Through the Mists

Session 27: The House That Swallowed Them

At a glance

Summary

For a moment, the basement seemed finished with them. Hyskosa could no longer sense evil in the house, and the company turned to the living people still waiting above. They hid Fiona Watcher’s body and admitted her two drunken sons, whom Izek was still struggling to keep outside. Carver and Ignatius questioned the brothers and concluded that neither knew anything about their mother’s cult. They told them plainly that her plans—and her life—were over. The house was theirs to do with as they wished.

Other visitors proved harder to dismiss. Rage sent the arriving cultists into the basement, locked its outside entrance, and broke the key in the lock. Izek took the inside door. The company hoped to persuade the followers that the cult was disbanded and put them to work carrying the kitchen’s wine barrel to the inn. Instead, the sight of the bodies below sent them surging up the stairs.

The doorway became a crush of blades, fists, and bodies. Ignatius rushed to Izek’s aid, briefly tangling with him between blows. Rage squeezed through and answered the crowd with thunder. Carver coated the stairs in grease, sending one cultist sprawling, while Chip poured flame down the stairwell. The followers fought back with more than daggers: red-glowing eyes arrested Ignatius’s movement, necrotic energy wounded all three adventurers, and another spell held Rage motionless. Izek’s axe and fire helped break their resistance; Carver killed one with a radiant shot, and Ignatius dispatched the last two.

Rage unleashes thunder as Izek and Ignatius hold the basement doorway; Carver casts behind them and spectral Chip breathes fire while a cultist slips on the greased stairs.

The Stairwell Holds. View image record.

With the fighting over, Ignatius asked Izek what came next. Izek expected to return to the burgomaster, whom he had served before. Ignatius asked him to stand with the party if that allegiance brought them into conflict. Izek directed them to Vallaki’s toymaker and asked that the work continue: the toymaker was his connection to finding “her.” He left without identifying the woman or making a recorded promise to change sides.

Rage roused the unconscious cook with a slap. David described something like indentured service, denied belonging to the cult, and said he was sick of vampires. News that his master’s decaying corpse lay upstairs horrified him; he ran to see it and broke down. The party asked him to tell the maids what had happened, then carried away the wine.

Outside, Carver saw the stained-glass windows blink. The foundations shuddered. Whatever quiet Hyskosa had sensed was gone: the house itself moved against them. Carver’s first attacks seemed useless, and Ignatius dropped the barrel and sprinted away with Rage following. Then the house beckoned them back inside. Ignatius could not resist. In an instant, he was swallowed into the building.

Rage reaches toward Ignatius as the dragonborn is pulled into Watcher House beneath staring stained-glass windows, with the abandoned wine barrel beside the steps.

The House Invites Him In. View image record.

Chip’s force ballista drew the first visible injury from the living house. Rage turned and charged it with his greataxe while Ignatius battered the door from within. The building slammed at Rage and squeezed its walls around its captive. Hyskosa shouted a warning against using magic inside. Carver summoned Pearl, whose heavy blows joined the assault, and Chip scorched the wood with flame.

The invitation came again. This time the house swallowed Carver, Pearl, and Chip as well. Pearl hammered its interior, Carver fired his crossbow into the walls, and Chip unleashed another sheet of fire. Flames began pouring from the openings. The back door flew wide, and the monstrous building seemed to become an ordinary dwelling again—one now burning fiercely. Ignatius, Carver, Chip, and Pearl escaped, rejoining Rage outside. The household NPCs left inside did not survive: the maids, Fiona’s sons, and David perished in the fire.

Inside the burning manor, spectral Chip projects fire across the wall above Carver while Pearl braces against the timbers and Ignatius batters the rear door.

Fire in the Belly of the House. View image record.

Somehow the wine remained the one salvageable part of the afternoon. Rage was found cradling the barrel, and he and Ignatius carried it away beneath a bardic illusion of a horse-drawn cart. At the Blue Water Inn’s stables, Urwin’s son admitted them and hopped away, birdlike, to fetch his father.

Rage and Ignatius carry an oak wine barrel within a translucent horse-and-cart illusion while Carver and spectral Chip accompany them away from the burning manor.

Precious Cargo. View image record.

The taproom offered a few hours of recovery. The company shared its ordeal with the hunters and left open the possibility of joining their expedition that night. Rage negotiated with Urwin and his wife over the barrel. With the Wizard of Wines no longer producing, its discovery surprised the innkeeper; they agreed to sell the wine together and split the proceeds.

Siv joined them with a casually displayed theft: a journal he said he had taken from Rictavio’s room. Rage asked him to watch Watcher House that night for anyone checking on it. As dusk approached, the three adventurers reached level 5. Carver spent part of the rest studying The Grimoire of Four Quarters, recognizing a dense inquiry into immortality that would demand considerably more work.

Rictavio was reading when they returned to the taproom. As they sat, he made the book nearly disappear through a deft movement, then offered to teach Rage about the power of performance. He led them upstairs. Once the private door closed, he removed his hat—and the half-elf entertainer became a human man.

He introduced himself as Dr. Rudolph van Richten. He knew they had visited his home and met his son. His final hunt was still underway: he intended to kill Strahd, and he did not expect to return. Richten House, he confirmed, belonged to them as his heirs. The company agreed to help him, and he described a rookery and a séance parlor as bastion options for the estate.

