 |
| Thermal Warden |
Session 207- A Return to Barovia Part 57; Lamordia 6
12/27/2025
Interlude at the Inn
Drasha, Ezmerelda, Fritigern, and Victor
You wake before dawn.
The inn is too quiet.
There is no wind at the windows. No clatter in the kitchen. No coughs or snores from the
other rooms. The hearth still burns, but the fire gives no warmth.
Someone moves in the hallway.
Not footsteps. Not quite. A pressure—like weight passing through air. The floorboards do
not creak. Doors open as it passes them, then close again on their own.
You smell cold iron. Wet stone. Ozone.
In a mirror behind the bar, you see it only because it does not belong there: a tall shape,
too narrow, walking with purpose, its outline broken by drifting snow that has somehow
found its way indoors.
No one looks at it.
The innkeeper pours a drink he does not remember preparing and sets it on the counter.
A patron steps aside without turning their head.
The shape crosses the common room, ascends the stairs, and continues upward—toward
a floor the inn does not have.
The fire brightens. Sound returns. Someone laughs, a little too loudly.
Outside, the snow has not been disturbed.
Whatever just passed through this place did not come for you.
It was simply passing through.
Savitch Residence — Investigation
Back at the residence of Dr. Savitch, Team Rams examine the Psycogs that attacked
them.
Fecus disarms the Death Echo mechanism after he and Tim successfully make
their Save vs. Device rolls.
Marching Order
(Recorded prior to cellar entry.)
Lisanne
Gugula
Fecus
Tim
Shelby
Cellar Findings
Tinker’s Tools
Alchemist’s Supplies
2× Potions of Psychic Resistance
1× Health Potion
First Floor
A half-burned note, presumably written by Dr. Savitch:
“My mind is my own.
My mind is not my own.
My mind is my own.
My mind is not…”
Second Floor — Bedroom
The room is in disarray. The walls are covered in numbers and symbols, undecipherable
to Tim and Fecus.
Fecus copies the markings into a notebook (possibly to show their Engineer back
in Goblin Hill).
Second Floor — Study
They find a book containing:
Schematics for Psycogs
A screed on consciousness
An address: Stainedwell Mortuary
Before leaving, the party places several of their business cards on the parlor fireplace
mantel.
The Inn — Thermal Wardens Arrive
Back at the inn, Thermal Wardens arrive looking for the group.
“By University authority, several of your associates have triggered a thermal
anomaly. You will accompany us for clarification.”
The air grows warm.
Not comfortable warm—sealed warm. Like a room with no exits.
Somewhere nearby, metal groans. Steam vents with a sharp, surgical hiss.
Then the sound comes: a measured cadence of iron on stone.
Around the corner steps a figure taller than any man. Its body is layered in pale ceramic
plates, cracked by glowing seams of orange light. Frost forms on the ground where its
feet do not touch, and nearby snow melts in perfect circles.
Its halberd hums, heat rippling the air around the blade.
A voice issues from nowhere specific—flat, calm, utterly uninterested in your survival:
“Thermal anomaly confirmed.”
“Containment protocol active.”
“Remain stationary.”
The construct tilts its head slightly, as if listening to something far away.
“Noncompliance will be corrected.”
Professor Stanley
Professor Stanley
Ludendorf University
Containment & Applied Ethics Wing
Tim, Fecus, Gugula, and Shelby return to the inn. The reunited party is escorted by the
Thermal Warden to Ludendorf University.
The door seals behind you with a soft hydraulic sigh.
The corridor beyond is immaculate: stone floors scored with brass channels, glass panels
revealing machinery humming with restrained violence. The air smells faintly of antiseptic
and ozone.
The Thermal Warden stops at a circular chamber. At its center stands a glass column filled
with slowly rotating frost and light. A lectern slides out of the wall. Papers already rest upon
it.
The construct speaks again:
“You are not detained.”
“You are contextualized.”
The Elise Dossier
Professor Stanley claims that the Follower from Neufurchtenburg passed through the inn
and psychically wiped the minds of everyone present.
He believes the Follower is Mordenheim’s handiwork. He decries Viktra Mordenheim as a
known pariah and expellee of several colleges.
He allows the party to read THE ELISE DOSSIER:
A single page. Burned at the edges.
Flesh Golem — Autonomous Emotional Recursion
Does not reject divine energy
Observed by non-Lamordian intelligence
Handwritten at the bottom:
If the Mountain learns to digest her, nothing here will remain discrete.
Professor Stanley’s Assessment
He explains:
Savitch violated containment ethics
Elise is now a vector
The party has been observed interacting with Mordenheim’s Follower
This makes them part of the experiment.
“If you encounter Dr. Savitch,”
the professor says, not looking at them,
“observe carefully what he believes he is saving.”
Session Wrap-up
They are released afterward.
Not absolved.
Not threatened.
Logged.
The party is issued a University Docket Number.
They decide to pursue the Stainedwell Mortuary lead and depart for its location.
1/1/26 Art by ChatGPT
