Also, it was Francescos players birthday! Hooray!
The party finally leaves the Vistani Camp, reaching the bridge to cross the river and continue onwards.
Until a voice calls out behind them. Gorin, the Vistani that told Abe and Torbin about where the wizard that fought Strahd, catches up to the party. After catching his breath, he tells the group that Madame Eva requested them to return to the camp at once. Something terrible has happened!
The party quickly hurries back to the camp to find it in utter chaos, the Vistani emptying every chest and barrel in search of something. Spotting the party, Eva approaches Tariel. She twists the paladins ear, staring angrily into the elfs face. She furiously explains that her Crystal Ball she uses had been taken, first accusing the Morning Lord Paladin of taking it.
The party quickly hurries back to the camp to find it in utter chaos, the Vistani emptying every chest and barrel in search of something. Spotting the party, Eva approaches Tariel. She twists the paladins ear, staring angrily into the elfs face. She furiously explains that her Crystal Ball she uses had been taken, first accusing the Morning Lord Paladin of taking it.
After some convincing, the fortuneteller lets go of Tariel and requests the parties assistance in finding the ball.
Tariel, Torbin and Ireena start helping the Vistani look around the camp for the ball while Francesco, Slate, Abe and Summer follow Eva into her tent.
As the four start examine the tent, Eva asks them all to take a card from her Tarot deck.
Summer drew 'The Broken One', immediately querying if the wizard was involved in this.
Eva looked skeptically at the Kobold before turning to the rest of the party.
Slate drew 'The Philanthropist'.
Abe drew the 'The Paladin'.
Francesco drew 'The Enchantress',
After placing their cards back on the table, Madame Eva looks over the cards. She surmises that the culprit is a spellcaster stealing something important to the parties quest, making her eye Abe and Fran.
Summer, who had managed to get herself trapped in the tent flaps again, points out that Slate also casts magic.
Does that mean the Kobold is the only member of the party that doesn't use magic? Something for her to unpack later.
Eva looks the Slate, who had found a finger print on the Crystal Balls table that appears to be a human print.
Abe finds drag marks under a corner of the tent, probably where the culprit had slid under the tent to get in and out. Looking at the tracks, the Ranger gathers that the human could be middle aged. Male?
While Slate helps Summer out of the tent flap, Abe and Fran notice that the tracks are leading toward the Tser Pools. Once the four are together, they head off after the tracks while trying to keep hidden in case the thief isn't too far ahead.
While Slate helps Summer out of the tent flap, Abe and Fran notice that the tracks are leading toward the Tser Pools. Once the four are together, they head off after the tracks while trying to keep hidden in case the thief isn't too far ahead.
Slate calls upon his bone owl, Skowl, to take into the air and see if they can spot the thief. Skowl follows the tracks and notices them forming in the mud along the bank of the river. Whoever they're following had made themselves invisible to try and conceal themselves.
As Slate relays Skowls discovery, Abe finds a scrap of torn cloth caught on a bush. Looking behind the bush, he can tell that someone had been using this elevated position to watch the camp. So the thief had been waiting a while for their chance to sneak into Evas tent.
Fran looks at the cloth and points out that the material is far too fancy to have been from a Vistani, so it's someone from outside the camp.
Keeping off from the bank, the four follow after the prints while staying out of sight. Abe notices that one footprint appears to be dragging, does the thief have a limp?
Scowl above notices that the footprints have stopped forming near the start of the waters rapids.
Scowl above notices that the footprints have stopped forming near the start of the waters rapids.
It seems that the thief was standing still...
After getting themselves as close as they felt they could without being noticed, Abe moves away from the other three and takes a shot where he thinks the invisible thief is standing.
To his surprise, the arrow bounces off of something invisible.
As the invisibility cloaking the burglar, the wizard reveals himself to protect himself from the arrow!
The twitching Wizard points a finger at the Abe, accusing him of being one of Strahds minons here to stop him.
Like the 'hag' he stole the Crystal Ball from!
...Hag?
Oh, he meant Eva?
Holding up the orb, the Wizard exclaims that the evil woman can no longer watch him before casting a spell and starts running into the river.
Holding up the orb, the Wizard exclaims that the evil woman can no longer watch him before casting a spell and starts running into the river.
Or... over the river?
He was running on water!
