Lessons from the Mists: Session 23 - Hunger and Craving

Welcome back to Lessons from the Mists! This session, the heroes investigate a the mystery of Krezk's missing livestock and discover a horrifying truth... Let's get started!

The Recap

On their way to the Shrine of the White Sun, Ylenia speaks with the Abbot about Ilya and his resurrection. She is curious to hear how he was able to resurrect him after Ilya was dead for over a month. The Abbot shrugs, and says he has not performed such a miracle before, and is unsure if he came back just fine.

The rest of the heroes - Arvali included - return to the village and upon returning at the Krezkov cottage, Dmitri is speaking to another villager. He reports that something terrible happened - all the sheep for the village have gone missing. It’s a gruesome scene, and Dmitri asks the heroes to investigate. Ylenia has the Abbot bless vials of holy water taken from the shrine and she returns to the group. They rush to investigate the sheep farm, and on the way, tie Arvali (who is still invisible) to a tree to make sure he does not escape.

The sheep enclosure is looked after by the village simpleton, a man named Luca Barbu. Angvar and Ylenia attempt to talk to Luca while Kane and Mary Sue Ann investigate the barn. Angvar is unable to get much info out of him, other than his knowledge that the sheep (and seemingly his father) are all dead - “they’re in the dirt.” Kane and Mary Sue Ann find some sheep bones, but far too few, as well as some fresh, small boot prints in the carnage. Mary Sue Ann looks for some evidence of a break in, a burrowed hole, etc. but finds nothing. She reports her findings, and Ylenia coaxes more information out of Luca. He says he left the barn because there was a hole in it he needed to repair and went to gather wood. Mary Sue Ann didn’t find any holes, so who told him about the hole? Luca tells Ylenia that it was Anna Krezkov.

A crowd of onlookers steadily grows outside of the Barbu farm, and nervous energy begins to build. Whispers and rumors spread, and the Krezkites believe they might starve. Among them, seemingly placating her fellow townsfolk (but according to Kane, subtly also increasing their suspicions of Luca Barbu) is Anna Krezkov. Mary Sue Ann and Ylenia go to speak with Anna, looking for Ilya (as they believe something has gone wrong with him) but she has no knowledge of his whereabouts. The heroes split up to find Ilya. After some time searching, and the crowd of Krezkites growing around the Barbu farm, Angvar hears a scream nearby. Dashing to investigate, he sees a horrifying sight: Ilya has turned into a starving monster, and is currently eating another Krezkite while a horrified woman looks on. It’s initiative!

Ilya is starving, weeping that he cannot get enough food, and launches into an attack on the heroes as they attempt to pacify the boy. He is ruthless and quick; he spits poison on the heroes, but eventually, Angvar fells him with a well placed stab of the spear. The Krezkite crowd comes to investigate, and Anna screams, falling next to the body of her child. Dmitri pushes through and falls to his knees, in shock. Mary Sue Ann kneels, asking what she knew about this - and she says she knew everything, and just wanted to save her baby.

The crowd calls the Krezkovs monsters for allowing this to happen, and demands justice. Ylenia, however, stands before the crowd and berates them for not allowing a mother to grieve her child. She assures them they will have their justice, but allow Anna a moment. Some Krezkites call out to Ylenia, challenging her, but eventually they allow the heroes to deal with the situation. Mary Sue Ann speaks to the dissenters in the crowd that wish to see justice, and they tell her that their trust in the burgomaster and his family was broken - these people look up to the heroes now for leadership and a path forward. One of the women in the crowd also informs Mary Sue Ann about the Fidatov manor, where supposedly a party is thrown every night. Surely they may have some food to spare for Kresk.

The heroes march the Krezkovs back to their house and Ylenia casts Zone of Truth to interrogate them. While Dmitri knew nothing of what happened, Anna confesses everything: Ilya was plagued by a strange, insatiable hunger shortly after his resurrection. She became desperate and began feeding him the village’s sheep. Though she was horrified about what she saw, she would do anything to protect her baby boy and make sure he would live this time. Ilya’s hunger grew and grew, and the one time she wasn’t watching him, he devoured the entire herd of sheep.

The heroes leave the house and order some of the militia to keep a watch on the Krezkovs. They discuss what to do - and Mary Sue Ann suggests putting together a council to make decisions for the community from the Krezkites that seemed like leaders - the ones who were vocal about calling for justice against the Krezkovs. She also suggests removing the Krezkovs from their place of power. Mary Sue Ann goes to speak with the Krezkites she believes will make good council members.

