Lessons from the Mists: Session 14 - The Hearthkeeper

Welcome back to Lessons from the Mists! This week, the heroes deal with the aftermath of the assault of the vampire spawn on Vallaki, and Mary Sue Ann communes with a mysterious entity… Let’s get started!

We picked up the top of this session with the heroes finishing the fight against the vampire spawn in St. Andral’s Church. At the start of Kane’s first turn, he casts Guiding Bolt at Anastrasya, and due to her weakness to radiant damage and using inspiration to attempt to get a natural 20 (which he did!), that spell instantly killed Anastrasya. With her incinerated, the heroes easily take down the other two vampire spawn, though one bites Angvar, reducing his maximum HP.

Throughout the battle, it becomes clear to the heroes that the church will not stand for much longer. The last vampire spawn falls, and they rush out into the chaos in the streets and watch the church fall. They examine the town, and see that the people of Vallaki are recovering now. The worst is over. They tell Izek Strazni they want to find the bodies of the vampires to destroy them. They make their way back to the town square and check in at the orphanage, making sure nobody there has been hurt, and tell the headmistress to send Milivoj to the cemetery. There is a body that needs burying. The heroes retire to the Blue Water Inn for rest.

Danika Martikov is very glad to see the heroes safe, and offers her premium rooms for free while they are in town. They ask after Rictavio, and Danika informs them that Rictavio has actually left town, and left a note for them saying: “Vallaki’s no longer safe for me. If you find yourself going west, meet me at the old tower on Lake Baratok. - R”.

Ylenia and Mary Sue Ann retire to their room, and Ylenia is obviously troubled. Mary Sue Ann picks up on this and brushes her blue-white hair, braiding it. Ylenia asks her, “Do you think I made the right choice?” and Mary Sue Ann asks back, “Do you think I did? I let them out.” Mary Sue Ann does not think it useful to dwell on what might have been, and Ylenia thinks she should cut off her hair - it's given her much grief over her life. Mary Sue Ann tells her to keep it, and they go to sleep.

The party levels up! They advance to level 5 and we spend some time going over options for their new features.

When the heroes awake the next morning, they hear a town crier announcing that the Festival of the Blazing Sun will take place this afternoon in the town square. They reconvene and make a plan for the day. They must search the ruins of the church for the corpses of the vampires to make sure they are dead, and they want to speak to Victor Vallakovich.

They head to the church first, where Izek Strazni has set guards to watch over the ruins. They find the corpses of the vampires and burn them, but Mary Sue Ann discovers some treasure on the body of Anastraya: a beautiful silk wrap and a Periapt of Proof Against Poison. Ylenia speaks to Izek, thanking him for his help in the battle, then prods him for information on his childhood. Izek is reluctant to speak at first, then says that he was born in Vallaki and spent his childhood in the town, but remembers little of it. He doesn’t remember his parents, and that’s what’s most troubling of all.

The heroes then go to the Burgomaster’s Mansion, where it is abuzz with activity in preparation for the festival in the town square and are able to sneak in without anyone paying them any mind. They discover the baron is in his library, preparing a speech, and they sneak upstairs to speak with Victor.

Mary Sue Ann sends her familiar Guinevere in the form of a spider to scope out the room. Inside, they find Victor writing in what looks like a spellbook, and working on a circle that she learns is a faulty Teleportation Circle. She also sees six cat skeleton familiars walking around and three children facing a corner, and she realizes they are simply mannequins. Ylenia knocks on the door and Victor covers up his circle, then opens the door just slightly. Ylenia introduces Mary Sue Ann as a magician that Victor’s father hired to teach him magic while Kane and Angvar wait on the two sides of the door, waiting for the signal to attack the boy. Victor allows Mary Sue Ann to come in and speak with him, but only Mary Sue Ann. Ylenia waits outside, furious, while Victor closes the door.

Victor asks Mary Sue Ann to prove that she is a magician. She summons her Mage Hand, and Victor asks if that’s all, to which Mary Sue Ann replies that any more than that would blow up the attic. Satisfied, Victor says that he never told his father about his study of magic, and how she knows about it. They verbally spar back and forth before Victor reveals his teleportation circle. Mary Sue Ann says she knows there is something wrong with it, and Victor agrees, but if she cannot help him, then he has nothing more to say to her. Mary Sue Ann talks to Victor about the pursuit of power through magic. At that point, Victor’s eyes become milky white, and another being speaks through him, introducing herself as Shaelan-Thel, the Hearthkeeper. The being says that she was the one who has been watching Mary Sue Ann through their journeys in Barovia, saying that a group of wizards came to the valley of Barovia long ago, seeking the power of the gods, called the Amber Order. They built a temple in the mountains, where Shaelan-Thel lies, trapped. She says she is nurturing and protective, and Mary Sue Ann’s goals and hers align well. Mary Sue Ann asks what Victor did to Stella, and Shaelan-Thel says it was not purposeful, what he did at first. But then, once he realized what he could do with his power, he used her as a test subject until she broke. Mary Sue Ann asks if Victor should live, and Shaelan-Thel asks what she would do if Stella were her child. Mary Sue Ann says she does not think she could forgive him, and Shaelan-Thel says that it is her choice to make on whether or not to punish the child. It is Shaelan-Thel’s opinion that he has done the unforgivable. She makes Mary Sue Ann promise to keep their meeting secret, and Victor returns as if no time had passed. He attempts to use enchantment magic on her to leave and forget the conversation, which she resists, then peacefully leaves the room.

