Session 26

As the group settles in for the night, the last sliver of a waning crescent moon is blotted out by the fog. The party takes Bardolf to the cellar and ties him up with the chain. None of them decide to keep watch in the cellar, but each goes to find a bed in the house. Pelanil spends his night pacing.

At around midnight, Pelanil goes to check on Bardolf. He finds the secret door in the cellar is standing wide open and that Blinsky's body parts are spread throughout the cellar. The chain is broken, and Bardolf is nowhere to be found. Pelanil ignores the problem, and goes to sit on the roof.

He watches the sunrise, then notices movement in the vineyard. His little bois are coming out of the woods and gathering around in a circle. Pelanil investigates.

He finds a nude Bardolf lying among the vines, covered in blood. He kicks Bardolf awake, and the little boys fetch him a leaf to protect his modesty.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group is enjoying breakfast with The Martikovs when they realize that things are a lot quieter than normal, and subsequently, that Bardolf and Pelanil are missing. They finish up their breakfast and go to inspect the cellar, finding the scene exactly as Pelanil left it over night. Adrian explains that they use the hidden cave as a sort of refrigerator for the wine. The group is surprised to find Blinsky here when they last saw him surrounded by vampires in Vallaki. Adrian drops hints that he'd like some help cleaning up, but when no one offers, reluctantly starts collecting Blinsky's limbs.

The party sets out for Berez. Along they way, Shalooti spots a footrail off the main road, but decides not to follow it. After about three hour's travel from The Wizard of Wines, the group notices the river that they have been following is starting to become less distinct from its surrounding landscape and that the air is a bit stickier than before. The road becomes more and more muddy, and finally is covered by ankle-high water. Pelanil casts Water Walk on the group, and they are able to proceed without being slowed down.

The see the ruined town of Berez covered in swamp. They also notice a light among some standing stones across the river. Elora stealthily made her way across the raging river, and was able to see a peasant woman standing there holding a lantern and a dagger. She reports what she saw back to the party.

The rest of the group decides that this must be Baba Lysaga, so they each in turn sneak perfectly unnoticed across the river. The others hide as Bardolf approaches the woman to learn more. She is surprised to learn that the group is going to risk talking to Baba Lysaga. Confident that the woman isn't, herself, Baba Lysaga, the rest of the party present themselves (except for Anakir, whose new thing is that he's always invisible).

They learn the woman's name is Muriel Vinshaw, and she is there spying on Baba Lysaga for The Martikovs. She stays on this side of the river because she is too fearful to get too close to the witch. She warns the party of the various dangers in the swamps, and tells them to watch out for the scarecrows.

Before making their way back across the river, the party takes a closer look at the stones. They recognize that they are very similar to the ones they saw at The Windmill. Bardolf recognizes that these stone structures are incredibly old, probably built well before Strahd moved into the valley centuries ago. He also realized the stones probably have magical powers, but wasn't sure how he could activate them.

The group crosses the river, and heads the direction that Muriel points them towards Baba Lysaga's hut. Along the way, the have to fight off a couple Giant Poisonous Snake.

Finally, they come across what must be Baba Lysaga's hut built atop an old tree stump. Attached to the hut are cages full ravens, squawking and fluttering, across the way is a castle, in front of which is a pen full of goats, and right in front of the door to the hut is what the party presumes must be Argynvost's skull upside-down and sunken into the mud.

Pelanil, rushes into the hut, giving Baba Lysaga no time to react to their approach. Inside, he sees and old woman leaning over a crib with a baby inside, and below the crib, he sees a green light emanating from beneath the floorboards. Pelanil immediately casts Silence so that the presumed witch will have no chance of using the required verbal components for her spells. He then slices into her with her with his greatsword. Anakir then uses Banishment to send her to another plane. The party has one minute to act before she returns!

Shalooti frantically looks through the herbs stored in the cupboard. She finds something that looks like a root, and notices it's labeled with "Belladonna Root". Anakir checks on the baby to find out that it's an illusion when his hands move right through it. Pelanil begins pulling on the floorboards beneath the crib.

Just as Pelanil begins to move the floorboards, the house shutters and jerks. Its roots lurch and groan as the pull from the ground. Anakir is unable to hold his feet, and is flung from the hut, falling 10 feet. Shalooti and Pelanil hold strong and continue to work at the floorboards. Seeing this from outside, Bardolf grabs onto the stump with a pickaxe, but is batted away by the root-legs of the monster-hut.

Unperturbed, Bardolf lassos the the chimney. Again he's batted away and is, this time, knocked unconscious. The house throws rocks at Anakir who is also knocked unconscious.

After much effort, Pelanil and Shalooti are able to break the floorboards and retrieve the glowing green gem inside. Shalooti uses her Mage Hand to pick up the gem and deliver it to Elora outside. With that, the hut shutters one last time, and collapses to the ground.

Before Baba Lysaga popped back into this plane, the group healed Bardolf and Anakir, and each person readied an attack at the spot where Baba Lysaga last stood. She re-appeared, and the party took turns whacking her with their favorite method. She did not stand a chance.