Lessons from the Mists: Session 12 - The Captain of the Guard

Welcome back to Lessons from the Mists! This session, the heroes are confronted by a strangely familiar captain of the guard, and finally meet with the burgomaster of Vallaki. Let's get started!

The heroes are stopped at the gates of Vallaki, informed that the captain of the guard wants to see them for the theft of Blinsky’s toys. Looking at one another, they oblige, but not before Angvar slips the doll that Ylenia had stolen from Blinsky into a hidden compartment inside of Pidlwick II. Their horses are taken, and they are escorted across town to the Vallakovich Reformation Center.

When they arrive, they see a large lookout tower surrounded by the prison complex. They are taken inside and stripped of the weapons the guards have on file, though Kane attempts to keep the shield bearing the holy symbol of Kelemvor unsuccessfully. Shortly afterwards, Angvar is brought into an interrogation room alone.

The eye slit opens and a pair of eyes looks in. “What are you?” the figure beyond asks, a deep male voice full of suspicion. “Have you hexed me? Ensorcelled me?” Angvar shrugs, and says he has no knowledge of what the figure is talking about. The eye slit shuts, and in walks a man that looks almost exactly like a young version of Angvar, though with two distinct differences. This man is a human, and his right arm is swollen, muscled, with spines and elongated fingers that end in claws. With him are two elves, a man and a woman that watch silently. He sits across from Angvar and asks why he stole the doll from Blinsky’s. Angvar plays dumb, but the man is not convinced of his innocence. He introduces himself as Izek Strazni, captain of the Vallakian guard, and wonders what their connection is. He says that he has had dreams his whole life of Angvar, and feels some odd connection, but also as if some part of him were missing. He says, “You could imagine my shock when the man from my dreams sits before me, flesh and blood.” Izek says he has been attempting to understand what is wrong with him, and if he could capture the likeness of the man in his dreams, he would come to some kind of understanding. Angvar assures him that he knows nothing, that he is a simple soldier, but he is willing to help him. He has already helped around town, exorcising demons and spirits, and many strange occurrences come back to a bearded man in a dark cloak. Angvar points out Izek’s demonic arm, saying that his brother was taken from him by a fiend, and all that was left was a coin that Angvar brings out. Izek examines it, but doesn’t think much of it. When he places it down, it burns the table. Izek doesn’t notice, but thinks his story about a man in a cloak is interesting: he has also seen this man in a cloak in his dreams, but sometimes Angvar is that man. Though his boots are very fine.

Izek leaves the interrogation room with the elves and meets with the rest of the heroes. He asks the same question: Why did they steal the doll from Blinsky’s? They all act as if they have no knowledge of what he is talking about. Izek explains that when he went to check on the progress of the doll when Blinsky revealed it was missing, the last customers in his shop were outsiders, and one of them resembled the doll. Ylenia asks how he knows Angvar, and Izek says he doesn’t. They are all as confused as he is about this connection. Angvar is brought back in, and everyone is caught up to speed, including Izek’s past he revealed to Angvar. Izek confesses that they are strange folk, and he is sure they know something or are connected to his dreams somehow. He lets them go. As he exits with the elves, one of them whispers, “You all are very lucky.”

The heroes gather their things and leave the Reformation Center, discussing what Izek’s presence means. They think he is connected with Thraegar, and the timeline of Thraegar’s disappearance and Izek’s birth are somewhat lined up, though off by a few years. Angvar thinks that there must be some connection between Izek looking like himself/Thraegar, his devil’s arm, and his mentor’s deal with a devil that took his brother away. The heroes believe there is something larger at work, but they do not have all the pieces to put it together just yet. They head to the burgomaster’s mansion, believing that the rug that Pidlwick was rolled up in is worth some money, and he is among the only people in town that could afford it.

After some brief introductions with the burgomaster’s wife, they meet Vargas Vallakovich, the burgomaster of Vallaki, accompanied by his two hunting hounds. Kane leads their introductions, and says that they came across a fine rug in their travels and would like to sell it. They negotiate and come to a fair price (more than the rug was actually worth). The burgomaster is curious about where they got it, and the heroes skirt around the truth that they helped out the Vistani, saying that they were rewarded by their good deeds around town, and discovered it in their travels. The burgomaster is interested in these good deeds, and the heroes tell him about their work at the orphanage as well as dealing with a spirit haunting Lake Zarovich. Vargas is very pleased to hear about Lake Zarovich. He informs them no fish have been biting in that lake for the last twenty years, but if he can confirm their work has restored it, he will pay them handsomely.

Vargas asks if they would like to do some work for him and they seem interested. He tells the heroes that he would like someone to investigate Lady Fiona Wachter’s home for evidence of dissent. He suspects she is a Strahd worshiper and might be behind some of the hauntings around town as a practitioner of dark magic, as well as some missing members of his household staff. Ylenia says that they have already been invited to her house but have not visited her yet, and Vargas thinks this is splendid - they can accept the invite and investigate while they are in his house! Mary Sue Ann and Ylenia also say that it might do them good to investigate his home, as they are gifted in the arts of magic, to see if there were any charms placed in his home that might be harming his family. He says it’s an excellent idea, and allows them to investigate his home, but mind the privacy of all rooms but the library on his second floor.

