Curse of Strahd: Through the Domains of Dread

Curse of Strahd began by piggybacking on the heals of House of Lament (from Van Richton's Guide to Ravenloft), where the original party was first introduced to one of the many Domains of Dread. The party has recently arrived in the village of Barovia where they were introduced to the unusual ways of the peoples of this valley and their prince, the one the people call The Devil Strahd. There they met the son of the village's late burgomaster, Ismark Kolyanovich, who gave the team their first quest: escort his sister Ireena to the village of Vallaki in the heart of the Valley of Barovia. Ireena had been already bitten twice by the Devil Strahd and Ismark needs her brought somewhere she can be safe from the vampire's power. She wouldn't leave, however, until their father's remains were brought to the local church and interred on the hollowed grounds. At the church they met Father Donovich praying by the alter in the church's ransacked chapel as a voice from below called out "Father, I'm starving!" F. Donovich explained that his son, who had accompanied a wizard and many other townsfolk and stormed the gates of Ravenloft a year ago had in fact returned, albeit as a vampire spawn. F. Donovich pleaded with the party to not kill his son, but to find a way to cure him. The group acquiesced, and F. Donovich agreed to preside over the burial of Burgomaster Kolyan Indirovich in the early hours of that morning. Along the way they encountered some eerie sights, like an old woman named Morgantha taking a child as payment for her pastries, the visage of Sabrina hanging from a crossroads gallows, and the decrepit windmill known to the locals as 'Old Bonegrinder'. The also encountered a Vistani camp at the Tser Pool, where, in the mid morning hours, were regaled with wine and a story of a wizard that battled Strahd before perishing by the vampire's hand. They also met Madam Eva, the camp's maddened elder Vistana. She read the group's fortune as relating to Strahd, giving them cryptic clues as to how to rid Barovia of the vampire and end his curse on the land. After Arriving in the walled village of Vallaki, the group sought out the village burgomaster, Baron Vargas Vallakovich. At his mansion they entreated him to give aid and shelter to Ireena to which he agreed before giving the party a quest of his own: investigate the disappearances of two staff members, the butler, and the Baroness' lady-in-waiting. With that, our heroes spent their first night in Barovia in the safety of the burgomaster's mansion. Several days have passed, our heroes tried to track down the missing staff members to no avail but managed to discover a foreigner named Rictavio with a secret. The half-elf carnival master keeps a saber-toothed tiger hidden in his locked wagon. The group investigated a late shipment of wine that led them to the Wizard of Wines winery that turned out to be run by the Blue Water Inn owner's family. The Martikovs said they were overrun by blighted plant creatures and their druid masters. It was a close call, but the party managed to defeat the hoards of blights and even purified the wine that was poisoned by the druids. They returned to Vallaki, wine in hand, and were celebrated as heroes. During the Festival of the Blazing Sun, Burgomaster Vallakovich spoke of them with high praise and announced they would be replacing Izek Strazni as captain of the guard. Earlier that day, the party had beaten Izek into submission when they found out he had kidnapped Irenna and locked her in his room. Izek was then judged to be exiled. The Festival of the Blazing Sun continued under dark skies and threats of rain. Before the Burgomaster could set the wicker sun ablaze, the clouds opened up and a deluge fell upon the festival. I laugh from one of the guardsmen broke the stunned silence and the Vallakovich order the man to be bound and tied to his horse, dragging him through the mud for the rest of the evening. Making matters worse, the Wachter brothers, Nikolai and Karl, ran through the festival screaming about a tiger rampaging through town. Panicked townsfolk ran over one another to reach the safety of their homes while Vallakovich shouted "All is well" while also commanding his guards to find and put the tiger down. The danger was exaggerated however, Rictavio's saber-toothed tiger was not a man eater, and it was the Wachter brothers' fault he escaped. The party pulled a fast one over the Burgomaster and his guards and allowed the tiger and Rictavio to escape. Rictavio entrusted us that he was actually Rudolf van Richten, a vampire hunter who has been on the hunt for Strahd for many years. After the events of the Festival of the Blazing Sun, the party was approached by the Wachter brothers on behalf of their mother, Lady Fiona Wachter. She invited the party to dinner in order to "thank" them for rescuing her sons. It became quite apparent throughout dinner, that Lady Wachter was no fan of Baron Vargus. In fact, she hoped the party would help her rid Vallaki of its current Burgomaster and place her in his stead. The party also investigated a matter on behalf of Father Lucian Petrovich, priest of St. Andral's Church. St. Andral's bone were stolen, leaving Vallaki unprotected against Strahd and his minions. The found the bones in the home of the local coffin maker who was duped by Strahd into making his attic a nest for a group of vampire spawn. With the saint's bones back in their