Through the Mists

Session 30: Hours and Claws

At a glance

Summary

The company decided not to keep an old bird waiting. Upstairs in the Blue Water Inn’s master bedroom, three humanoids wore raven feathers sewn into their clothing and emblems. On the table stood a raven with thin legs, dull black plumage, and an age-chipped beak. Two Hundred Summers spoke to them in Common.

The Keepers of the Feather, he explained, had opposed Strahd for hundreds of years, gathering knowledge in the shadows. The company told him they had come from Darkon seeking answers about its unraveling. Rage asked about the dinner invitation. Fear Strahd’s oppression, the raven counseled, rather than Strahd himself.

Then came a darker warning: Strahd could die, but death would not keep him. According to Two Hundred Summers, the Dark Powers had granted him this land and trapped him here for eternity. He had died many times and returned. Like Azalin, he had sought a way out. When Carver asked whether a stake through the heart would work, the raven said it should, according to what they had heard; that did not settle the question of a permanent end.

Two Hundred Summers also spoke of Strahd’s mother as a benevolent ruler who had once protected the area. In his account, the coming of Strahd’s armies brought evil and corruption.

Perhaps a domain could be taken back from its lord—“ungifted.” Two Hundred Summers pointed toward the Amber Temple south of Vallaki, which he described as the original manifestation of the powers in Barovia. Its winds kept the ravens from investigating. Ignatius asked whether they should go there or accept Strahd’s invitation. The raven asked what they sought. Understanding the domains, Ignatius answered, and what was happening to Darkon.

Two Hundred Summers told them about Klorr, a watchmaker who tried to control time by sacrificing his own blood into his watches. The Dark Powers, he said, had taken the recluse from Greyhawk and given him the power he wanted. Now Klorr had to perform his rituals every hour or cease to exist. His domain was a prison of time: thirteen worlds orbited an inner eye, one sacrificed each “hour” and another appearing in its place. The raven claimed to have seen it—and to have seen Castle Ravenloft on one of those orbiting worlds.

From beneath his wing, he produced a beautiful pocket watch. It came from Klorr, he said, and could serve as a talisman to travel there. He gave it to the company, with Carver taking custody. He also urged them to trust the inn’s proprietors, Urwin and Danica, and said Madame Eva was not Strahd’s puppet.

An aged black raven stands on a table beside a brass pocket watch, with three feather-clad Keepers behind him.

He gave them a watch—and a possible road to a prison of time. View image record.

The company asked what the order wanted in return. Gather information and bring it back, Two Hundred Summers told them. If they proved themselves, the Keepers could offer the gift of becoming wereravens. No such transformation took place that night. At the farewell, the three humanoids became ravens and flew away with their elder.

Before sleeping, the company met Siv and gave him one of the sending stones to make future communication easier. Carver kept its matching stone. Carver read the journal stolen from Rictavio. It maintained the entertainer’s persona rather than speaking as Van Richten, and yielded nothing especially useful.

Morning brought drizzle, darkness, and fresh posters pasted over the old ones. It was the Festival of the Blazing Sun, and attendance was compulsory. When Ignatius asked the boys working the bar whether the company should arrive early, their response suggested weary familiarity: Vallaki had more than enough festivals.

First, the company went shopping at the stockyards. Locked sheds and a warehouse surrounded the yard; Rictavio’s colorful carnival wagon stood to one side. Rage balked at the scarcity-driven price of healing potions, and Carver offered one of his own. Rage eventually bought a potion after all, to the warehouse keeper’s evident gratitude.

While they haggled, Ignatius wandered around the wagon. A musty animal smell escaped it. Wood crackled and metal scraped inside. Small patches of dried blood marked the exterior, alongside the inscription: “I bring you from shadow into light.”

Rage played an illusion to cover Carver’s work at the lock. Carver picked it successfully. Fire answered. An explosion surrounded him, burning him badly, and a large sabercat in shining plate armor burst from the wagon. It pounced, knocking Carver prone, then moved into the middle of the stockyards and regarded the company with intelligent eyes.

An armored sabercat leaps from a colorful wagon through the fiery trap as Carver recoils on the rain-soaked ground.

The lock opened. Fire and armored claws answered. View image record.

