Nebual: I am a pizza
Nebual: cook me at 230f

Returning to Rahadin’s Mountain Fort, we found his men scattered - some missing, some torn apart by… presumably that Giant Roc that seems to be feeding around the mountain. Concluding that in this land, we’d rather ensure the dead stay dead, we made a bonfire for them.

Van Richten shared that his hatred of the Vistani was not just generic racism (as was Orrrs’s), but that his child was once kidnapped by Vistani and sold to a Vampire Lord, to be made into one - though curiously, the vampire wasn’t one from around here. The man has evidently travelled far, in his quest for monster slaying.

Traversing further up the mountainside, the snow and cold clutched at our vitals, and we feared a blizzard was inevitable. The landscape here had deep, menacing gouges carved into its face - like cracks in cheese at a massive scale, but with edges rough enough that they can’t have been made by mere slow erosion. Looking at them closer, its like they were made for me. We could barely pull Orrris’s gaze away.

Examining the wall closer, it began to vibrate, and then shake, before a gargantuan beast arose from the snow, terrible horns plenty large enough to devastate the cliff face, let alone measly us. It charged Gerggwen, who in a panic managed to Hold Monster the monstrocity. Swiftly moving in surprising unison, we all heaved and ho’d and managed to shove the briefly frozen goat demon Ghakis off the cliff and down the mountain. To our dismay it picked itself up, angrily braying, and started running at the cliff base - slamming into it hard enough to nearly shake us down after it.

We quickly tie ourselves together, minus the ever-stubborn Orrrs, lest we get swept away in any avalanche it might cause. This comes in handy as rounding a bend, we’re hit by a fiercer blizzard destroying all visibility. The Orrrs and Misha duo manage to scamper up the cliff, searching for shelter, and discover a possible cave. Dorvil makes use of a creative Rope Trick to help us ascend the cliff face after them, allowing us to regroup in a Fen’s Tiny Hut inside the cave mouth. The cave walls are covered in black lichen, including an eerie message:

THE SHADOWS LIE
DO NOT ACCEPT THEIR GIFTS

Hearing moans (of pain we presumed) coming from further inside, Orrrs and Misha investigate with intent to kink-shame. Returning shortly after, they unpack their bundles and pretend to sleep, telling us naught of what they saw. With the moaning continuing, another (more cooperative) pair investigate, and Sarandiel found a dead elk calf torn open by sharp claws amongst a large pile of bones, with a strange mixture of wounds both fresh and mighty old. Deeper in the shadows was a large cloaked creature, rifling through a pile of dead adventurer remains, who looked at Sara with a bone chilling gaze.

Fleeing back to the group, her description led Van Richten to guess it might be a Bodok, a very dangerous ambush creature who can kill with a look, fearing only sunlight - something all too hard to come across in these cursed lands. We cautiously setup a sleep watch inside our Tiny Hut, but as the shadows approach, we’re awoken by a miserable sickening aura permeating all the living. Their Withering Gaze further weakens us, but with a combination of Bran’s own Sickening Radiance, Sara’s Shatter, Gerggwen’s groggy panic fireball, and Fen’s new Radiant Dawn, the two Bodoks are reduced to cloth and shards of amber.

– Recompiled by Darkwalker Fen von Stoker
Zombie Cleric of the Moon (and non-evil lycanthropes)

Previous Chapter: Facing Orrrs’s Future

Next Chapter: Dwayne The Roc

Dramatis Personae

• B - Darkwalker Fen von Stoker, Zombie Cleric
• T - Bran von Stoker, Deathlock, Strahd’s Favoured
• N - Orrrs, Murderhobo, Sensei to Misha, Werewolf Alpha, Bearer of the Spear of Khevan
• N - Normal Hands Misha, spiderful sidekick
• M - Sarandiel, Shapeshifting culture vulture, Irena #3
• D - Dorvil the Blue, Artificer of Splendifourous Gadgets
• T - Gerggwen, Panic Fireballer and keeper of the cat Bonedaddy

With Guests

• Van Richten, aka Ricktavio, seasoned veteran of Monster Slaying, Loremaster