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

Belmont's Curse

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

Comrades we have lost:
Pineck, Anvil's Horse- turned into soup by a cursed crate
Kithri "Quickshadow" Tealeaf, the Lightfoot Halfling Werebat Order of the Lycan Blood Hunter and Ruin Raider- left to become Archivist
Forgrotken Anvilrocker, the Blugrim Forge Cleric of Moradin- killed by the Talmot Wives
Lythana, the Human Werewolf Order of the Ghost Slayer Blood Hunter- captured by the Talmot Wives, then turned evil mauled to death by Tilea
Bruenar Shieldwall, the Shield Dwarf Shield Fighter the party hired- became the Harbinger of Apsu

NOTE: Things will be mostly from Tabitha's perspective, anything in italics is from a third party view since the Witch can't be everywhere at once. 

***** Nyolcadik Honap 7, CY 745, Castle Ravenloft, the Gardens

       Tilea told Belmont to stop, "you can't do it like this." We needed to solve the time loop, not break it like this. He insisted that he could do it without turning into Strahd, which none of us believed. She pointed out that the magic will force it, and said his time had passed. Belmont squared his shoulders and glared at Tilea, telling her that as long as he lives he has a chance to succeed and if we wanted to stop him we'd have to kill him, which he didn't think we could do.

       Tilea responded by trying to reverse gravity on him, but it didn't work; he said he was bound to all of nature and life, then cracked his whip at her, sending her flying. Sachi called her back and she attempted to slash the bonds that tied him to nature, but it didn't work. Belmont chucked an axe at Tilea, and thankfully missed. My crew set up some protection magics for the others, which Belmont apparently didn't appreciate; he threw a vial at me and silver fire coated my bubble then popped it.

       Grant grabbed Syn and drug her into a nearby building, desperate to keep her out of Belmont's sight. I hoped it would be enough. Belmont threw another axe at Tilea, hitting her hard, then he threw another at Scritch which bounced off the wall and hit the squirrel a second time. It was impressive, to say the least. He tossed a vial at Sachi, but he managed to evade it. Scritch, Kittie, and Cat went for him, a flurry of slashes and parries.

       Blue energy wrapped around Belmont and he leapt to Tilea, missing her with his whip, and then he jumped over the wall. Tilea called forth a vengeful, angry storm and sent it at Belmont, which ended up only hurting Pip, Spot, and Azure. She sent a swarm of monkeys at him next and he destroyed them instantly. I got my group out of Tilea's storm, and we all launched attack magic at Belmont, missing; I set up a healing candle, we'd need it soon enough.

       Sachi launched himself at Belmont and was met by his whip wrapping around his tiny monkey body, slamming him into the wall. He began beating the shit out of Sachi while I did everything I could to keep him alive. Tilea and Scritch both went for Belmont, but didn't do much- Scritch even ended up hitting poor Sachi, who Belmont kept beating on. Scritch called Sachi to get him out of the whip and Belmont grabbed him with the whip instead. Dot managed to score a nasty hit with a witch bolt while I prepared to try to take away some of his magic.

       Sachi finally managed to get away from Belmont. Grant emerged without Syn, asked what the fuck was going on, and rushed into Tilea's storm to get Belmont. Belmont hit hit with seven nasty-looking weapons, and I hurried to heal him. Tilea began chucking lightning bolts at Belmont, then began slashing her sword at him. Sachi dive-bombed Belmont with his poisoned kataras, hurting him enough to make him crumble, screaming in pain.

       Grant jumped up and yelled "no, you fool" at Sachi, while Tilea cried out "no Sachi, the orb, the orb!" We had no fucking idea what she was talking about though. Grant snapped a rod and a burst of light came out of it, Tilea told him it wasn't gone though. Grant yelled at Sachi to run before backing off himself.

       Five orbs rolled out of Belmont, the size of marbles, and began orbiting him. They suddenly became the size of cantaloupes, and in a flash of light, Belmont rose, fully healed, and stomped, sending out a massive shockwave. Belmont was pulsing and glowing in silvery light. This wasn't good. His whip lashed out, glowing with the brightest flame I'd ever seen- I had to look away. Tilea's storm no longer seemed to affect him at all.

       Things were looking bad, I needed my sestras. I sent Sypha a message for help, and she replied that we needed to be targeting the curse, not Belmont. My sestras were on the way, but they may not make it to us in time. I used the spell that lets me see curses and saw what she was talking about. I lit a telepathy candle to show everyone else what we needed to be targeting.

       Tilea suggested we try healing magic on the curse... which healed him... I couldn't get close enough to try to remove the curse completely, and I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to on my own anyway. Maybe with the Power of Three, but not on my own. Now that the others could see the curse they began focusing on hitting it instead of Belmont himself.

