Session 12 : The Great Escape

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"So, it's decided. There is no choice. Support a madman or a thrall of Strahd." Serenity whispers to the group as they walk from the house of Lady Wachter.


"Things have become too dangerous. We nearly lost Watch to her hidden familiar. Who knows what other dark magic Wachter has. We need to get out, but I have to do this first, I have to know..."

Heading towards the stockyard the party turns the corner to find a crowd of people.

"A puppet show? Who would be on the streets entertaining at a time like this?", Serenity pushes past to get a better look. "Rictavio... this is perfect!"

"Now we will know whether he was the beast in the wagon, lets search it whilst we can", Serenity's face hardens and with a determined look she pushes through the crowd.

"Hoskgak... grab Destiny. She's still watching the puppet show and we need to move fast.", Serenity stares in disbelief at Destiny sitting in the front row of the show clapping. Destiny turns to Hoskgak and excitedly points at a galloping horse puppet as he lifts her over his shoulder.

The party enter the eerily quiet stockyard. Serenity glances across at the coffin seller's shop and shudders, but she does not slow down, marching straight to the carnival wagon at the back of the yard.

"I know this never goes well, but I think we should open it." The party approach the wagon. "Something is still inside, so it's not Rictavio...", Serenity looks to the others. "I need to know, the card said what we seek is within the wagon... We need to think of a plan.. Hoskgak, wait!"

Serenity leaps to the side and flips up to the roof of the wagon as Hoskgak, sword drawn, strides to the door and smashes the lock clear from the door. "You want to see inside, no problem, door is open".

Chaos. A huge saber-toothed Tiger bursts from the wagon and barges past the party, it looks around but does not attack. Then it sniffs the air and suddenly bounds off into the streets of Vallaki, closely followed by Destiny who seems to be trying to subdue it with magic.

A startled Serenity shakes herself out of her shock and leaps into the wagon to search. "Nothing... There's nothing in here, unless that Tiger was meant to bring us great knowledge, the cards are a lie..." She climbs out of the wagon and sits on the front. "Wait, there's something here, a compartment under the seat... It's filled with vampire fighting equipment, wooden steaks, holy water... if we had had these we could have beaten them... Where was Rictavio?? I will take what we can use to fight and leave him with enough for himself.", Serenity looks angrily through the secret stash. 

"There's a book in here with the crest of Strahd on the front, but it's illegible, it seems to be written in some kind of code. I need time to decipher it... This is it... this must be it...".

The party move away from the wagon and hide in the shadow of the town palisade to rest and examine this new book.

"Mistress says I must warn you, she is returning with Rictavio and that tiger creature.", Watch's voice screeches out of nowhere. "I keep forgetting we have an invisible imp following us around" thinks a startled Serenity.

Hoskgak walks off to find Destiny and Rictavio. Serenity keeps reading, fascinated by the book. "Ireena, I think I've translated some, the earlier pages give clues on how to decipher the later ones, it's like some kind of diary"

"Welcome back Mistress, so wonderful that you were not hurt.", Serenity could never tell from Watch's tone of voice whether there was any sincerity to anything the imp said. But she was relieved to see Hoskgak and Destiny return to the group unharmed.

"Hoskgak showed puppet man great strength. Showed him how easy lock was smashed. Then Puppet man says we keep book, says meet him at tower. Puppet man must be impressed", Hoskgak arrived back with Destiny. Serenity thought Hoskgak sounded rather proud of himself

"Just wait until you hear how I saved the town and the tiger!", Destiny was buzzing with excitement.

Serenity continued to read, only half listening to Destiny's tales of chasing the tiger and using her magic to convince Izek to let it go, before convincing Rictavio to help her.

"I am still angry we did not have these weapons when we needed them, but now at least we apparently have an ally and somewhere to go. We need to get out of here and now seems as good a time to go as any", Serenity spoke with purpose and a look of determination in her eyes.

"We can scale the wall. I have timed the guard patrols. I calculate we have just enough time between patrols for Destiny and I to climb to the top, we will lower a rope and first of all bring up Hoskgak, who can then help haul up Ireena as fast as possible. We will then lower Ireena, followed by Hoskgak down the otherside. If the next patrol arrives, Destiny, you can put them to sleep and we will climb down to join the others. It will be tricky, but if we time it right we should be able to get out without anyone getting hurt, but we will have to move fast and work together", Serenity looks at the others to check for agreement.

"Or I could just make them invisible and they can walk out?", Destiny had been very much enjoying listening to Serenity's plan, but it did sound like a lot of work.

So the party escapes Vallaki and sets off to meet Rictavio.


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