Through the Mists

Session 3: The Crow Who Watched

At a glance

Summary

For the second night in succession, Rivalis marked midnight with thirteen chimes.

Morning found Carver at work. While Rage slept, the artificer borrowed his greataxe, cleaned and oiled the blade, and laced it with an infusion that sharpened it beyond mundane craftsmanship. Rage awoke to a +1 weapon. For Ignatius, Carver used his artificer ability to prepare a single-use spellwrought tattoo containing cure wounds—one casting of healing magic waiting beneath the skin.

Breakfast brought a visitor to the inn’s narrow window slit. A crow appeared with a red envelope in its beak, dropped the message, and departed. Rage tossed it to Carver, and Ignatius examined the markings. Beneath the ordinary writing, he discovered secret Draconic claw-marks scratched in the manner of a shadow dragon.

The message was brief and unsettling: the travelers had been noticed. Its authors wanted the party’s help in all they did and summoned them to Castle Avernus. In the minds of all three adventurers, the image of the sundered tower and red star from their shared vision rose again. Carver knew enough of Avernus to fear it. The castle was saturated with magic; sensible people did not go there.

The company defending Rivalis returned to the Coachman’s Rest looking exhausted from another night along the Shroud. Rage loudly asked how the battle had gone, drawing their handsome, terse leader away from the formation. At last, the party learned his name: Garen Faulk.

When Rage raised the subject of vampires, Garen urged discretion. Martira Bay, he said, was a city where vampires ruled. His soldiers had spent the night fighting at the Shroud’s edge against an apparently endless tide of undead, while one of their number charted the movement of the Mists. Ignatius asked whether Garen had traveled near Castle Avernus. The question irritated him, and his cryptic reply did little to clarify what places he had truly reached.

The famous pie-eating contest was due that evening, but the party had other business. Rage noticed Aldo hurriedly departing as he stumbled out of the inn, still determined to learn how to identify vampires. Carver lashed two twigs into a small cross. At that very moment, a bottle flew from Ewing’s hands. The odd coincidence was never investigated and developed no known significance.

On the way to report their discoveries to Von Anbach, the party passed cider vendors and halfling lumberjacks preparing for the day’s fair. Ignatius noticed a charming merchant dressed in black robes and a red cowl. The man claimed his stall was not yet open, then promptly sold Rage a sack of candied nuts for one silver piece.

At Rivalis City Hall, Chief Constable Von Anbach listened to the account of the alien blight beneath the Arboretum. He insisted that Growmaster Brambledu was responsible for stamping out the gray rot and sent the party back to inform him. For their service, Von Anbach awarded them a gray Bag of Tricks, which ultimately passed into Carver’s care as communal loot.

Ignatius asked whether the constable had heard the rumors surrounding the Two Brothers and their strange cheese. Von Anbach dismissed it as merely addictive and warned the party not to ruffle feathers. If they insisted on investigating, he suggested mentioning it to Brambledu.

On the road back to the Crystal Gardens, children laughed as they beat a stitched scarecrow. Rage joined them with considerably greater force. The figure split into a jack-o’-lantern grin and erupted in illusory flame. It lashed Rage with a clawed hand and filled him with supernatural fear. Ignatius answered with a flying elbow that reduced the thing to dust almost instantly.

Ignatius delivering the decisive elbow strike against the animated scarecrow.

Ignatius ends the scarecrow’s attack almost as soon as it begins. See the image record.

Carver found no nearby mechanism or caster, only signs that some entity had intentionally prepared the scarecrow. As the party rested, a passing jester entertained the gathering crowd and left behind a rose covered in black scales. Then he continued on his way, leaving the party with an unexplained token and another possible watcher.

The rear of the Crystal Gardens bustled with workers clearing muck, gray roots, and the remains of corruption. Littleleaf, the garden janitor, explained that Brambledu was delighted with the previous night’s work—and that both he and the Growmaster knew more about the invasive creature’s origin than they had first admitted.

Some time ago, a powerful traveler had come bearing soil from Lamordia, a cold and bleak realm where life was fashioned from the dead rather than raised as undeath. The druids accepted the soil as a gift for the Gardens. From it came the alien growth the party had destroyed. The traveler departed after making the donation.

When Rage casually suggested that he might make a fine king, the janitor answered with startling speed: “Don’t let Madame Eris hear that.”

Inside the Gardens, the party found several plants bearing faces disturbingly like those of halflings. Rage wanted to cut them down; Ignatius persuaded him to ask Brambledu first. The great tree in the central chamber shone brighter and fuller than before, and Brambledu studied the ground where the battle had taken place. He thanked the adventurers but admitted that, although he understood cultivation, the creature itself lay outside his expertise.

