2.1 : Ashes of the fallen house

The air was filled with ash from the collapsing house. The mists were slightly less thick, though, and through the greyness Destiny could just about hear the sound of someone walking, someone carrying something metallic that was making a regular clinking sound.

Eventually, she made out a straight, tall human walking towards them. A long rapier clinked on his belt. After everything that had just happened, Destiny was wary, but she was far too exhausted to do anything about it.

"Oh dear," the man said when he was nearby. "You went in the house. Are you okay? Didn't you see the sign?"

"The sign?"

He seemed to search around, then finally pointed to Destiny. "This one."

Destiny looked down and realised she was sitting on a large fallen plaque with red painted words half-obscured by mud.

DEATH HOUSE (CURSED). DO NOT TALK TO THE CHILDREN.

Destiny swore.

“Well, I'm glad you lived to tell the tale. We could use people like you right now.” He took the small group in. "Just three? Did you lose someone in there?"

“Lose? No one. There was just the three of us. Actually, we found this dog also, his name is Lancelot." Hearing its name being called, the little dog looked up at Destiny. The man knelt down and scratched the mangy creature on the head. "Hey you," he said. The dog seemed receptive, as if he knew the man.

"I don’t mean to be rude, errr Mr whatever-your-name-is, but how is anyone suppose to read a sign that is on the floor?”

The man stood up again, sucked his teeth, and shook his head. “Damn wolves. They must have pulled the sign down again. Forgive my manners, name is Ismark Kolianovich, son of Kolian Indirovich. Welcome to Barovia, I guess.” Ismark smiled. Motioning Destiny to shift aside, he took the sign and placed it next to the ruins of the house, and hammered it back into the earth with a rock.

“You must have lots of questions, and they will be answered. But I'll give you some time to pull yourselves together. I'll wait for you in the tavern. You can't miss it, it's right in the middle of town, opposite the general store. I'll buy you a bottle. Do come.”

With that, he left. Destiny tried to stand up and follow right away, but she was in fact still exhausted. She needed a bit of time to catch her breath. She lay on her back. Just a little longer. Five minutes. Maybe ten. Then move.

The good news was that the Angel had clearly chosen two very capable companions to aid her in the quest. “You will need them,” she recalled the beautiful Angel saying and she could see why. While Destiny found herself unleashing devastating magics through the simple waving of her hands and some incantations, it had also become abundantly clear in today’s fights that none of her magic would do much good if she was swamped by enemies on all sides.

This was where her two companions came in. Their incredible fighting skills and exceptional bravery meant they were always upfront engaging the enemy giving Destiny the precious seconds needed to prepare her spells. This made them precious, valuable allies on her Quest.

What was also clear was that her magic was getting stronger, fast. She could feel her veins pulsing with more and more magic as the days went by. Parts of her brain, or perhaps her tail, were unlocking knowledge she had been unaware of. She knew more now than before she entered that cursed house. Having not been blessed by Angels before, she didn’t know what to expect, but it was unsettling none-the-less to feel yourself changing from within. And she swore both Hoskgak and Serenity appeared stronger as the day went by. For instance she saw Hoskgak withstanding deadlier and deadlier blows. By the time Hoskgak took out that comically blood thirsty door in that house, he had blood dripping from wounds that would have killed most Tabaxi back home, yet he continued on as if they were mere scratches. Equally, she witnessed Serenity deal faster and faster punches and kicks, matched with a kind of deadly precision that seem to surprise most enemies she struck. And Serenity was clearly drunk during the entire encounter! How anyone could move let alone fight in that kind of drunken state was beyond her. “Yes, my Angel’s power must be at play here”, concluded Destiny.

But something wasn’t adding up.

The magical mist had clearly guided them to that house. Perhaps the wolves took down the sign, perhaps it was divine intervention. Initially Destiny thought her Angel brought them here to save the baby or to lift the curse of this house. But they could do none of this before being chased out of the house. Curiously it was the same magical mist that pushed them into triggering the events that caused the collapse of the house and a narrow escape.

Perhaps neither saving the baby nor lifting the curse was the purpose. Perhaps... what mattered was the information they learned in the house.

Something truly evil had happened there. From what they could make out, the husband and wife ran some sort of cult that involved human sacrifice. Most disturbingly the wife seemed to have performed the ultimate sacrifice by killing her own husband's infant (if bastard) son on an altar. The husband had hung himself in despair. Adding to the tragedy, they left their two other children to starve to death in a locked room. It was all just so... gruesome.

Most curiously, whilst the events that had happened there were undoubtedly tragic, it seemed that the house itself had been imbued with a deep malevolence, attracting them in, trying to trap them in the basement and attempting to kill them on their way out! What, or who, had made the house sentient?

Yet the thing that peaked Destiny's curiosity the most was the cryptic note they found in the secret family treasure room on the second floor. It revealed that somehow the couple's ungodly activities brought this evil being named Strahd into the world. Maybe they had done that for her?

“Who,” Destiny wondered, “is this Strahd? And what am I supposed to do with him?” Her long white tail twitched at the thought.

Lancelot jumped curled up besides her in the mud. Odd how this little scrawny dog found at the house became so attached to her. Was finding Lancelot part of the grand plan also? The dog wagged its tail at Destiny.

Ismark better have some answers.