Short rewind to the morning the party planned to leave Vallaki:
Waking up in the morning, the party began to pack their things to hit the road straight away. Tariel still isn't looking very well and she says as much to the group. In her current state after having fought for her life against the vampire spawn and almost breaching deaths door, she feels that she mid be a hinderance to the parties travelling. She asks to remain behind, to fulfill her promise to Father Lucian and help bury the Saints Bones. The party agrees, but Ireena asks for the young boy, Alan, to stay with Tariel while she stays with the party.
Standing outside the Blue Water Inn, Tariel and Alan bid the party farewell as they head toward the North Exit of town while she and Alan head toward the church. With a heavy heart the Paladin splits the party, but Tariel believes it is for the best until she can fully recover...
The party, now consisting of Torbin, Abe (who still hasn't managed to have a full nights rest and looks completely disheveled), Slate, Francesco and the pale Summer, all arrive at the gate leaving Barovia. Summer takes a bit more convincing than usual to pretend to be a dog so they can pass through the gates, but she relents and the group find themselves outside of Vallaki.
Recalling that the Carnival Owner Rictavio had told Torbin to meet him at Lake Zarovich to the north of Vallaki, Torbin gives the group their heading. With Abe still not feeling well and not wanting to take the lead, Summer wanders ahead of the group as they followed a foot-worn trail that Slate suggests is from fisherman going from town to the lake.
Far away from the fog cloaked region of Barovia, man sits on his knees as he prays before an altar of the Morninglord. With his eyes closed, he doesn't notice the world around him turn black until he opens his eyes. In the darkness around him, the Cleric can barely make out a figure ahead of him beckoning for him to come closer. As the man steps closer, he finds himself walking through a thick fog that that fades away to reveal that he is standing on a forest path cloaked in a lingering fog. Looking toward the sky above for guidance, the Cleric can feel something is wrong. The usual warmth he feels from the sun and the Morninglords presence feels dulled, almost non-existent... Then there is the strange small Kobold that rounded the corner, its presence feels... wrong? He begins to mutter a prayer, but the warm embrace he usually receives is not there...
Summer looks at the strange man praying before her, scrunching up her nose as Slate reaches the bend in the path to see what she's staring at. Slate moves Summer back as he notices that she and the man had locked eyes, asking who the man is. The man adjusts himself, revealing the armor and shield emblazoned in the familiar sigils of the Morninglord. The man asks Slate where they are, the question puzzling the party. From the map the party has, there's nowhere nearby that the man could walked through the fog around Barovia without noticing and just end up here.
Torbin explains that the man, who introduces himself as Vanroth, that he is in Barovia. Vanroth is perplexed by this development, having very little idea of how or why he was here now... Seeing as the group was now in need of a person of the cloth, Slate suggests that Vanroth stays with them until they can help him get his bearings better and work out what he wants to down. Vanroth agrees, walking alongside Slate toward the lake. Summer drops toward the back of the group near Torbin, commenting that standing too close to the Cleric was making her eyes water when she looks at him for too long.
The War Cleric, Vanroth
The group of adventurers arrive that the expansive Lake Zarovich, the water deadly calm with one boat visible out on the water. And nobody else around? Maybe the group arrived early? Seeing that they had time to kill, Slate set up his brazier while Torbin, Francesco and Vanroth collected some firewood to keep warm as they wait. Abe decided to take out his sleeping pack and take a small nap while Summer went toward the waters edge to check out the other rowboats sitting out of the water. Finding nothing of useful, the Kobold looks out at the boat on the water when she hears the man in the boat cursing. Then she sees the large sack the man tosses overboard. Huh, was the sack wriggling in his grasp?
She calls back to Torbin and Vanroth, asking about what kind of bait is human sized that you'd leave in a sack. Concerned about her line of questioning, the two join her by the water. Once Torbin understands Summers question, he jumps in a rowboat that he, Vanroth and Summer take out toward the other boat.
The man, with his fishing line in the water, yells at the trio. They're scaring the fish away! And after he went to all the trouble of getting special bait too! Torbins asks about the bait.
'Vistani make good bait'
Alarmed, Torbin yells at the man to bring the sack back up. Even threatening to burn the mans boat if he doesn't! The man refuses to budge, even despite Vanroths pleads. It's when the strange pink lizards dull eyes seem to go completely pale and asks him to bring up the sack that he decides to comply. Giddy from whatever state Summer seemed to have put him in, the mans attempts to raise the sack leads to him capsizing his boat! As the man yelps and cries, Torbin dives into the water and Wild Shapes into an otter to save the person in the sack.