The Growmaster rewarded each hero with a single-use botanical spell item. Rage received a dried black lily that could cast calm emotions. Ignatius received a brown root that could cast create homunculus. Carver received a fragile but leathery orange leaf that could cast protection from poison.

Brambledu confirmed the account of Lamordia and described it as a frozen hellscape where the dead were made rather than risen. When asked about Screaming Cheese, he said it was new and that he had never tried it. The creamery’s owners, Wick and Fennic Merrydo, were good men in his estimation.

The party left the Gardens for the Two Brothers Creamery. Sickly cattle watched them approach beneath the circling shapes of scavenger birds. The creamery itself offered a sharp contrast: an elegant, resort-like estate filled with beautifully presented cheeses and eager hospitality.

Breena, a greeter and guide, met Rage’s demands for Screaming Cheese, a tour, and a drink with a lavish tasting spread. Rage devoured the entire serving. The dense cheese was almost impossibly difficult to swallow, but once it settled, laughter overtook him. He saw an elf before a waterfall and felt himself floating in perfect union with nature. As he ate still more, the sensation deepened until he felt submerged and the waterfall began flowing backward.

Rage floating before a moonlit waterfall that flows upward into the sky.

Screaming Cheese carries Rage into a beautiful and impossible vision. See the image record.

The workers treated this as perfectly normal.

Carver performed a ritual to detect magic. Neither the cheese nor its surroundings revealed an obvious enchantment. A nearby crow, however, shone with transmutation magic.

The tour began with dull family history before reaching the hot fermentation chamber, where wooden barrels and open vats filled the air. Cheesemeister Burrow offered samples as Rage continued eating. Carver appeared to take his portion but slipped it beneath his hat for later examination.

For seventy-five silver pieces, the party purchased an “exclusive private tour” and was shown another vat alongside jars of bubbling, stringy blue mold. Ignatius determined that the contents were alive but not sentient. Burrow admitted that a gentle female visitor from very far away had brought the mold along with cheese of her own. He resisted Rage’s questions about vampires before conceding that, although Rivalis rarely dealt with them and none were known locally, sensible residents remained watchful.

Burrow finally directed the party to Wendell, the creamery’s Key Keeper and general person in charge, who oversaw the suffering cattle. Breena managed one last sale—a bottle of sparkling water to a reluctant Ignatius—and supplied Rage with another serving of Screaming Cheese for the road.

Wendell watched the fields from atop a donkey and accepted the party’s offer to examine the herd. Among the diseased animals, vultures circled overhead and a crow watched nearby. Carver’s magic confirmed that the red growths covering one cow were not arcane. They were biological. The crow was another matter: it still radiated transmutation.

Before their eyes, the bird expanded into a humanoid crow-like figure.

“Tell me what you like of the occult,” it said.

Carver distrusted what he could not measure. Ignatius respected the occult’s danger. Rage declared considerably more enthusiasm. The stranger said he had watched the party since their battle in the Gardens. When Rage reached for his attention, a storm of crows and ravens swallowed his sight. Terror drove him to his hands and knees, screaming about bats.

The watcher introduced himself as Vidic. He hunted occult evil across Ravenloft and offered two nearby leads: a hidden house close to Rivalis and a whistling fiend he intended to investigate. As for the cattle, Vidic wished them luck. The same red boils, he warned, had caused a plague one hundred years earlier.

Winged Vidic revealing his humanoid crow-like form in the diseased cattle fields.

The crow who watched finally reveals himself. See the image record.

Then he folded back into the shape of a crow and flew away.

Key events

  1. Carver infused Rage’s greataxe as a +1 weapon and gave Ignatius a cure wounds spellwrought tattoo.
  2. A crow delivered a shadow-dragon invitation to Castle Avernus.
  3. The party met Garen Faulk and learned that vampires rule Martira Bay.
  4. An intentionally animated scarecrow attacked Rage before Ignatius destroyed it.
  5. A mysterious jester left the party a black-scaled rose.
  6. The party learned that soil brought from Lamordia spawned the alien blight in the Crystal Gardens.
  7. Brambledu rewarded each party member with a magical botanical item.
  8. The party investigated Screaming Cheese and discovered its living blue mold came from an unknown female visitor.
  9. Rage experienced powerful, euphoric hallucinations after eating the cheese.
  10. Carver determined that the cattle’s red boils were biological rather than magical.
  11. The watching crow revealed himself as Vidic and warned that the boils caused a plague a century ago.