The rest of the party look at Mary Sue Ann, expecting an explanation, but she just says they need to go. Outside, they hear bells ringing, a signal the festival has begun and to round up all the townsfolk to the square. The heroes hide in Izek Strazni’s room of dolls while the burgomaster leaves, but using Guinevere the spider, the wizard sees the burgomaster take his keys with him. When the mansion empties, Ylenia goes to unlock the chamber where the bound and tortured man was.

They go inside the room and speak to the man, who says his name is Udo Lukovich. They learn from him that he was admitted to the Reformation Center as a result of his carrying of a sign that held anti-burgomaster sentiments at the last festival. Then he was taken out of the Center and brought here for “personal reformation” from the burgomaster himself. He does not want to go back to the Reformation Center, and knows that some people in there lose their minds, and it has something to do with the elves inside. He’ll endure as much torture from the burgomaster as he needs to before he steps foot in there again. Ylenia is tortured by the story of this man, and leaves him there, but promises him they will free him. The heroes exit the mansion and head to the Reformation Center. Thinking few people will be at the prison because of the Festival, they go to get answers from the elves and free some of the dissenters.

As they exit, a few guards stationed outside of the mansion tell them they must attend the festival, and begin escorting them to the town square. Mary Sue Ann casts Sleep on one while Kane and Angvar simultaneously knock the other guard out. They hide the unconscious bodies then turn back around towards the Reformation Center.

And that’s where we left it!

Outside of the game, last session I printed out a large map of Barovia (you can find here) which made my players very happy to have a large prop, and since then they have been adding sticky notes to it. This week they got a whole corkboard to mount the map on to put thumb tacks on, which was a very nice touch. I loved what they were doing, and it’s very clear to me that they are having a great time with this game.

So, the changes I made to the combat at the beginning of this session worked great! I reduced the DC of the lair actions to 12 and it seemed just about what it needed to be. The stat blocks I swapped out made the fight a lot more fun. I was EXTREMELY surprised by the crit that Kane got to KILL Anastrasya, but it was all according to the rules and the stat blocks I used. We’ll see what Strahd’s reaction will be the next time they encounter him, but one of his brides is OFF THE BOARD.

The other thing I did this session was reveal the presence that was watching Mary Sue Ann - Shaelan-Thel, the Hearthkeeper, one of the Dark Powers of Ravenloft. For that conversation between Victor, and then Shaelan-Thel, and Mary Sue Ann, I asked all my players but her to leave the room, and it was a very intimate, powerful role playing scene. It lasted about 20 minutes and started just about the time we usually end sessions! The player texted me afterwards about how much fun she had in that scene, so it was a success.

After the session we had a 15 minute or so debrief on what happened, and to my surprise, Mary Sue Ann’s player kept the interaction secret from the other players, and I don’t think she is super suspicious that it is a malevolent force just yet, which I think is what you should be doing with the Dark Powers. Make them seductive. I think Mary Sue Ann will be horrified when she realizes what this thing that she is pledging herself to might be, but it might already be too late by that point.

I am focusing on Mary Sue Ann as a victim of the Dark Powers because she expressed interest in playing an amoral wizard, where “power is power.” However, she is also someone that has a lot of motherly instincts, and is a nurturing presence for many characters in this campaign thus far. Shaelan-Thel might put those two drives of Mary Sue Ann into conflict, and I am excited to see what choice she will make in that instance.

For Next Session

So, the players managed to get away from the Festival, and they are favoring Fiona Wachter, but they don’t know anything about her pledge to Strahd, except for suspecting that the hooded man in Vallaki might be Ernst Larnak (they are correct!). So, Vallaki is against the burgomaster at this point, I think Fiona’s revolution will succeed, they will march through Vallaki and burn down the mansion and raid the Reformation Center, and the players will be too far away to stop any of this. We’ll see how they escape the Reformation Center as it is raided and they are inside!

Until next time!