The Brown Wedding
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 TherinthropeHomunculus 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, theFour-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
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
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
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-
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.
***** Nyolcadik Honap 8, CY 745, Temple of Mystra
We had a month to prepare for this ritual to find the Dark Priest, and we'd certainly need it. Sypha said we needed the blood of a Vale Elf, but according to legends, none existed. I went to visit the Archivist and she told me there was one Valley Elf left in existence, but she was banned from ever entering Barovia again. Kithri said we might be able to perform the ritual from Oerth, where Aurora lived, but it wasn't terribly likely.
I beseeched Strahd to allow me to bring a bit of the Battle Bard's blood to the realm, and he quite vehemently said no. Apparently she was a menace and had blown up his castle when she came her. Kithri said she'd enlist Ralliakkan to look for another, but it was unlikely we'd ever find another Vale Elf. Aggie decided to contact her and see if we could arrange a funnelling spell, that was going to be our only option to make this work perfectly.
Throughout all of this that damned Book was reminding me in a sing-song voice that it had a ritual with everything we needed. I would not give into that fucking Book unless we were literally out of options. And even then it wasn't likely I'd give in. That Book was pure evil.
As the full moon reached its zenith, Sachi's wedding began. A beam of moonlight paralyzed Sachi and the soul gem in him began to glow. He screamed in agony, blood spurting everywhere, as the gem was ripped from his chest. As soon as it was out, the wound closed and the gem cracked open, a pulse of energy coming from it as Clarah appeared.
Sachi turned around and asked for a priest to perform the ceremony. He'd snubbed my offer to perform it earlier in the day, so I refused. Tilea's dog, Bruno, ended up performing it for them. After the ceremony, they held a 24 hour wedding reception. I even decided to drink and party with everyone, cutting loose was interesting.
I ended up buying a horse named Twilight and winning another horse while gambling. Nikko won a horse named Crystal Firedancer. Dot won an elephant, and became the enemy of a female dwarf who Narg beat the Hells out of. Sachi won a chicken. Narg had the most bizarre series of events. He ended up in a motley joker costume and was given a man's son when he lost a wager, then somehow he ended up under a pile of crabs, then surrounded by goats. I really don't know how this all happened.
Nineteen the goats died, so I reincarnated all of them and then awakened them. This is apparently what happens when I cut loose... We gave them to Narg to train.
***** Nyolcadik Honap 9, Sigil
Sachi asked me to come with him to take control of a wizard tower he'd bought in Sigil. In the middle of the ground floor was a book sitting on a pedestal, which Sachi went for without letting me look at it first to make sure it wasn't cursed. When he reached it, a ghostly hand reached out and grabbed him, yanking him into the book.
He came out of the book pretty quickly, saying that the thing in the book had called him an acolyte, and now he couldn't take off a weird ring. We went upstairs to look at the next floor and found a barred portcullis blocking our way. I tried to send Azure through and the poor little light died instantly. Sachi informed the tower he was its owner now and it began to rumble. He touched the portcullis and it hurt him badly. With that, Sachi decided to go back into the book.
While he was gone, I used magic to learn about the tower and I learned that one day all of the mages packed up left. The tower itself was too powerful. A necromancer had been trying to harness the power of souls to do more than just reanimate flesh. He had been trying to access the land of the dead itself, and no one knows what happened to him.
The book whipped open, burst into flames, and spirits began pouring out of it. Sachi popped out of the book as the last of the spirits left. Whatever he'd done allowed us access to the rest of the tower, which was completely empty. With this investigated, Sachi and Clarah took off and I returned to Barovia.
*****
We spent the next month preparing to find and take down Shaft. Tilea and Scritch were training with Narg, Sachi and Clarah went on their honeymoon, and my sestras and I worked on the spell.
I spent a couple weeks puzzling out what to use as an energy source for the ritual, and once we'd figured that out, I got a few new magic tattoos and did some training with Narg. We couldn't find another Valley Elf, so we'd have to funnel the spell to make this work. I ignored the Book reminding me about the ritual it had.
For the energy source, we gathered 1.5 million pounds of sand and used a vengeful storm spell to create a massive fulgurite crystal.
***** Kilencedik Honap 1, Temple of Mystra
My sestras and I were just about to open the portal to Greyhawk to begin the ritual when Grant showed up and told us we couldn't perform the ritual. The curse on Belmont was still there, and if we performed the ritual, we'd lead Shaft right to us. Grant told us Shaft was Belmont's brother, which made these circumstances seem even odder.
We also couldn't just kill Belmont, because the curse affected the bloodline, so it would just be passed to Syn when Belmont died. Even with the Power of Three we couldn't figure out what exactly this curse was, it was simply too powerful. It was like someone was cursing the family by cursing themself.
Grant said we could try to use the power of Syn's soul to find Shaft without leading him to us, which Tilea objected to, of course. We continued debating about what the Hells we could do, going in circles as always.