       After a few seconds, Belmont began to glow differently. The others continued exchanging blows with him, and Tilea gave up on her fucking storm. Dot opened a dimensional door and sent a cone of cold at Belmont. I opened one with a mage hand that held a gem with remove curse, but it missed. Somewhere in this chaos, Syn came out to join the fray, even though she'd been instructed not to.

       Grant ran toward her, snapped a rod, and went blank before reaching Syn; she turned on hit and killed him. I sent Azure to ressurect Grant, and Belmont killed the light instead. Belmont's whip wrapped around Syn's neck, yanked her to him, and he took her whip, he was about to do something horrible, when Dot wished Syn hadn't come out. Syn was back inside and Grant was alive again. So was Azure.

       Grant was running toward Belmont with the rod again, and Tilea stopped him from snapping it. Instead, he kicked Belmont in the nuts three times- that man would never had babies now... Belmont collapsed, unconscious from the pain Grant had just inflicted on him. Grant said now was the time and snapped the rod. A flash of light came from the rod and the orb over Belmont flickered for a moment before vanishing completely.

       Grant explained that the orb wasn't a true curse, the Dark Priest was using it to control Belmont. The Priest wants to get Belmont on Strahd's throne, and the orb Grant banished was what he'd been controlling Belmont with. I hoped that meant my old friend hadn't turned into the douche he'd been acting like, that it was just part of the control; I doubted that was the case, but it doesn't hurt to wish.

       I sent Sypha a message to meet us at the Temple, then I brought all of us, including the unconscious Belmont, there. A few minutes later, we learned that somehow- I'm really not sure how he did this- Sachi had informed Strahd that we had Belmont's unconscious body, which Strahd demanded. I created a new section in my heavily warded vault and put Speck in there to watch him. Then Tilea convinced Sachi she hid Belmont's body. That damned monkey spent the next four hours searching for it.

       Later in the day Tilea asked me to shift us to her Lythari village in the Feywild. The first time we ended up in a new growth forest instead, with figures in ruins nearby. My second attempt got us there. Leaving Barovia was more difficult now for some fucking reason. Whatever Tilea was looking for, they didn't have it.

       I took us to Sigil next, and there was a spiky headed thing coming our way. Tilea panicked so I shifted us to Waterdeep.

       Something went wrong... again. We ended up in Skullport, in Xanathar's Vault. This was fucking bad. I adjusted my appearance and tried to shift us out, which set off fucking alarms. The others were frantically shoving loot into their bags while I began offering Mystra magical items. It took some powerful items, but it worked, a portal appeared in front of us that took us straight back to the Temple.

       I decided to give Tilea my Broom of the Beastlands, and she instantly burned off the broom part, leaving just the staff. Then Sachi and Tilea began jousting brooms. Two of the Shieldwalls went for a broom, and somehow they knocked each other out. I revived them and retired to our personal common room. A bit later, I learned one guard accidentally killed another with a piece of a broom, then two more killed themselves with brooms. Sachi revived all of them, and I bitched both him and Tilea out.

       The shopaholic monkey wanted to head back to Sigil again, so off we went. Grant and Aggie even came with us. This was the most time I'd spent with my sestra in far too long. I went to get more tattoos while the others went shopping. Aggie bought me a super creepy trinket just to bug me, along with a bright orange tabby cat... It was nice to resume the casual teasing with my sestra, as if we hadn't gone so long as kind of enemies.

       Sachi beseeched Apsu for aid, forgetting about Clarah being imprisoned in his soul. Once he told Apsu he loved Clarah, the God demanded the monkey prove it. Apsu killed him several times before he ran out of ideas, then sent him to Tiamat to finish out the 17 deaths. Being willing to die 17 more times for Clarah would prove his love to Apsu. 

       He became engaged to Clarah and was told that they would marry on the next full moon.

***** Nyolcadik Honap 8, Sigil

       In the morning Sypha contacted me to let me know that we had to perform the ritual to find this Dark Priest. We needed the full moon, and we needed the time to make everything perfect for it.

       Sachi asked us where the best silversmith was, so Aggie sent him to some hags in Barovia. He came back seething, and after bitching Aggie out, she banished him. This time when he returned he just grumbled at Aggie and went looking for a silversmith in Sigil.

       Tilea had me take her to Mount Ghakis, as close to Bruenar's vault as I could. I didn't ask, she didn't offer any info. I checked on Belmont before heading back to Sigil, he was still out cold.

       The full moon began rising in Barovia, Sachi and Clarah would be wed tonight. Apsu was not giving him the opportunity to weasel out of this betrothal. He rushed back to Sigil to see if he could get the statue he wanted for the wedding done tonight; he couldn't. The full moon followed him to Sigil and left when he went back to Barovia.

       Even though there was a full moon tonight, my sestras and I couldn't perform our ritual. There were things we needed to gather and it would take us the full month to prepare. I set up an area in the Temple for the ritual that only my sestras and I could access.

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.