The portrait draped across Rage’s back caught the hunter’s eye. Van Richten recognized his two friends, Arthur Sedgwick and Alanik Ray, detectives whom he described as among their generation’s brightest minds in Darkon. They had helped him hunt vampires whose predations had stained his family across generations, before Alcio “Baron” Metus, ruler of Martira Bay, pursued them and left them for dead. Van Richten believed they were still trying to unravel a greater failure: Azalin Rex had followed the premonitions in Hyskosa’s Hexad, seeking a way out of the domains. Something had gone wrong.

Van Richten holds his removed hat and points at the two detectives painted on Rage's ragged cape while Carver and Ignatius watch in the inn's private room.

The Hunter and the Portrait. View image record.

Van Richten’s own preparations remained secretive. He planned to reduce the numbers of the Vistani he regarded as Strahd’s spies, infiltrate their ranks, and strike when ready. The party’s agreement to aid his hunt did not settle how it would respond to that plan. Ignatius wanted a conversation with Hyskosa. Van Richten slid Rage a trinket that could cast zone of truth to help. His final request was that they stay away from his circus materials at the stockyard. That was where he prepared.

Key events

  1. The party judged Fiona’s sons uninvolved in the cult, told them of her death, and left the house to them.
  2. Newly arrived cultists rioted after being confined below; the party and Izek killed them on the basement stairs.
  3. Izek departed intending to return to the burgomaster and left a lead involving the toymaker and an unnamed woman.
  4. Watcher House animated, swallowed members of the company, and caught fire under Chip’s attack; the household NPCs left inside died.
  5. The party salvaged the wine barrel and arranged to split its sale proceeds with Urwin.
  6. Siv showed a stolen journal and received a request to watch the burned house; the company rested and reached level 5.
  7. Rictavio revealed himself as Van Richten, confirmed the company’s inheritance, and described two bastion options.
  8. Van Richten connected Azalin’s attempted escape to Hyskosa’s Hexad and gave Rage a truth-magic trinket.

Decisions and consequences

  • The cultists were confined with the dead. The intended dismissal and wine-carrying scheme became another lethal fight.
  • The house burned with its household inside. The maids, brothers, and David died; the town’s response and the extent of the destruction remain to be learned.
  • The company agreed to help Van Richten kill Strahd. His proposed campaign against the Vistani remains his stated plan, without a separately recorded party commitment to it.
  • Rage tasked Siv with surveillance. No report has yet established whether anyone returned to Watcher House.

People

  • Izek: Assisted against the cultists and intends to return to the burgomaster; the toymaker may help find the woman he seeks.
  • Hyskosa: Warned against magic inside the living house; Van Richten later named his prophecies as a guide to Azalin’s attempted escape.
  • Urwin: Agreed to share proceeds from the salvaged wine.
  • Siv: Holds the journal stolen from Rictavio’s room and was asked to watch the house.
  • Rictavio / Van Richten: Revealed his identity, acknowledged the heirs, and enlisted their help against Strahd.
  • Fiona’s household: The brothers appeared ignorant of the cult; the cook denied involvement and was horrified by the preserved corpse. The household NPCs left inside died in the fire.

Places

  • Lady Watcher’s House: Became a living attacker before burning.
  • Blue Water Inn: Refuge, wine-sale partner, and site of Van Richten’s private revelation.
  • Richten House: Confirmed as the company’s inherited home, with a rookery and séance parlor offered as bastion options, not granted by default.
  • Vallaki’s stockyard and toymaker: Separate leads from Van Richten and Izek; neither was visited this session.

Clues, lore, and notable items

  • Hyskosa’s Hexad reportedly guided Azalin’s attempt to escape the domains. Its text and the reason for the failure remain unknown.
  • The Grimoire of Four Quarters, now with Carver, concerns the pursuit of immortality.
  • Van Richten’s truth trinket is with Rage; no use has been recorded.
  • Siv holds Rictavio’s stolen journal; its contents have not been established.
  • Van Richten recognized the two detectives depicted on Rage’s portrait cape as his friends.

Story threads

Rewards, losses, and character changes

  • All three player characters reached level 5 during the rest at the inn.
  • Van Richten confirmed ownership of Richten House and offered the rookery and séance parlor as bastion options.
  • Rage received the truth trinket; Carver’s custody of the grimoire is established.
  • The recovered wine will be sold with Urwin; proceeds have not yet been recorded.
  • Watcher House was left in flames and the household NPCs left inside died.

Memorable moments

  • The windows blinked just as the party thought it was finally leaving.
  • A house invited Ignatius inside—and made the invitation literal.
  • Rage protected the barrel through the disaster, then disguised its bearers as a cart.
  • Van Richten removed his hat, then recognized the faces on Rage’s improvised cape.

Open questions

  • Who will investigate Watcher House, and how will Vallaki respond to the household deaths?
  • Was the house’s animation connected to the power that rewarded Rage?
  • Who is Izek trying to find through the toymaker?
  • What does Hyskosa know about Azalin’s use of his Hexad?
  • What happened to Van Richten’s detective friends, and what have they learned?
  • What is Van Richten preparing at the stockyard, and how will the party respond to his Vistani campaign?
  • What does the stolen journal reveal?

Next session

  • Immediate situation: The company is in Van Richten’s private quarters at the Blue Water Inn after his identity reveal and request for aid.
  • Likely goals: Speak with Hyskosa about the Hexad, clarify the hunter’s plans and the inherited facilities, follow up on Siv’s watch, and decide whether to join the hunters or pursue Izek’s toymaker lead.

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