With their new prisoner in Abes tow, the party find themselves in the streets of Valiki once more with their next destination chosen: The Reformation Center.
Abe tries to talk to his bagged prisoner, but only seems to be getting a muffled response. Guessing that the prisoner is gagged inside the head bag, Slate casts Message on the man to whisper something into his head. Slate gives a small chuckle as the response from the man gives the impression that he has mistaken the spell being cast as divine guidance from the Morninglord! He tells Tariel what the man said to him with a grin, the Paladin not looking too pleased as Slate casts Message on the man again to tell him that the group walking him to the Reformation Center are people he can trust.
Arriving at the prison-like gate of the Reformation Center, the party are halted by two guards that ask what they are doing with a bound man. Abe explains that the party had been deputized by Baron Vargas and were here to interrogate a prisoner. Being asked for paperwork, Abe produces the letter to the guard who reads that what 'Acting Captain Abe Stoker' has explained is correct.
With the guards stood aside, the party passed under the archway engraved with the motto 'Reformation and Judgement' and enter the imposing building.
Inside what appeared to be a worn-down lobby, the party find themselves being spoken to by another guard who introduces himself as Andre and demands to see the papers Abe had. Abe hands him the papers and as the guard reads, a shrill scream echoes through the hall from somewhere beyond the room. Abe and Summer, who is still acting like a dog at Abes feet, both shudder as they notice there is laughter in the scream...
The scream is suddenly cut short, Slate turning to the guard to ask what would be happening here to make someone scream like that. Andre snaps at Slate, telling him that 'the help' should not speak while their captain is conducting business. Abe snaps at Andre, telling him to respond to his colleagues inquiry. Andre just shrugs, having no clue nor does he care.
Andre mentions as he reads the papers that his partner with him had once been a 'visitor' of the Center, which has made him a 'proper citizen' of Valiki.
Turning to Abe, Andre tells him to remove the prisoners clothing. As is procedure to avoid 'contamination' with other prisoners. Slate asks if the man would be okay to enter if his clothes are clean.
Andre agrees with Slate, but immediately begins to freak out as Slate begins casting Prestidigitation on the mans clothing. Alarmed at the sight of magic, Andre points at Slate and calls him a witch loud enough for an alarm to go off somewhere in the building and the sounds of loud footsteps from upstairs. The silent guard levels his crossbow at Slate, Tariel stepping between them and stating that what happened was a blessing from the Morninglord. Andre spits at Tariels feet, calling the notion of the Morninglord a children's story.
As Torbin, Tariel and Fran prepare their weapons for combat and Summer prepares to charge a guard, Abe snaps the entire rooms attention to himself as he pulls rank on Andre and demands that everyone calms down and lower their weapons.
*And now, the PG version of the DMs reaction to his dice roll*
After a moment of silence, Andre rolls his eyes as the guards from upstairs burst into the room with weapons drawn. Andre turns to the guards and tells them that it was a false alarm. Andre approaches them and as they talk, Abe and Slate find the guards eyes staring daggers at them before they head back upstairs.
Andre returns to the party, explaining that only Abe would be allowed to bring weapons further into the building, as he is the 'Acting Captain' here. Tariel joins Abe, dumping her weapons onto Slate while Summer, stilled armed to the teeth, manages to be overlooked as she is the weird looking dog following Abe.
Leaving Slate with Torbin and Fran in the lobby, Abe, Tariel and Summer follow Andre with their prisoner to a small room barely large enough for two people to stand let alone hold an interrogation. After Abe demands a larger room, Andre reluctantly leads the group past cells of prisoners with disfigured or missing body parts before showing them into a larger room with a set of bars on the far wall. Andre mentions that the room they're in is the Reformation Chamber.
Abe instructs Andre to collect two chairs: one comfy and one un-comfy. For interrogation, of course.
Once the chairs are brought in, Abe asks for Andre to leave. With the door locked behind Andre, Abe gets the prisoner comfortable while Summer stretches her legs and begins looking at the bars at the far end of the room. Beyond the bars, she can only see darkness that makes her more confused considering she can usually see in the dark...
