A Plague Born of Blood

Disclaimer: This includes spoilers for Curse of Strahd so don’t read if you don’t want to know.

We exited the tower of van Richten still reeling from all that we had learned. As we exited we saw a cart off to the side of the tower. It was ornate and colorful like the travois of the Vistani. Our Dragonborn Sorcerer, Mithra, tried sneaking inside to search for loot and managed to find quite a few things before a trap started to trigger due to their weight. They just barely managed to get out when the cart exploded. 

We continued on our way to the Brewery. When we arrived at the Brewery we saw hundreds of twig blights and druids. They were everywhere! We managed to kill quite a few as we made our way to the doors. We got inside but the twig blights just kept on coming. We had to barricade the doors and windows, trapping ourselves inside. Many were-crows were also trapped inside, lining the rafters. With nothing else to do we investigated the brewery and found 3 evil druids using a nasty looking staff to mix something in vats. We correctly assumed that they were poisoning the ale being made so we fought them off. Once we had managed to kill the three druids, Malachi the Barbarian broke the nasty staff over his knee. 

Almost immediately we noticed that the incessant buzzing sound made by the twig blights was gone. We made our way outside and all the blights were gone. Our Paladin, Wick, used his magic to purify the ale of the poison. We chased after the left over druids and followed them up a hill behind the brewery. We were too far behind them and they were able to get in a circle around the tree. We reached them too late. By the time we got to where they encircled this gnarled old tree, the same tree impaled all the druids and soaked up their blood. It started to uproot itself and began shuffling towards Valaki. We had to try and take it down as it’s branches shot exploding seeds at us all while still moving! It was insane and super fun. We finally killed it and it sizzled away into the air just like a vampire. We stuffed the broken staff into the box of holding we had acquired a little while ago and made our way back to Valaki. 

A little ways away from the brewery we met up with its owners. The aging grandfather and patriarch of the family, Davien Markatov,  explained what had happened. He also let us know that during this attack over a dozen were-crows vanished and have not been heard from since. He asked us to go back to Valaki and ask his son, the tavern owner, about the missing crows and if they somehow made it to town. We agreed and left them to care for their wounded as we made our way back. 

We arrived at Valaki. There were still weird guys in robes watching and taking notes but we ignored them and made our way to the tavern. Upon arriving and letting them know what had transpired, the owner pulled us aside. He let us know that his wife had also vanished after heading to Krezk for medicine. Krezk was a city to the northwest of Valaki. There was an abbot there that also purported to keep the city safe. We let him know we would inquire about his wife at the other town since we were heading that way anyway. We left town at night thinking to get a head start on the various searches we had going on. We had to find Irina and her brother Ismark the Lesser, and the Baron and his family and now we also had to try and find the wife of a were-crow innkeeper.

We knew we had to leave town soon but Fiona Watcher was still a problem and more and more people were being reported missing in a town that was supposed to have at least some protection. We headed to her house to confront her. Instead of finding the beautiful house we found a dilapidated ruin. We located her in the bowels of the crumbling house and began to fight. She was a super powerful warlock and managed to turn her pseudodragon into a wyvern to fight us. The wyvern attacked but was hindered by the enclosed space and Milo the Rogue managed to get on it’s back. The wyvern shot up through the floors and roof with Milo hanging on to him the whole way. We took the fight outside to help Milo and eventually killed her and her pet off, freeing the town of her influence. We left the tavern owner incharge of what few people were left and told them to stay together before leaving. 

On our way out we hugged the edge of the lake that lined the northern wall of the city. We saw a fisherman out on the water and noticed that he was trying to throw something into the water in a sack. The sack was moving. My Bard/Warlock flew on her broom to stop the fisherman. He managed to toss it into the water but we got there just in time. We dragged a little girl out of the water and returned her to her grateful family. The Vistani King, her father, invited us to spend the night with them but we postponed as we had to leave. He told us we were always welcome at their fire and we were on our way.