Session 3 : A Lady in trouble
It seemed as if hours had passed in that mud and mist. Strangely, what had before seemed an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere, was now surrounded by a dark and pale town still in the middle of nowhere. A mysterious man emerged from the mist towards them. He presented him and briefly chatted with Destiny and Serenity, Hoskgak was just getting a grasp of his senses and surroundings while they talked. As he came, he went, and little interest had the Half-orc on that matter. No arena fight had prepared him for this adventure, what sort of trick would be next? He readied himself to walk into the town. Perhaps a little bit of comfort lay ahead.
The town was narrow and old. The people walking and passing by were pale in colour, and pale in vitality: even a couple of talking cats in their streets didn't startle them. The villagers were so pallid, their mood so grey, that Hoskgak could only think they were made out of charcoal, with some sort of magic. He landed with his companions on a bigger road, and Hoskgak noticed a Raven with blue feather tips, he pointed at the bird and the cats murmured and started following it. He wasn't surprised he quickly became the last of the pack. The cats started following the Raven across the town and the bird landed on top of a tavern. Excellent, Hoskgak thought, at last some sausages and chicken, a hot meal was all he could think of. Destiny and Serenity didn't think much and stepped into the Inn. Before Hoskgak followed in their steps, he looked up and noticed the name has been changed on its sign. Instead of Blood of the Vine, the 'f' was actually scratched on top of another name: Blood on the Vine. Whatever the new name, it was still an awful one.
Inside, Destiny was mysteriously curious looking at herself in a mirror. She asked Hoskgak wether they were looking well. The Half-orc glanced quickly to their image and saw nothing of importance. Certainly there were more intriguing things inside that Inn than a mirror. The chatty man, apparently named Ismark, was talking to Serenity, so Hoskgak thought this would be a good opportunity to sit and land a proper meal. As he wondered about sausages and chicken, the chatty man described something interesting: his sister needed help. A series of events were taking place and people were visiting their place to send notes and trying to convince her to leave. Ismark apparently wanted their help to escort her to a safer town, out of that harrasment. The chatty man stood up, and invited them to his place as he moved towards the exit.
Destiny and Serenity seemed confident about chasing that story, a Lady in trouble - he thought. It didn't seem more convincing to Hoskgak than a baby in danger.
The food at the inn was disappointing, but it was better than nothing. The group decided to spend the night there, after a chat with the owners, three women sitting at the back in colourful clothing.
The following morning Hoskgak got yet another surprise. Destiny had summoned a tiny flying pet during her shift! Just right what was needed, like the dog wasn't enough! On their way to the chatty man's house, Destiny and Hoskgak luckily managed to buy some pies from an old lady. They were delicious and filling and made Hoskgak feel stronger immediately.
Once again, the cats were first to enter the house, quite a big one, and slightly more opulent than the rest of the town. As he entered, Hoskgak looked up to the stairs and straightened his back. A beautiful lady was walking down the stairs, nothing Hoskgak has seen before, a combination of raw beauty and confidence. She wasn't wearing normal outfits for a lady, she had some sort of armour and the confidence of a fighter. Any doubt about helping her vanished from Hoskgak, that creature was something worth fighting for, no wonder his brother was so protective of her. The chatty man invited them for lunch, but not before asking them to pay a visit to the local chaman, they had a burial pending, and the chaman wasn't paying attention to their requests. As Hoskgak later understood, the Lady didn't want to leave the town without having a proper burial to her father.
Resolved to fulfil the chatty man, and the Lady wishes, the group approached the church. Everything was a mess, debris and pieces of wood were everywhere. From below the floor there was a constant scream and shouting - "I'm starving, father". The chaman was doing his ritual at the back of the church. What sort of mad man would do a ritual on those conditions? Whatever he was trying to achieve could not succeed. Rain would not come, he would not heal... that chaman was losing his senses. Fortunately Hoskgak had equally matching chatty capabilities in his party and Serenity managed to convince the chaman to perform the burial the following day. Those cats were resourceful, it was good to get something in return without fighting or intimidating people. With that agreement, the party left the church ignoring all the shouting and screaming.