Realizing that the form he's taken isn't strong enough to lift the water-logged sack, Torbin waves his little paws around to cast his Mold Earth spell to raise the dirt from the lake floor and push the sack upwards. Seeing the rope bobbing in the water, Vanroth pulls the rope until he can drag the sack onto the boat. Summer stands on the end of the boat, blankly watching the man she Charmed drown. She doesn't move to help him.
Seeing the struggling man starting to sink, Torbin uses his Mold Earth to raise the man to the waters surface and use the spell to put the man on a platform in the middle of the lake. But looking at him, it seems the Otter Druid was too late.
Seeing Vanroth struggling to open the sack, Summer takes out her shortsword and slash into the sack. The kobolds action makes the holy man pause for a moment before looking into the sack to find an unconscious girl curled up inside. He pulls her out of the sack and checks her pulse. Nothing. Raising a palm over the girl, Vanroth calls upon the light of the Morninglord to Spare the Dying girl. The girl coughs up water, barely alive and shivering. Seeing the girl is alive, Torbin dives into the water to look for fish while Vanroth rows the boat back to shore.
Unable to catch any fish, Torbin returns to shore and shifts back to normal and joins the rest of the party at the fire. Vanroth helps the girl warm up until she is ready to talk to the group while Summer complains about eating rations. Slate tells her to be quiet as he continues to cast a spell in his brazier, finally casting his Find Familiar spell to re-summon his skeletal owl companion, Skowl.
Looking at the girl, Francesco takes out a rolled up poster of a missing girl. The same girl Vanroth is warming up. Arabelle.
Arabelle comes to, finding herself surrounded by strangers at a campfire. She asks where Bluto is. After being asked by Torbin who Bluto is, Arabelle explains that Bluto is the man that kidnapped her, calling her a 'good luck charm'.
She recalls the man captured her while she was collecting mushrooms near her caravan, Bluto asking her for directions before nabbing her while she was distracted. She tells the group that Bluto kept her locked in a house near running water before taking her by boat to the lake. Then she just remembers thrown into water inside the sack.
Arabelle asks if she can be taken back to her family, her father, Luvash, would probably reward the party handsomely. Vanroth is estatic to help the young lady and get some reward, but Torbin tells him not to get his hopes up.
After getting general directions from Arabelle, Slate directs Skowl to investigate that direction to see if he can find the encampment. His skeletal owl flies past a flock of ravens perched on a tree, most of the ravens taking flight in a start.
Watching the ravens, Slate ponders aloud about the last few times they've seen ravens. Like at the Durst Windmill and the waterfall the party climbed around. Summer points out that there were ravens around the farm the party stayed at too, her stomach rumbling as she watches the ravens... Torbin notices that two of the ravens are watching him and Slate closely. Casting Speak with Animals, Torbin tells the crows that he can see them watching, one of the crows flying from the tree to perch on the Gnomes shoulder.
The raven tells Torbin that it is trying to work out where the party stand in Barovia. Torbin doesn't seem to understand the question, so the raven explains that it wants to know if the party will be useful to it. Torbin asks why it would want to know that, the raven leaning its head closer to him. It wants to tell Torbin a secret.
'I'm not a raven'
The whole party turns their heads as the ravens words are spoken in Common. The raven beats its wings to take off and Summer attempts to pounce on it, only to be yanked back by Slate before she can reach it. The raven takes off, flying away as Summer and Slate argue about capturing the raven.
While they bicker, Torbin sees the other raven still on the tree, muttering in raven.
'lightbringers?'
Torbin tilts his head.
'bring light to Barovia?'
Torbin asks what the raven means, the raven going quiet for a moment.
'you're being watched'
The raven takes off.
Torbin tells the party that they're being watched, they should pack up and move. As the group pack their things, Skowl returns to inform Slate that he thinks he found the Vistanis camp.
Torbin notices some ancient druidic markings on some trees, meaning there were druids here at some point, but he cannot tell how long ago that was. Following the markings that go alongside a river leading to the Lake, the party travel until the sight of structures come into view and voices around them in the woods calling Arabelles name.
Time to see about this reward then, eh?
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