Angvar searches the first floor, finding nothing of note. He speaks to some commoners that work for Lydia Vallakovich, the burgomaster’s wife, unnerved by their smiles. The cook tells him about the missing servants, but not much that is useful. Kane and Mary Sue Ann search the library for history of Barovia, and Kane finds a map of the valley he copies down. Mary Sue Ann discovers a book on local history that tells of Strahd’s early conquest of the valley, where it mentions his destruction of the Dusk Elves and the Order of the Silver Dragon, as well as a ring of keys inside the desk. Meanwhile, Ylenia searches the rest of the floor, and discovers Izek Strazni’s room - every surface covered in hundreds of dolls that look just like Angvar. Horrified, she leaves it alone. She also discovers a room locked from the outside and a trapdoor leading to the attic in the master bedroom. She returns to the library to discuss her findings with Kane, Angvar, and Mary Sue Ann. They think she shouldn’t touch the locked door for now (and they all believe inside is Victor Vallakovich) but search the attic. She does so with Mary Sue Ann’s familiar Guinevere, and when she comes to a locked door at the end of the attic she listens in and hears a young man’s voice, chanting a conjuration spell. The heroes think they have all the information they need, but Ylenia insists she check on the locked door. Using the keys they found in Vargas’ desk, she finds a man chained to the wall in a darkened room, beaten half to death, unconscious. She is furious at what she sees, but at the urging of the other heroes, she leaves the home with the others. Payment received, they return to the inn to discuss their findings.

If Victor is in the attic, who is the man in the locked room? Why is he there? What did he do? Izek has been creating dolls for years - for what? What is Victor conjuring in the attic? The heroes bring up all of these questions, but none of them have answers just yet. They need to keep digging. For now, they have a bit of coin to spend on some real equipment, and they split up to go shopping. While buying manacles, Ylenia notices a box of nails just like the one they found in the Vallakovich crypt behind the counter of the blacksmith at the Arasek Stockyard. She stumbles over her words and tries to deceive the blacksmith into telling her who they are for, and the blacksmith nonchalantly says they are for the coffin maker, Henrik van der Voort. Ylenia buys the manacles and gets on with her business, finds the other heroes, and tells them what she discovered.

Finally, they have a lead on the missing bones of St. Andral. They plan to speak with Izek once more, and confront the coffin maker about the missing bones.

And that’s where we left the session!

WOOF. A lot of roleplaying, social interaction, and solving mysteries this session. I left out a LOT of silly stuff in the recap, but all the main plot points are there. I’m sure I missed some stuff as well, but how did the session go?

Overall it went well, but mostly I want to talk about what I am doing with Izek Strazni and why he let the heroes go at the Reformation Center.

SO. My version of Izek Strazni is a reincarnated Thraegar (Angvar’s brother) who was sold to a devil in his backstory. Long story short, Thraegar’s memories were all fucked up and he and the devil were transported to Barovia by the mists like all victims of Strahd. Thraegar, having fragmented memories as a result of his soul owned by a devil, worked in Vallaki before going to see the healer in Kresk to heal his mind, and died on the road. Izek Strazni is a reincarnation of Thraegar’s soul, and looks just like him with fragmented memories of Angvar and the devil. This devil is ALSO the man in the dark cloak about town, Ernst Larnak. Fiona Wachter does not know that Ernst Larnak is a devil. Ernst Larnak is attempting to understand Barovia himself because he wants to exploit the nature of the mists and their trapping of souls for his own benefit.

That’s why Izek looks like Angvar/Thraegar. As per MandyMod’s Fleshing Out Curse of Strahd, she recommends that Izek remain a sibling to one of the PC’s - a tiefling or human works well, but she suggests that it be a different PC than the Ireena stand in IF you are doing that at the table (which I am with Ylenia). Knowing that there is a connection to a fiend in Angvar’s past as well as a missing brother, I thought this a perfect fit. However, I didn’t want this to be extremely obvious from the get go. Just putting Thraegar in with a devil arm probably was an option, but I wanted to keep that feeling that fantasy species in Barovia are a rarity, and seeing a twin of the captain of the guard walking around instantly destroys the mystery. It’s also quite tragic to have Thraegar die off screen, but that’s the nature of Barovia, AND I wanted to leave Izek’s role in the campaign open.

That brings us to my roleplaying of Izek, the future of him in the campaign, and why he let the heroes go after he believes they are guilty of thievery. Izek KNOWS there is some connection between him and Angvar, (a positive one at that) but can’t put his finger on it. He is mostly scared of why he saw Angvar for years in his dreams, thinking that he was a sorcerer of some kind that had a hold over his mind, but he also believed him when Angvar said he was a simple soldier. He knows that at the very least, Angvar was being entirely honest. Izek still believes that the heroes stole the doll (and thus, might know something about why he dreams of Angvar), but mostly wants to see what they do in town.

Izek released them because he was curious about where they might lead him. He finally has a lead on what he thought was madness, and feels some positive connection with Angvar, but still does not know what to make of all of it. If he follows Angvar’s journey, it may lead to answers for him.

Next Session

Next session, it looks like they’ll confront Henrik van der Voort, and instigate the Feast of St. Andral. It's gonna be a wild one.

Until next time!