Randomly, I'm not sure how this came about, Sachi made a comment about fantasizing about one of us- my sestras and I. That annoyed me enough that I looked at Aggie and said she could beat him up- the little shit has had this coming. Aggie, Sypha, and I joined hands and slammed him with magic missiles, which he absorbed. So Aggie took the four of us to a dimensional pocket, and with the Power of Three we beat the Hells out of him and actually dropped him unconscious.
We revived him, of course, then we tried to convince Sachi we knew everything he does- we were in his head. Grant played along and told Sachi we were using brain worms, so Sachi asked Clarah to pop his head, which she gladly did. I asked Clarah if she just wanted me to resurrect him or reincarnate him and she squealed in delight at the thought of turning him into something else. The first reincarnate turned him into a peryton. Clarah didn't like that one, so she snapped his neck and I did it again, turning him into a nightmare. Clarah bounced up and down, squealing in delight about having a pony. She jumped on his back and they rode off.
Now that Sachi was gone, we decided to use Syn's soul to find Shaft. Tilea was not pleased, but she came with us anyway. My sestras stayed at the Temple to continue research. We managed to convince Tilea to let Syn make her own choice about the ritual. With Syn's agreement, Grant touched a symbol and vanished; Syn said he should be back with a celestial. After half an hour, Syn went stiff and her eyes glazed over. The sigil Grant used to leave began to glow and a high pitched whining noise began to reverberate throughout the room.
A human-looking entity walked out of the sigil and went straight toward Syn, not acknowledging anyone else. I could see its true form and a purely radiant soul, it was so bright it was almost blinding. When it touched Syn, a radiant handprint was left behind, and as its bright brilliance bathed us, I realized I couldn't hear the Book; for the first time since I picked up that accursed thing, it wasn't babbling or singing at me. It knelt before Syn and reached out, putting its arm up to the elbow into her chest. The girl screamed in agony, and it worked for 20 minutes on her. When it was finally done, she slumped over, unconscious, but alive. The entity left and the sigil on the wall changed.
A few minutes later, Grant came in and said the Sigil was Shaft's location. He had a new toy to show us, which would help us kill Shaft. Grant led us a couple miles away from the Temple and showed us the fulgurite crystal we'd made, but it was on some weird contraption that had tubes and soul gems attached to it. Grant turned it on to demonstrate its power and it destroyed 1/4 mile of mountain.
We'd have to lure Shaft here to use it, and we only had two shots. Belmont would be perfect bait when he was taken out of my wards. As we began talking about what we needed to do, one of the Shieldwalls came running toward us, when he got close enough he called out "Belmont is gone."
We had a month to prepare for this ritual to find the Dark Priest, and we'd certainly need it. Sypha said we needed the blood of a Vale Elf, but according to legends, none existed. I went to visit the Archivist and she told me there was one Valley Elf left in existence, but she was banned from ever entering Barovia again. Kithri said we might be able to perform the ritual from Oerth, where Aurora lived, but it wasn't terribly likely.
I beseeched Strahd to allow me to bring a bit of the Battle Bard's blood to the realm, and he quite vehemently said no. Apparently she was a menace and had blown up his castle when she came her. Kithri said she'd enlist Ralliakkan to look for another, but it was unlikely we'd ever find another Vale Elf. Aggie decided to contact her and see if we could arrange a funnelling spell, that was going to be our only option to make this work perfectly.
Throughout all of this that damned Book was reminding me in a sing-song voice that it had a ritual with everything we needed. I would not give into that fucking Book unless we were literally out of options. And even then it wasn't likely I'd give in. That Book was pure evil.
As the full moon reached its zenith, Sachi's wedding began. A beam of moonlight paralyzed Sachi and the soul gem in him began to glow. He screamed in agony, blood spurting everywhere, as the gem was ripped from his chest. As soon as it was out, the wound closed and the gem cracked open, a pulse of energy coming from it as Clarah appeared.
Sachi turned around and asked for a priest to perform the ceremony. He'd snubbed my offer to perform it earlier in the day, so I refused. Tilea's dog, Bruno, ended up performing it for them. After the ceremony, they held a 24 hour wedding reception. I even decided to drink and party with everyone, cutting loose was interesting.
I ended up buying a horse named Twilight and winning another horse while gambling. Nikko won a horse named Crystal Firedancer. Dot won an elephant, and became the enemy of a female dwarf who Narg beat the Hells out of. Sachi won a chicken. Narg had the most bizarre series of events. He ended up in a motley joker costume and was given a man's son when he lost a wager, then somehow he ended up under a pile of crabs, then surrounded by goats. I really don't know how this all happened.
Nineteen the goats died, so I reincarnated all of them and then awakened them. This is apparently what happens when I cut loose... We gave them to Narg to train.
***** Nyolcadik Honap 9, Sigil
Sachi asked me to come with him to take control of a wizard tower he'd bought in Sigil. In the middle of the ground floor was a book sitting on a pedestal, which Sachi went for without letting me look at it first to make sure it wasn't cursed. When he reached it, a ghostly hand reached out and grabbed him, yanking him into the book.