Tariel removes the prisoners bag and gag, the poor man spitting out some teeth as he finally sees his 'saviors'. Using her divine magic, Tariel manages to put the mans teeth back in. The man begins praising her profusely until Abe asks him about a rebellion. The man, introducing himself as Belmore, states that he knows nothing about a rebellion against Vargas but is willing to join or even start one if the Morninglords chosen ask him to. Abe brings up that the man is in prison to which Belmore states that this is where he wants to be to find his wife.
After the death of their daughter, Belmores wife had apparently gone mad and began raving that the Morninglord had forsaken them as she tried to free people in the Town Square Stocks. From there, she was dragged to the reformation house and hasn't been seen since.
Tariel tells Belmore that they will try to find his wife while they are here, wanting to help bring them together once more.
Abe approaches the locked door as Tariel and Summer quickly re-gag and bag Belmore, asking the guard outside the door to have Slate escorted to the room. The silent guard nods and leaves, passing Andre and a well dressed man approaching the room. The well-dressed man asks for Abe to join him in the hall for a moment, introducing himself as Victor Vallakovich, the son of Baron Vargas Vallakovich. Summer tries to slip out after Abe but when the Ranger gently nudges her back into the room with Tariel, she notices magic sigils weaved into the inside layer of Victors robes. With the door closed behind him, Abe asks what Victor was doing in the Reformation Center. Victor is here to speak with the Centers 'Reformers', but had stepped away when he heard that some new people had entered the Center at his fathers request. Victor asks Abe to inform him if Abe discovers any sources of magic within Valaki, or anything magic related for that matter. Abe agrees and Victor bids him farewell, leaving as Andre and the mute guard return with Slate behind them. Sending the two men back into the room with their prisoner, the door is locked behind him.
Quickly getting Slate up to speed on the situation, Slate watches Summer peering into the blackness across the room from them. Seeing her raise a finger and let loose a small blast of light, Slate notices that the blackness warps like a curtain. Because it is one. Just a large black curtain on the other side of the bars...
Slate takes out his lockpick and attempts to pick the lock, nicking something in the latch and finding a small poison dart shooting into his neck! Tariel uses her Lay on Hands to heal the Rogue of his affliction while Abe tries his hand with the lockpick, also getting it jammed. While Abe leaves the pick in to ask for lock picking advice from Slate, Summer took out her staff and smacked the pick. The hammer and nail tactic seemed to work as the lock popped loose and the door swung open.
The four step past the curtain to see a room with a chair sitting in the center of the room withan unconscious naked woman facing a large grotesque portrait of Strahd making him look like a truely demonic entity. Along one wall, Slate looks over the various tools of torture lining a row on the shelf below vials of liquid with things submerged within.
Abe flips through a journal set on a table beside some severed horns and tails. He guesses these parts were used as some form of costume, but he sees some of the details of the torture procedure. Seeing a note about the painting being left as the only thing illuminated in the room for the prisoner to focus on during 'procedures'. He reads some points aloud, Slate seeing vials of what he thinks is blood when Abe mentions 'drops in the eyes and mouth'. Seeing that one of the vials is nearly empty, he assumes these are the drops that were mentioned.
Tariel sees the woman and notices a marking on the womans neck similar to something Belmore had mentioned earlier. This is his wife!
The party decide not to tell Balmore that they located his wife, doing their best to keep the room as they found it and Slate managing to lock the door with his pick before Abe and Tariel un-gag Belmore again. They tell him that they know that his wife is still alive and that they have a plan to get him and his wife out, but they need him to stay here for the time being.
Balmore agrees, telling the party that he is going to look for an exit he heard about from a man in the towns church. According to Balmore, the man found a tunnel leading out of the Reformation Center.
Summoning Andre to the room, Abe gave custody of Balmore to the guard before leading the party outside of the Center.
Finally outside again, the party decide that they should regroup with Ireena and get her up to speed. They do need to prepare for a dinner with the Baron after all!
