Lessons from the Mists: Session 31 - The Unholy Communion

Welcome back to Lessons from the Mists! This session, our heroes dove back into the pages of the Tome of Strahd and learned more about the devil’s history… Let’s get started!

The Recap

The heroes open the Tome of Strahd to Chapter 5: the Unholy Communion. They are whisked away into the past where they witness Strahd practicing magic in his study. He seems to be going mad and speaks to the shadows in the room - apparitions of the heroes! They ask him what he is doing and why he calls these “bitter days.” He says that Tatyana and Sergei will not leave eachother’s sides, and he feels himself growing older and slower. But he takes solace in his new found magical talent.

There is a knock at the door. Tatyana and Sergei burst in and proclaim to Strahd that they have decided to marry and wish to hold the ceremony at Castle Ravenloft in a month’s time. Strahd objects because of Sergei’s seminary studies, but Sergei proclaims he has left the path of a Dawnlord for love. Strahd, unhearing them, nods and they leave, kissing and excitedly giggling. Strahd slumps into his chair and throws his spell components off his desk in a rage. A voice whispers to him in the darkness: “You cannot find what you seek in a book.” The candles are snuffed out, and the heroes are whisked away to another time.

They stand as men at arms with Strahd and Aleksandra Gwilym on a snowy mountainside. Built into the mountain is the facade of a temple with six huge amber statues, carved like hooded figures with their fingers steepled in prayer. Strahd sees something in the doorway of the temple that Alek does not, and approaches.

The visage of Strahd’s father, the late King Barov, stands guardian at the temple. Strahd demands to know why he has been brought here, but his father responds cryptically. When Strahd turns to leave, his father tells him “he will have to live with the way she looks at him.” That forces Strahd to freeze , and decides to follow his father deeper into the temple.

The heroes see flashes of Strahd’s massacre through the temple, cutting through monstrous creatures that inhabit that old vault. Finally, he makes it to the lowest level and falls before an amber sarcophagus that tells him to free the entity inside. He does so, and Alek looks on in horror, as the chamber is plunged into darkness. Strahd gives his life force to the thing inside the amber, which tells him to feed. He looks back at Alek, and attacks her, ripping out her throat and drinking her blood.

The heroes are forced back into their bodies in Barovia. They discuss with van Richten what they found, and van Richten is astonished to hear that the Amber Temple is a real place. Van Richten and Ezmerelda begin to leave, and they agree to meet at Berez and Argynvostholt when the heroes tell them they are ready. The heroes sleep the night away, and prepare for another voyage through time.

In Chapter 6: Wedding Bells, the heroes find themselves at Sergei and Tatyana’s wedding, as Barovian noble guests. A huge crowd is gathered in the Ravenloft Chapel. A servant rushes over to them and tells them the Lady wishes to speak with them. They meet Tatyana outside, who is nervous for the ceremony and she needs someone to calm her nerves. She tells them she feels out of place, and that she feels Strahd is distant and cold nowadays, worrying that he disapproves of her and Sergei’s union. Ylenia reassures Tatyana through this, and she asks to be walked down the aisle. Ylenia agrees, dreading what will happen to the woman whose face she wears.

Ylenia walks Tatyana down the aisle to a fanfare of trumpets. On the altar are Sergei, Ilona Derovnya, Strahd, and Tatyana. Before Ilona can begin the ceremony, a bolt is shot from the back of the room and pierces Strahd’s shoulder. Several servants on the periphery of the room pull out knives and begin to butcher the guests. Chaos breaks out in the chapel, and Strahd, Sergei, and Tatyana fight through the crowds to a side door and flee deeper into the castle.

The heroes are transported into the bodies of guards that come to Strahd, Tatyana, and Sergei’s defense somewhere in Castle Ravenloft. They take shelter in a side room, frantically speaking about what is happening, and who could have been a traitor in their midst? A group of assassins rounds the corner and finds the heroes defending their lords, and its initiative!

The heroes only have the equipment that these guards are wearing. Angvar and Kane are mostly fine, but Mary Sue Ann is hindered by the equipment. A voice whispers in her ear, “All is an illusion, my dear.” She steels herself, and manifests her wizardly robes and spell components. Strahd, Tatyana, and Sergei escape down a side passage while the heroes, as guards, defend their flight from these assailants.

The scene shifts again. Strahd, Tatyana, and Sergei emerge from the walls of Ravenloft. Where sunlight once shone through the stained glass windows of the chapel, the castle is now covered in a sea of fog. Tatyana says that she hears guards in the mists, but that entity that has been haunting Strahd persuades him to kill his brother. Strahd resists at first, but the temptation and jealousy takes over. He lunges at Sergei with a knife, but Tatyana yelps and steps in to defend Sergei and takes the blade instead. She collapses against Sergei, bleeding from a stomach wound. Sergei weeps over her and screams at Strahd. Strahd is panicking, and the entity tells him that in order to save her, he must seal the pact. He will see her again, and again, and again. Strahd takes Sergei and stabs him over and over again, proclaiming his rule over Barovia, and his love for Tatyana, before ripping out Sergei’s heart and consuming it.