Angvar, Ylenia, and Kane find where they tied up Arvali. Kane tells Angvar he and Arvali have a shared history. Angvar intimidates Arvali to tell Kane the whole truth of what happened to his mercenary company. Arvali, helpless, tells Kane his story: a presence came to him, promising him power, the power of a king, if he did as he asked. The presence called itself Zantras, the Kingmaker. Arvali obliged, and that required inspiring people to follow him to battles that they would not survive. Over the course of many months, what seemed like a string of bad luck was intentional mismanagement by Arvali, who was leading the Sundered Blades. Eventually, the Sundered Blades were all but destroyed in a tragic battle, and he followed where this voice in his head led him. He came to Barovia, was bitten by a werewolf in the woods, and came to Krezk seeking healing from the Abbot, where he was trapped.

Arvali tells Kane he hated what he did, but who was he to deny the wishes of a god? If Kelemvor was to ask Kane to do something terrible, something that went against all that Kane stood for, would he still obey? Would he still dedicate his life to his god? Kane says no, but Arvali thinks that is a foolish answer. Ylenia asks him if he knows anything about the Amber Temple, and Arvali says yes - he says that Zantras was leading him to the Amber Temple to release him. He can bring them there. Kane orders Arvali to show them where the Amber Temple is so they can go there themselves, but he admits he does not know the location. Arvali describes a pulling sensation from Zantras, and all he does is follow. Angvar does not like how closely this resembles what he experienced before receiving the Blood Spear of Kavan.

Kane tells Arvali that he will show him mercy, that he is not to judge, that is the duty of Kelemvor. He tells him this brings him no pleasure: Kane unsheathes his reforged dagger, the symbol of a full member of the Sundered Blades, and plunges it into the throat of Arvali. Arvali bleeds out and dies, still strung up against a tree. Kane admits to the others he lied that it gave him no pleasure to do that - it did. Quite a bit. A voice speaks in Kane’s mind - Zantras, intrigued by his killing, offers him pleasure and power, but Kane denies it. Angvar asks who he was talking to, and he explains that Zantras wanted to latch onto him, but he did not allow it. Angvar asks Kane if the voice of Zantras was angry and calling for violence, but Kane says it was quite eloquent.

Kane gives Arvali the standard funeral rites of a member of the Sundered Blades, and buries him in the forest in Krezk. He recounts some stories of Arvali, of the man he was before his corruption, then plunges his longsword into the earth to mark the grave. With that, they reconvene with Mary Sue Ann and return to the Krezkov house.

When they enter, they see Dmitri Krezkov sprawled on the floor, a goblet of wine spilled around him, dead.

And that’s where we left it!

So How Did the Session Go?

I find it very funny how easily the player that is playing Mary Sue Ann figures out each of the mysteries during this campaign. Like I have said in the past, I believe my DMing style when it comes to giving my players information is: Give them just enough to get them to the edge, but allow them to make the conclusion for themselves. Mary Sue Ann’s player needs the smallest bit of information to jump to the conclusion - and it’s usually the right one! As soon as I mentioned that there was a noble family with parties every night, she went - “Bullshit! Those are all ghosts. There’s no way there’s real people in that house.”

If I were to run this adventure again, I would add a few more steps to the investigation regarding Ilya as the culprit behind the sheep. I may want to make his hunger a little more subtle upon first meeting him. The investigation of the orphanage of Vallaki is a good measure of clues that lead to the next bit of information - the entire adventure can still go over in a single session, but at the orphanage they had to speak to several kids, learn about the locket and Felix, then confront him. I’m not sure what that sort of padding would look like - maybe stealing food or livestock from other townsfolk, tracking to a secret hideout, but the escalation where all of the sheep are suddenly eaten still works great. I also think Ilya’s reveal shouldn’t just be something that happens and the heroes go to investigate, but rather like the orphanage adventure - if all the clues are followed, it will lead them to a hideout where Ilya waits. Or, maybe, an escalation earlier on reveals that Ilya has gone missing too? Just some ideas, play with them and see if they work!

Finally, the conversation between Kane and his former commander, Arvali, the War Hound, was some of the best, most tense roleplaying I have been involved in a minute. I was not expecting Kane to execute him so callously, and it was a great illustration of character - about how actions make character, not what they say. He is not usually a very performative roleplayer, and that’s what made this moment so special. One of my favorite moments in this campaign thus far.

Until next time!