Fran reveals himself when he tries to cast a Sleep spell on the wizard, but with a flick of the wizards wrist he despells the bards spell!
Fran reveals himself when he tries to cast a Sleep spell on the wizard, but with a flick of the wizards wrist he despells the bards spell!
Slate casts his Mage Hand while the wizard is distracted watching Abe and Fran, using his magical hand to slip the orb out of the wizards grasp and back to the riverbank!
Seeing her chance, Summer sprints out to the orb and takes it to start running it as far as she can from the manic man!
Abe takes a shot with his bow at the wizard, but his arrow seems to hit the same barrier spell as before.
Seeing her chance, Summer sprints out to the orb and takes it to start running it as far as she can from the manic man!
Abe takes a shot with his bow at the wizard, but his arrow seems to hit the same barrier spell as before.
Seeing the small red lizard running away with his stolen prize, the wizard raises his hands to her and a massive Lightning Bolt strikes Summer down! Leaving the monk face down in the mud and charred with the orb under her...
Slate casts a spell to send a Message to the wizard in an attempt to disarm to situation, only to end up confusing the befuddled man as the rouge slides up to Summer to make sure she's still alive.
Abe runs over to the freshly cooked Summer as well, feeding her a Good Berry to help get her back on her feet.
Fran angrily casts Disguise Self, making his face look like Strahds in an odd attempt to make the wizard realize that the group don't look like anything that would associate with the Baron of Barovia. The wizard pointing at Fran, declares that 'Strahd' hasn't seen the last of him before vanishing from sight again!
Noticing the moving water is skimming around something unseen on the waters surface, Slate guesses the wizard just turned himself invisible again.
Picking up some mud, he hurls it out onto the river. He hits something, seeing the wizards cloak getting slightly dirty as the madman continues to flee across the river!
Summer finally wakes up to see Abe slump back to sit on the rock behind him, just to see him fall through Slate illusion and land on top of the Rogue! And... Strahd attempting to jump across rocks protruding from the water to follow the wizard? Watching the 'Lord of Darkness' trip and splash into the shallow water, the Kobold bounds to her feet and charges the 'Baron', kneeing him in the back of the head to force him under the water again! Pulling 'Strahd' into a headlock, she begins kneeing and punching him in the face as hard and fast as she can.
With both Slate and Abe trying to get the monk off the now unconscious Fran, Summer somehow manages to briefly overpower them both and continue laying into Francesco before Abe drags her off of the limp bard. Seeing Slate drag Fran out of the water, Summer immediately feels remorse while Abe looks across the river to see the wizard running into the woods and out of sight...
Abe feed Fran a Good Berry, getting the soaked and bruised bard back to his feet. Summer apologies to Francesco, the Elf laughing it off and healing himself and his Kobold companion. Slate and Abe go to retrieve the orb when the Ranger notices that the group is being watched...
Looking where the group was hiding from the wizard earlier, he sees the real Strahd looming over the party with two large wolves flanking his sides.
The Baron sternly tells off Fran for impersonating him and making a mockery of the Lords 'good name', ordering his two wolves to kill the bard!
With the wolves coming in, Summer steps up beside Fran and punches one wolf to throw it off attacking the bard! The two injured teammate manage to hold their own, but the scuffle is too tight for Slate to fire a shot without maybe hitting his companions... Abe sees his swords he dropped when he saved Summer... at Strahds feet...
Abe approached the Lord and reaches for his weapons, but Strahd puts a foot down on the blades. He stands over Abe and asks the Ranger to watch his allies demise or be killed where he stood...
Abe reluctantly steps back and turns to watch Summer and Fran ducking and weaving the wolves. After Fran lights up one wolf with his Farie Fire spell, Summer lays a barrage of punches and kicks into the overgrown mutt.
Seeing the fight is not over as quickly as he would have liked, Strahd calls the wolves back to his side. He warns Francesco to never use his face again, or else...
With a lazy wave of his hand, Strahd conjures a Fireball that strikes the river. With the show of his power setting an example of what the party are facing, the Lord of Barovia turns and leaves with his wolves, vanishing from sight as Summer and Fran finally get a moment to actually recover...
Abe picking up his weapons and Slate retrieving the Crystal Ball, the four companions start heading back toward the Vistani camp.
This is going to take some explaining to Tariel and Torbin when they get back...
