The New Moon
After defeating Kiril Stoyanovich at the werewolf den in the last session, the party took some time to rest before the upcoming new moon. To recap, the players were planning to attack Baba Lysaga during the rituals she performs on the new moon to recover the skull of Argynvost. During their downtime, the players spent time recruiting any help they could from the Keepers of the Feather. They were able to easily convince Muriel Vinshaw to help them, as she had expressed interest in taking down Baba Lysaga previously. Otherwise, they were able to persuade Davian Martikov to lend a swarm of ravens that could help the party in a pinch.
On the morning of the new moon, the party met with Muriel at the edge of the ruins of Berez, which was clouded by a massive swarm of insects. During the day, some perceptive members of the party noticed the smoke of a campfire rising from the center of the city. As the day progressed, this smoke began to fill the ruined town, and seemed to be calming the swarm of insects. By the end of the day, this smoke had filled the city entirely.
Wanting to take a more cautious approach, the party sent Muriel in her raven form to scout the ruins of Berez. After waiting for a few moments, she returned to the party with little to report on, as the smoke was making it too hard to see. With little other choice, the party made their way to the edge of the smoke-filled ruins.
Stepping into the smoke, it had a strangely sweet smell to it. Looking to their feet, the party noticed hundreds of bugs that all seemed to be heading towards the center of town. With the smoke making it hard to see, the party decided to follow in the direction of the insects. After some time spent walking carefully, the front most party member noticed the faint outline of a figure, which did not appear to be moving. Muriel and the party stealthily surrounded this figure, and they began to slowly approach it before finally recognizing it as a scarecrow.
It was at this point, the party began to pick up on the sound of female voices singing in abyssal. One of my players knew abyssal, they were able to translate the singing as grim children’s folktales and bedtime stories. The players pinpointed the direction of the singing, which appeared to be coming from a slightly different direction than the insects were headed towards. Not wanting to get ambushed later on, the party decided to investigate these voices, passing more scarecrows along the way.
The Ruins of Berez
Through the smoke, the players spot the outlines of ruined buildings that used to make up the village of Berez. From the inside of a far off ruined building, a faint glow was spotted, along with figures that appeared to be dancing in circles. The players rightly deduced that these figures were the source of the singing in the area, and were likely members of Baba Lysaga’s coven. As the party watched from a safe distance, they noticed the shadows from the building grow more menacing, and nearby scarecrows began to turn and face them.
Suddenly, the previously inert scarecrows began to run at and attack the party. This noise drew the attention of the nearby witches, who used illusion magic to confuse the party into attacking each other. As the scarecrows were defeated, they burst into clouds of smoke, rather than leaving a body behind. The witches’ song had not animated these scarecrows, instead their song was causing the party to hallucinate.
Figuring it was not worth dealing with the scarecrows, my more melee focused party members pushed past them to get to the witches hiding at the rear line. Without their scarecrows to defend them, the witches stood little chance of surviving this attack. To nobodies surprise, the party quickly cut down the witches, and the hallucinations of the scarecrows faded shortly after.
Before moving on to find Baba Lysaga, the players took a rest and investigated the glowing building they had seen previously. Stepping into the ruined building, they discovered a large bonfire that seemed to be the source of the smoke that was filling the town. Surrounding the fire were piles of strange black flower petals, along with a handful of different herbs. One of my players was able to identify the flower petals with a rather high nature roll, they were a rather rare plant that grow in swampy biomes which are known to cause audio and visual hallucinations. Supposedly, the witches were burning the plant to calm the insects that normally inhabit the town.
Baba Lysaga
After resting, the party continued to follow the insects towards the center of town, arriving at an open square with a hut on a severed stump at the center. In front of the hut, partially sunk into the swampy floor and surrounded by several tied up goats, was the skull of Argynvost. The trail of insects that the party had been following ended here, as the bugs filed their way into the top of the open dragon skull.
As the players approached, the arm of an old woman erupted from under the pool of bugs that was forming in the skull, and the unsettling figure of Baba Lysaga began to rise into view. Without a chance to react, Baba Lysaga gripped onto the sides of the dragon skull, and took flight while riding inside. Muriel charged at Baba Lysaga, who began to lift her finger and speak:
“Die, raven scum!”
A powerful necrotic bolt leapt out of Baba Lysaga’s fingertip towards Muriel, who was thankfully able to resist the powerful magic, but was still left badly wounded. Once again, the hallucinatory properties of the smoke began to take effect, as the hut behind Baba Lysaga began to uproot itself and stand.
The party immediately scattered, and attempted to shoot Baba Lysaga out of the sky while the hut lobbed boulders at them. Sadly, the skull of Argynvost that Baba Lysaga was riding in gave her plenty of cover, so the party was having difficulties landing hits on her. Eventually, a few of these attacks went through, and knocked Baba Lysaga off-balance, sending her and the skull tumbling to the ground. From there, my melee players were much happier, however Baba Lysaga was not letting up as she hurled a fireball into the party.
As the party surrounded Baba Lysaga, her hut continued to attack the players with its massive roots, dealing heaps of damage with each blow. With Argynvost’s skull now in the marsh, one of my players disengaged from the fight and started to drag the skull to safety. With most of the party on their last breath, in a stroke of luck, one of the players scored a critical hit and the fight was finished.
As Baba Lysage fell lifeless, the hallucinations of her walking hut began to fade, as the building remained lifeless at the center of the town square. Muriel, looking over the great evil she had helped defeat, could not help but grin from ear to ear. The party took a quick breather, sorted through whatever valuables they could find at Baba Lysaga’s hut, and began to make their way back to Argynvostholt carrying with them the skull of Argynvost.
The Silver Beacon
Carrying the dragon skull with them into the courtyard of Argynvostholt, the party are greeted by Sir Godfrey, who is taken aback with how quickly the party were able to recover his master’s remains. He pleads with the party that preparations must be made to restore the silver beacon, now that Argynvost was whole again. Godfrey warns, however, that this would be taken as an act of aggression towards Strahd.
While the party discussed this with Godfrey, Vladimir approached the group, with a look of confusion and almost joy on his face. He spoke much more confidently than he had before, and thanked the party for bringing his old master home. Reaching behind his half plate armor, he removed the platinum holy symbol that the party had seen him wearing before, and handed it to the players. With the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind finally in their possession, the party had acquired all the treasures from Madam Eva’s fortune-telling.
Standing in Argynvostholt’s courtyard, the party needed to decide if they were going to reactivate the silver beacon, which would very likely anger Strahd. Knowing the powerful affect the beacon would have on the people of Barovia, the party decide they want to relight the beacon, and make preparations for the attack that would surely follow. I hope you found this write-up interesting, if you want to read more feel free to check out my other resources for Curse of Strahd!