Rage commanded it to flee with bardic magic. Ignatius held out a hand in peace, and the animal responded positively to his attempt to calm it. Carver regained his feet and climbed onto the wagon, noticing that the blood marks led to a feeding opening. The sabercat bounded away across rooftops toward Blinsky’s shop. Ignatius suspected it was heading for Piccolo, the monkey Rictavio had given the toymaker.

Rage chased it through the fence, smashing a new opening in his path. Ignatius followed through the hole, shouting that he did not know what had happened. His denial was thoroughly unconvincing.

Behind Blinsky’s Toys, Rage offered jerky without success. Ignatius arrived, took the food, and made the offering with a surer hand. This time the beast settled. Beneath the rear awning, the armored sabercat sat calm while the monkey screamed inside—excited sounds that seemed happier than frightened. The festival still waited.

Ignatius offers jerky on his scaled palm to the seated armored sabercat beneath Blinsky's rear awning in the rain.

Under the awning, patience and jerky finally won. View image record.

Key events

  1. Two Hundred Summers met the company and offered his account of the Dark Powers, Strahd’s returns from death, and the domains as prisons.
  2. He identified the frozen temple as a possible source of answers and gave the company Klorr’s watch as a travel talisman.
  3. The Keepers offered a future wereraven transformation if the company proved itself by returning intelligence.
  4. Siv received a sending stone; Carver read Rictavio’s journal without finding a significant revelation.
  5. On festival morning, Carver opened the trapped wagon and released an armored sabercat.
  6. The pursuit ended at Blinsky’s Toys, where Ignatius calmed the beast with jerky.

Decisions and consequences

  • New routes to answers. The temple and Klorr now offer alternatives to Strahd’s dinner; no destination or reply was chosen.
  • An alliance with a possible reward. The Keepers want intelligence. Wereravenhood remains an offer, not a character change.
  • Siv can be reached. He holds one sending stone; the party retains the other.
  • The wagon is open. Its fiery trap badly burned Carver, and its occupant escaped. Rage also broke a stockyard fence during the pursuit.
  • The immediate danger is contained. Ignatius calmed the cat, but its return and Van Richten’s reaction remain unsettled.

People

  • Two Hundred Summers and three unnamed Keepers — met upstairs; all departed as ravens.
  • Klorr — watchmaker and reported Darklord, not met.
  • Siv — received a sending stone before the party slept.
  • Rictavio / Van Richten — journal author and owner of the wagon; no appearance recorded.
  • The armored sabercat and Piccolo — the beast settled outside the shop while the monkey called from within.

Places

Clues, lore, and notable items

  • Two Hundred Summers’s account of the Dark Powers and domain prisons remains testimony, not independently verified cosmology.
  • Klorr’s watch has not yet been tested as a talisman.
  • The raven endorsed the innkeepers and Madame Eva; the company has not independently settled Eva’s loyalties.
  • Blood at the wagon led to a feeding opening; its inscription and fiery trap do not establish the sabercat’s intended purpose.
  • Ignatius’s proposed connection between the sabercat’s destination and Piccolo remains a theory.

Story threads

Rewards, losses, and character changes

  • Received: Klorr’s pocket watch, carried by Carver.
  • Transferred: One sending stone to Siv; Carver carries its matching stone.
  • Studied: Rictavio’s journal, in Carver’s hands for the night’s reading; later custody unrecorded.
  • Injury: Carver was badly burned and knocked prone; no lasting injury was established.
  • Offered: Wereravenhood, conditional on proving themselves; not granted.

Memorable moments

  • An aged raven drew a beautiful watch from beneath his wing.
  • A successfully picked lock answered Carver with fire and armored claws.
  • Rage made his own doorway through the stockyard fence.
  • Ignatius followed shouting an unconvincing denial, then succeeded with the jerky where Rage had failed.

Open questions

  • Can a domain be “ungifted,” and what can the frozen temple reveal?
  • What is Klorr’s domain, and what did Two Hundred Summers see there?
  • What was the sabercat intended to do, and why did it head toward Piccolo?
  • How will Van Richten react to the opened wagon and escaped animal?
  • What will compulsory attendance at the festival bring?

Next session

  • Immediate situation: Outside Blinsky’s Toys, with the armored sabercat calm under the rear awning and Piccolo calling inside.
  • Likely goals: Decide what to do with the beast, address the festival, and weigh the temple, Klorr, and Strahd’s invitation.

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