He came out of the book pretty quickly, saying that the thing in the book had called him an acolyte, and now he couldn't take off a weird ring. We went upstairs to look at the next floor and found a barred portcullis blocking our way. I tried to send Azure through and the poor little light died instantly. Sachi informed the tower he was its owner now and it began to rumble. He touched the portcullis and it hurt him badly. With that, Sachi decided to go back into the book.
While he was gone, I used magic to learn about the tower and I learned that one day all of the mages packed up left. The tower itself was too powerful. A necromancer had been trying to harness the power of souls to do more than just reanimate flesh. He had been trying to access the land of the dead itself, and no one knows what happened to him.
The book whipped open, burst into flames, and spirits began pouring out of it. Sachi popped out of the book as the last of the spirits left. Whatever he'd done allowed us access to the rest of the tower, which was completely empty. With this investigated, Sachi and Clarah took off and I returned to Barovia.
*****
We spent the next month preparing to find and take down Shaft. Tilea and Scritch were training with Narg, Sachi and Clarah went on their honeymoon, and my sestras and I worked on the spell.
I spent a couple weeks puzzling out what to use as an energy source for the ritual, and once we'd figured that out, I got a few new magic tattoos and did some training with Narg. We couldn't find another Valley Elf, so we'd have to funnel the spell to make this work. I ignored the Book reminding me about the ritual it had.
For the energy source, we gathered 1.5 million pounds of sand and used a vengeful storm spell to create a massive fulgurite crystal.
***** Kilencedik Honap 1, Temple of Mystra
My sestras and I were just about to open the portal to Greyhawk to begin the ritual when Grant showed up and told us we couldn't perform the ritual. The curse on Belmont was still there, and if we performed the ritual, we'd lead Shaft right to us. Grant told us Shaft was Belmont's brother, which made these circumstances seem even odder.
We also couldn't just kill Belmont, because the curse affected the bloodline, so it would just be passed to Syn when Belmont died. Even with the Power of Three we couldn't figure out what exactly this curse was, it was simply too powerful. It was like someone was cursing the family by cursing themself.
Grant said we could try to use the power of Syn's soul to find Shaft without leading him to us, which Tilea objected to, of course. We continued debating about what the Hells we could do, going in circles as always.
Randomly, I'm not sure how this came about, Sachi made a comment about fantasizing about one of us- my sestras and I. That annoyed me enough that I looked at Aggie and said she could beat him up- the little shit has had this coming. Aggie, Sypha, and I joined hands and slammed him with magic missiles, which he absorbed. So Aggie took the four of us to a dimensional pocket, and with the Power of Three we beat the Hells out of him and actually dropped him unconscious.
We revived him, of course, then we tried to convince Sachi we knew everything he does- we were in his head. Grant played along and told Sachi we were using brain worms, so Sachi asked Clarah to pop his head, which she gladly did. I asked Clarah if she just wanted me to resurrect him or reincarnate him and she squealed in delight at the thought of turning him into something else. The first reincarnate turned him into a peryton. Clarah didn't like that one, so she snapped his neck and I did it again, turning him into a nightmare. Clarah bounced up and down, squealing in delight about having a pony. She jumped on his back and they rode off.
Now that Sachi was gone, we decided to use Syn's soul to find Shaft. Tilea was not pleased, but she came with us anyway. My sestras stayed at the Temple to continue research. We managed to convince Tilea to let Syn make her own choice about the ritual. With Syn's agreement, Grant touched a symbol and vanished; Syn said he should be back with a celestial. After half an hour, Syn went stiff and her eyes glazed over. The sigil Grant used to leave began to glow and a high pitched whining noise began to reverberate throughout the room.
A human-looking entity walked out of the sigil and went straight toward Syn, not acknowledging anyone else. I could see its true form and a purely radiant soul, it was so bright it was almost blinding. When it touched Syn, a radiant handprint was left behind, and as its bright brilliance bathed us, I realized I couldn't hear the Book; for the first time since I picked up that accursed thing, it wasn't babbling or singing at me. It knelt before Syn and reached out, putting its arm up to the elbow into her chest. The girl screamed in agony, and it worked for 20 minutes on her. When it was finally done, she slumped over, unconscious, but alive. The entity left and the sigil on the wall changed.
A few minutes later, Grant came in and said the Sigil was Shaft's location. He had a new toy to show us, which would help us kill Shaft. Grant led us a couple miles away from the Temple and showed us the fulgurite crystal we'd made, but it was on some weird contraption that had tubes and soul gems attached to it. Grant turned it on to demonstrate its power and it destroyed 1/4 mile of mountain.
We'd have to lure Shaft here to use it, and we only had two shots. Belmont would be perfect bait when he was taken out of my wards. As we began talking about what we needed to do, one of the Shieldwalls came running toward us, when he got close enough he called out "Belmont is gone."
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