Decisions and consequences

  • The party accepted Von Anbach’s reward.
    • Carver now carries a gray Bag of Tricks as communal party loot.
  • Rage destroyed the stitched scarecrow.
    • It animated, attacked him, and revealed evidence of deliberate supernatural placement.
  • The party investigated the Lamordian creature’s origin.
    • They learned the druids knowingly accepted the foreign soil, though the donor remains unidentified.
  • The party paid for the creamery’s private tour.
    • They gained direct access to the living mold used in Screaming Cheese and learned of its mysterious donor.
  • The party examined the sick cattle.
    • They confirmed the disease was biological and made contact with Vidic.

People

  • Garen Faulk: Captain or spokesman for Rivalis’s exhausted defenders.
  • Chief Constable Von Anbach: Rewarded the party and dismissed concerns about the cheese.
  • Growmaster Brambledu: Explained Lamordia and distributed botanical rewards.
  • Wick and Fennic Merrydo: Owners of the Two Brothers Creamery.
  • Breena: Creamery greeter, guide, and enthusiastic salesperson.
  • Cheesemeister Burrow: Explained the mold and its donor.
  • Wendell: The creamery’s Key Keeper and general person in charge.
  • Vidic: Crow-shaped occult hunter who had been watching the party.
  • Mysterious jester: Left a black-scaled rose after the scarecrow attack.
  • Black-robed vendor: Sold Rage candied nuts before his stall officially opened.

Places

  • Castle Avernus: Source or destination of the shadow dragon’s invitation.
  • Lamordia: Frozen realm from which the alien soil originated.
  • Crystal Gardens: Recovering after the party’s victory; now growing halfling-faced plants.
  • Two Brothers Creamery: Produces Screaming Cheese from donated living mold.
  • Hidden house near Rivalis: Mentioned by Vidic as a site of occult evil; exact location unknown.

Clues, lore, and notable items

  • The red invitation carried secret Draconic markings made in the manner of a shadow dragon’s claws.
  • Castle Avernus is saturated with dangerous magic.
  • Vampires openly rule Martira Bay, according to Garen Faulk.
  • Someone intentionally animated and placed the attacking scarecrow.
  • The black-scaled rose may be connected to the jester or the scarecrow, but no link is confirmed.
  • Lamordian soil produced the alien growth accepted by the druids.
  • Several plants inside the Crystal Gardens now bear halfling-like faces.
  • Screaming Cheese is not detectably magical but causes laughter, euphoria, and vivid visions.
  • The cheese’s living blue mold came from a gentle female visitor from far away.
  • Vidic can transform between crow and humanoid crow-like forms and radiates transmutation magic while in crow form.
  • The cattle’s red boils are biological and caused a plague roughly a century ago.

Story threads

Rewards, expenses, and character changes

  • Rage’s greataxe received Carver’s +1 artificer infusion.
  • Ignatius received a single-use spellwrought tattoo containing cure wounds from Carver.
  • Von Anbach gave the party a gray Bag of Tricks, carried by Carver as communal loot.
  • Rage received a single-use dried black lily that casts calm emotions.
  • Ignatius received a single-use brown root that casts create homunculus.
  • Carver received a single-use orange leaf that casts protection from poison.
  • The party received a black-scaled rose from the mysterious jester and keeps it as communal inventory.
  • Rage bought a sack of candied nuts for 1 sp.
  • The party paid 75 sp (7.5 gp) for the private creamery tour.
  • Rage retained one additional serving of Screaming Cheese.

Memorable moments

  • Carver secretly improved Rage’s axe while the barbarian slept.
  • Rage responded to a children’s game by awakening a murderous scarecrow.
  • Ignatius destroyed the scarecrow with a single flying elbow.
  • Rage ate enough Screaming Cheese to watch a waterfall flow backward.
  • Vidic’s vision drove Rage to his knees screaming about bats.

Open questions

  • Who wrote the Castle Avernus invitation, and what does “everything we do” entail?
  • Is the invitation connected to the fortress and red star from the shared vision?
  • Who animated the scarecrow, and why was it placed where children played?
  • Who was the jester, and what is the purpose of the black-scaled rose?
  • What did Madame Eris have to do with Rage’s joke about becoming king?
  • Are the halfling-faced plants victims, imitations, or something else?
  • Who brought the Lamordian soil, and did the donor understand what it would produce?
  • Who brought the blue mold to the creamery, and is she connected to the Lamordian donor?
  • Why does nonmagical cheese produce such extreme hallucinations?
  • What caused the red-boil plague a century ago, and why has it returned?
  • Is Vidic one of the three crows that had been following the party?
  • Who does Vidic work with, if anyone?
  • Where is the hidden house, and what is the whistling fiend?

Next session

  • Immediate situation: Vidic has departed, leaving the party among diseased cattle infected with the same boils that caused a century-old plague.
  • Likely goals: Investigate the cattle and plague, research the mold and mysterious visitor, or follow Vidic’s leads concerning the hidden house and whistling fiend.

Graph View

Backlinks