repository under the alter, Father Lucian said Vallaki would continue be safe. Following up on the case of the Buromaster's missing staff, the party went to interview his son, Victor Vallakovich. They had heard stories of a ghastly purple light that emanated from the Burgomaster's attic on many nights. Victor was persuaded to divulge his attempts in recreating a Teleportation Circle he found in an old wizard's spellbook. He had tried it out on several of the staff and concluded that it wasn't correct because each trial run ended up the same, with a pile of clothes and the dust that remained after the participant was disintegrated. Lyn decided to stay behind and help Victor perfect his spell in the hopes that this might actually give the party a chance to escape Barovia. The group devised a plan to depose the Burgomaster and create a town council made up of Lady Fiona, Father Lucian, and Sabrina Hafthor (who was now the acting captain of the guard). Before they brought it to Lady Fiona Wachter's attention however, they decided to check in with Madam Eva. Madam Eva read their fortune only to end with the Mists card again! Perplexed by her own reading, she urged the party to find the relics mentioned in their previous reading. Then and only then she believed the Mists would part long enough to find the place of Strahd's last stand. Heading back toward Vallaki, the group encountered a raven messenger on the Luna River Bridge. Vaelok used Speak with Animals to learn that Morgantha had made her way to the village of Barovia that morning, leaving Bonegrinder and her two daughters unguarded and the coven divided. The party sacked Old Bonegrinder but one of the hag daughters escaped. The party set an ambush for Morgantha but she proved too smart and too powerful to be outwitted by the party and she too escaped. The party raised Old Bonegrinder to the ground so it couldn't serve as the hags' home base any longer. They did save three young children from the hags' clutches and brought the back to Vallaki where they wanted to stay with Ireena. Somebody joked that Ireena should start an orphanage, to which Ireena and Dr. Greymourne actually gave some thought too. Later that evening, the party snuck into the Burgomaster's mansion, Hemi cast the silence spell while the others tied him up and dragged him up into the attic. Victor tried out the new circle and attempted to cast the spell on his father. The burgomaster was disintegrated, but in the name of experimentation. Hemi and Lyn, both practiced and experienced wizards decided to try the spell themselves with Lyn as the sole target. Both were very confident in their abilities and it did seem like the spell would work when Strahd's laugh echoed throughout the small attic chamber. The spell turned and Lyn exploded. With the sudden realization that he was indeed trapped in Barovia, Viktor went to his desk, gathered his notes into a neat stack, and took is ink pen in hand. He was stoic, as if thinking of documenting the night's mishaps for further research when instead, he used the pen to take his own life. The Baroness, Lydia Petrovna was deep in grief when she learned her son had murdered his father and then took his own life. The party calmed her and let her know that Father Lucian, her brother, would be there to take care of her. The party decided to tell Lady Wachter that the Burgomaster was no more and that a council was to be formed. When they reached her mansion, however, they were turned away by her valet, Haliq. Haliq's cold demeanor and reasoning that Lady Wachter could not be summoned to the door because of a prior engagement stoked fear into the party who wondered if she was in danger. They broke into the house, killed Haliq, and persuaded the house maid Madalena to reveal Lady Wachter's whereabouts. Madalena led the group to the basement where they followed footprints to a secret door. Beyond the door, the group interrupted an infernal gathering between Lady Fiona and several of her cultist friends. Lady Fiona and her cat-turned-imp familiar Majesto attacked the party and wound up dead along with two of the four cultists. In the aftermath of the basement battle, the party realized they were going to have to restructure their town council idea. They suggested Dr. Greymourne would make a fine addition to the council based on her expertise in science and reasoning to be paired with Father Lucian's theological prowess and Sabrina's fighting experience. Approaching Dr Grey and Ireena about the proposal, Ireena also mentioned that the two thought they should start an orphanage for the children of Barovia and that maybe Baroness Lydia Petrovna would be their partner. Afterall, she was in possession of a mansion and it could give new purpose to her life. Upon speaking to the Baroness, she was greatly fond of the idea and quickly agreed. With Vallaki seemingly in good hands the party decides what to do next is simple: retrieve the holy symbol of great power, the sword of light, and the tome of knowledge that will help them in their battle to free this valley from the devil Strahd. New heroes will start off at level 7, using point buy for ability scores, standard starting equipment or gold, and 1 common magic item, 1 uncommon magic item and an additional 750gp. Current party members include: Vaelok Skyroot, a male goliath wildfire druid; Virtuoso, a male human devotion paladin; Aurelia, a female elf dead three rogue Hemi the Wise, a male human necromancy wizard;