Back at the house the meal was ready, and the party gave the news to their hosts. Hoskgak was quite nervous, but he managed to hide that to the rest of the table. Glancing at the Lady, he noticed how her and her brother operated the cutlery. Far from his comfort zone Hoskgak deliberately took his time to learn how the table were using those pieces of metal. During lunch they gathered more information about the town and its mysteries. Lancelot, the dog following Destiny, belonged to Gertrude. Ismark told them where her family was living and the rumours around her disappearance. A black carriage with black horses took her away. Only one person in the area had such elegant means of transport, the Lord and Master of Barovia himself. Not interested on that sort of chat, Hoskgak turned to the Lady, her name was Ireena Kolyana, and apparently she noticed he had some fighting skills. Ireena asked Hoskgak if he could teach her some movements. Once the lunch was over, he followed her outside of the house to show their skills. The Lady had some amateurish stance and unpractical footwork, but there was some potential, nothing Hoskgak couldn't deal with, but she managed to impress him as much as she was praising the Half-orc skills.
At the tavern, three Vistani women chatted at a table, looking at them and requesting their attention. Quickly Hoskgak understood the mission of the cats was chatting with everyone. Perhaps they wanted to write some books about it, so many questions, about the mist, the Vistani tribe, the black horse and carriage, no detail escaped Serenity. Hopefully she would write about Hoskgak, perhaps that was how Andralos got his fame. That cat had an eye for details, same as Destiny had it for curiosity and shiny things. What a duo!
As usual, nothing comes free, so they requested that Hoskgak go and force a thug to pay his duties. Convinced he would be able to force his way on a bully, Hoskgak moved towards his table. Destiny, curious as usual, moved alongside. The thug didn't react nicely at first. He stood up, and Hoskgak noticed he was taller and apparently stronger than him. Things were getting tense and the Half-orc strengthened, ready to deliver a blow, putting on his killer face, narrowing his eyes and showing his battle scars, all that worked before at the arena. As the thug readied to get out of the table to fight, he leaned towards Destiny and she whispered something to him. Hoskgak noticed how the thug relaxed and confused, ignored the Half-orc and went straight to the Vistani woman, leaving 10 gold pieces on the table. Quite likely Destiny has told the thug how Hoskgak had dealt with people like him before.
Proud of his contribution to the party, and convinced that Destiny was relieved to have him by her side, Hoskgak finally went to the room they had rented. He felt exhausted and, ignoring shifts, fell onto the bed, his last thought on Ireena and her footwork.
"Come closer, come closer, I cannot read you being so far" Hoskgak was in the middle of a forest, there was a tent and a camp. An old woman was sitting on a cushion with a deck of cards in her hands. "Come Clos... Hoskgak woke up. What a strange dream, he remembered colours, Ireena and being happy, that sudden appearance of the old woman was disturbing. While moving downstairs to eat some eggs, he kept wondering what that woman meant in all this. On the way to the funeral, Hoskgak felt again the unsuitability of the breakfast, and topped it up with another slice of invigorating pie.
The funeral went as any funeral can go, the hole was there waiting for the cage. Hoskgak thought - we all come alone and go alone - nothing remarkable other than no-one of the villagers wishing to see that man off. For having such an opulent house, he might not have been as regarded as he thought. As soon as the chaman finished his task, a figure approached from the forest. He moved politely and skilfully, he must be an important person, but not so important since he was working as a messenger. He said something to Destiny and Serenity and delivered a note to Destiny, addressed to Ireena.
As that man mounted his horse and disappeared envolved in the mist, Hoskgak took a look at his surroundings. What is this madness, why such an important person was taking young ladies from the village to never see them again. Something strange was happening in this land, wether he will be recognised as Andralos or not, started to do not be as important as to save the Lady, Ireena, from that awful place.
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