opened up a hidden alcove when pulled. There were more shelves and books in there, along with a chest that had a satchel hanging out of it. Inside was a nasty note from Strahd to the people who now haunted this evil place.

       We next went into the servant's quarters and Sachi found a small panel with a button that calls for the dumbwaiter. It took three minutes to get to us, and it was screeching eerily the entire way up. When it opened, a cloud of flies swarmed out, a pile of severed heads was sitting on the platform; but it vanished in a flash.

       The music room was pretty much empty, so we went up to the third floor. A suit of platemail was on the landing and as Sachi neared it, it attacked him. It stumbled as it lunged and Sachi pushed it down the stairs.

       The nursemaid's room was the first we entered and Sachi found a hidden door with cobweb filled stairs in it. We went up to the roof from there and Sachi tried to throw me off of it... luckily, I'm always on my broom, so that didn't yield the results he wanted. I shot him with a witch bolt for being a dick, and Tilea yelled there were ghosts to distract Sachi and I from going any further.

       We went back inside and into the nursery. Sachi pulled back the curtain around the crib and Tilea whacked it with flowers, the flowers are like blessed or something. She whacked the small bundle in the crib as we heard a baby coo inside it. There was nothing in the bundle, and the crib was cursed. I was going to throw it off the roof, but a ghost baby appeared; Tilea killed it with a thorn whip.

       The linen closet had a broom that attacked us and Sachi destroyed it. This place is fucking ridiculous. If it wouldn't reappear tomorrow, I would just burn it down and be done with it.

       We called the dumbwaiter when we got to the master bedroom, and thankfully there weren't any horrifying visions waiting for us in there. Sachi found a jewelry box and asked if it was cursed, and I jokingly told him it was; he believed me and I stuck it in a bag. A screech rang out behind us, it was a specter woman who we destroyed pretty much instantly.

       From there we took the cobweb filled staircase up. The door at the top was locked, but Sachi took care of that with ease. The bedrooms of the children who are often seen luring people into the house were in this secret attic. I wanted to lay them to rest, I hoped it would help with the hauntings, and possibly the evil in this house. We wanted to keep exploring first, and hopefully find their bodies; putting them to rest would be difficult if we didn't have the bodies.

       We found a storage room with the nurse's body inside; I'd need to lay her to rest too. Then a door suddenly appeared in the hall. I'd heard the house was alive, and I guess this was the proof. On the other side of the door was another cobweb filled staircase, this one was going down. An eerie chanting floated up the staircase making my blood freeze.

Maps from the Curse of Strahd adventure module by Wizards of the Coast