Tatyana crawls away from his horrid scene to the edge of a balcony overlooking the valley of Barovia. Strahd turns, covered in gore, and says “I do all this for you, my love.” Tatyana screams, steps back, falls over the railing, and tumbles into the mists below. Strahd screams as she falls. But then he is riddled with crossbow bolts from behind. He attempts to walk towards his assailants, but they send volley after volley into him. Stepping from behind the assassins is the orchestrator of this treachery: Leo Dilisnya. He tells his men to finish Strahd off and disappears into the mists. Strahd, however, stands, his eyes cat like slits, and his wounds have stopped weeping blood. He breathes out, revealing fangs, and rushes to attack his assailants. He bisects one, removes the head from another, and one by one, the crossbowmen’s screams are silenced in the fog.

The heroes are ejected out of the Tome and back into their real bodies. They discuss what they discovered, and theorize about what Dark Powers might lie within the Amber Temple. They decide on a plan to revisit Vallaki, then seek out the Mad Mage of Mount Baratok and speak to the leader of the Dusk Elves, Kasimir Velikov, for information regarding the Amber Temple.

The heroes arrive at the walls of Vallaki, going through a customs-like process at the gates. Walking around town, they discover way more Vistani about town, and the church of St. Andral has yet to be rebuilt. They make their way to the Blue Water Inn, where Danika greets them warmly. Ylenia asks if the Martikovs are doing okay, and though Danika says the town has changed significantly, she and her family remain safe. She asks to speak with them in private.

With the heroes having knowledge of the Keepers of the Feather, Danika feels comfortable sharing what she knows about Vallaki nowadays after they helped out with the Wizard of Wines. She first tells them that after Fiona Wachter took over, Vistani were allowed in the walls. There are new laws about no anti-Strahd rhetoric in town, and there is a vampire spawn nest somewhere around here. Criminals taking action against Fiona or the Vistani are subjected to bloodlettings, where the vampire spawn feed on them. Danika also offers rooms to the heroes for free, as thanks for helping out her family. She tells them there is also a rebellion brewing in town, but they know little about that.

With that, the heroes shop around town for components and equipment not found elsewhere in Barovia. Ylenia finds Jeny Greenteeth injured in her hovel, who says she was attacked by the witch of Berez, after attempting to rescue her sister from the witch’s clutches. When Ylenia attempts to heal her wounds, the wounds resist Ylenia’s magic.

When Ylenia and Angvar have finished their shopping, they find a figure in an alley beckoning them. When they go to investigate, the figure removes their hood to reveal Izek Strazni, who tells them they have to talk. Trouble is brewing in Vallaki.

And that’s where we left it!

So How Did the Session Go?

I don’t have much to report this session, because most of what we played through was cutscenes I wrote out for the Tome of Strahd.

I took ideas from the Interactive Tome and coupled them with these scenes from CriticalFayle’s Strahdcast. I modified the order of them and how the events played out, but Trevor’s story was an amazing inspiration. Trevor is an incredible GM in terms of acting and set pieces, so I simply had to steal them.

I took a lot more time in preparing this session to get the acting and delivery of these cutscenes right. Even though there was not a lot of interaction from the players, and they were mostly just gathering information, the delivery of it was engaging enough that they were excited to learn more about Strahd’s past.

I decided that with the heroes being level 8, we do not need to worry much more about random encounters. The werewolves have mostly been dealt with as well as the forest folk, and any undead they can easily deal with. At this point in the campaign, we can skip to the important, juicy bits. That being said, I am mostly skipping over the travel sections as we move into act 3 of this campaign.

So, what’s changed in Vallaki since the heroes left it? Izek is leading a rebellion, and he is poised to be Vallaki’s next leader, as Barovian succession laws dictate that the highest ranking military personnel can obtain power. In order to assist him, the heroes will have to eradicate the nest, sabotage Fiona’s cult, kill Ernst Larnak (who has returned - more on that next week!), and then probably kill Fiona.

Rather than just give a series of encounters, I wanted this to have more teeth that might put Izek and the Martikovs in danger. I have not written out how this works yet, but I think the order of encounters is going to have different effects on the outcome of this plotline. However, my players were adamant that they do not want to engage with Vallaki politics at the moment, but I won’t let them leave without some consequences!

So that’s it. We’ll see what the mechanical ramifications are when the players start to engage with Vallaki’s new political landscape - or what consequences will arrive when they leave Izek to his rebellion!

Until next time!