A base of operations

So we read the journal. Within, it’s a blow-by-blow account of Thalindra’s father’s (Vasilis) life. He met her mom (Zenia) in Waterdeep, they had a whirlwind romance by joining an adventuring group together and fighting side by side. About a year into their adventures, a misty portal appeared outside of Waterdeep, and when they entered, they were teleported to Barovia. Things go downhill from here and at some point, the journal stops mentioning her mother.

The group was:

• Thalindra Father: Vasilis
• Thalindra Mother: Zenia (Cleric)
• Dwarf Fighter: Thorbardin
• Elf Rogue: Lucilio
• Human Wizard: Yesfir

At one point, he says that the Cleric goes missing without noting her name, and never mentions her name again, only references her as “the cleric”. Note: she is no longer mentioned after they destroyed the hags at the Ol’ Bonegrinder.

During the time that Thalindra and Kigee are reading the journal, Abraham is throwing stuff at the Bunsen burner and making bright flashes. Diedrik joins Thalindra and Kigee before they all rest. Towards the end of our rest, Diedrik is on last watch and gently wakes everyone, insisting we need to “follow him”. Deidrik leads the party just outside to some trees and gestures for them to sit together on a fallen tree. Murmuring to himself Deidrik seems to be almost in a trance as he begins drawing in the air.

Bright spectral blue light crackles and hangs in the air following Diedrik’s fingers as he draws some sort of window. Images begin to appear inside as Diedrik begins to speak. He says:

A Rock, A River, A Tree 
Hosts to species long since departed,
Marked the ancient dragons, The Zarovich, 
who left dried tokens
Of their sojourn here On Borvia’s endless mist,
Any broad alarm of their hastening doom
Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.
But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully,
Come, you may stand upon my
Back and face your distant destiny,
But seek no haven in my shadow,
I will give you no hiding place down here.

You, created only a little lower than
The angels, have crouched too long in   
The bruising darkness
Have lain too long
Facedown in ignorance,
Your mouths spilling words
Armed for slaughter.

The Rock cries out to us today,
You may stand upon me,
But do not hide your face.

The vision drops from the air with these last words, and everyone receives 7 temporary hitpoints. Thalindra & Kigee get to work making breakfast, Abraham makes a smoke bomb, and Diedrik and Strahd go out to hunt catching a rabbit and a whole deer. As they return from hunting, they see smoke billowing out of the tower and ditch the deer to run inside.

It was just freaking Abraham, no emergency, so when Diedrik returns outside for his deer, it’s missing. They all follow the tracks to “meet the neighbors” and come up on a cave of emaciated werewolves. Abraham strikes and easily kills the sole werewolf, and we all see it transforms back into a 10 year old child. Strahd buries the child, and we discuss what this means for the group, and agree to try words before straight murder in the future. We discuss next steps as we return to the tower, and decide to return to the Ol’ Bonegrinder discussing what to do about that homeless family we saw before. Abraham tinkers with the door to get it operational and functional in a unique functioning way.

We agree to move them into our tower, ask for their help in caring for the place in return we can destroy the windmill. We follow the road to safely get to the windmill and dismount as we approach, Diedrik calling out to her as we approach. The old woman looks weak, fed, but weak, and doesn’t acknowledge our presence. As we get closer, she looks really sick, eyes staring at a fixed spot. Two small puncture wounds are visible on her neck.

Strahd takes the lead and we enter, seeing a man in a similar state, he is crying while eating a meat pie. “Where are the children??” “She made us do it” Abraham pistol whips him to get him to stop eating the pie, and we hear someone walking across the floor on the second level. As the woman appears at the top of the stairs, we see a dragonborn wearing a golden dress, and her scales are very pale gold, with long fangs jutting out of her mouth. She looks at Thalindra and says, “I wasn’t expecting you yet”.