Ox ---> Tiger --->Rabbit --->Dragon --->Snake Campaign Session #180

 

Vasilka and the Abbot Leave the Abbey of St. Markovia

 

 

Session 180- A Return to Barovia Part 30

5/24/2025

• Shelby casts Augury on the question of attacking the Abbot.  Base 

  chance + Shelby’s level = 79%.  The secret DM roll was 29% and 

  the determination of the result was WOE.  With that knowledge, 

  Rams choose not to attack the Abbot and instead ask him if he would 

  like to bring Vasilka to Castle Ravenloft to wait for Strahd and hold 

  the wedding there.  The trip will include a stopover at the Wizard of 

  Wines.

• The Abbot thinks this is a wonderful idea and wants to bring Clovin 

  along as well.  Rams arrange to meet the Abbot and Co at the gates 

  of Krezk in one hour.

• While walking down to the village, Tim and Fecus ask the raven 

  creature, Rabe Voron, if their plan of action is a good idea or not.  

  Rabe Voron’s reply is “You’ve jumped out of the frying pan and into 

  the fire.”  It then determines that Rams don’t need it at this time and 

  collapses itself back into the red and purple gems.

• Back at Anna and Dmitri Krezkova’s cottage, Rams speak to Anna 

  whose spirits are much improved by her son’s Ilya’s return to a more 

  content state brought on by the skeletal cat that Fecus has given to 

  the family.  They say their goodbyes to Anna and go to wait at the 

  Krezk gate.

• The Abbot, Vasilka, and Clovin meet Rams at the gate and the group 

  proceed to the Wizard of Wines.

• At the turn off from the road to the Wizard of Wines driveway, Rams 

  encounter 2 shifty young men that appear to be Vistani.  Drasha and 

  Ezmerelda yell at the men in a language no one else understands.  

  The men yell back a little, then they take off down the road to the 

  north.

• The shouting draws the attention of Stockholm, the former Druid (#4) 

  that Rams took mercy on and allowed to live and stay at the winery.  

  Stockholm is excited to see his old “friends” and leads them to the 

  main house where lunch was about to be served.  Stockholm 

  mentions that the young couple sent from Krezk to assist in rebuilding 

  the winery are getting married next week.

• Davian, the Martikov family elder, sees Rams and yells obscenities at 

  them from a second story window.  His daughter, Stefania, steps out 

  on the veranda and welcomes the party.  She leads them into the 

  house and up to the family dining room for a huge home-cooked 

  luncheon.  Gugula asks Stefania if Stockholm is a good worker.  

  Stefania replies that he has been quite useful in the vineyard 

  especially.  Gugula asks Tim to cast Enlarge on her, then she 

  disappears to go find Stockholm for some private time;)

• Clovin plays some beautiful music after lunch.  

• The party muses about their recent experiences.

• Shelby is settled into her duties as a Cleric of Tiamat, but she is 

  distracted and distant.

• Fecus feels like the party is getting closer to eradicating Strahd.  He 

  feels a little foggy and strangely connected to Barovia.

• Tim is feeling hopeful to have allied with the Abbot, but is concerned 

  about the fallen angel’s mental stability.

• Semyon reveals after a few cups of wine that he was married once, 

  but his wife left him because he was always drunk.  He still seems 

  bitter about it.

• Drasha wishes that her brother was still alive.

• Ezmerelda thinks the 2 Vistani men encountered earlier might be 

  trouble later down the road.

• The Abbot asserts that it has been a beautiful day with wonderful 

  new friends.  He’s pleased that the association hasn’t been marred 

  by violence.  He asks Tira to say a prayer to the Morning Lord.

• Tira Jarvie says a prayer to the Morning Lord.  She then asks the 

  Abbot if he ever thinks about having the Abbey of St. Markovia 

  restored to its former glory.

• Victor tells the party that he was formerly married, and his wife left 

  him.

• Fritigern has been stranded in Barovia for 2 years and misses his 

  wife and 2 children.

• Yevgeni and Szoldar wish they had had time to skin the Dire Wolves.

• Gugula arrives back at the table, chugs a large amount of wine, 

  then shrinks back to normal size and extra drunkenness.

• Clovin was afraid to leave the Abbey and the village of Krezk, but 

  thinks today wasn’t so bad.

• Party intends to spend the night at the Wizard of Wines guest 

  cottages.

6/1/25 Perchance Prompt A mad angel masquerading as a young handsome abbot accompanies a beautiful young woman in a wedding dress to a small village palisade.

Nostalghia* Is A Foreign Country.

 

 

 

 Nostalghia* Is A Foreign Country.

     (Do you have your passport stamped?)

  

  

File this under projects that took longer than I ever anticipated.  What am I 

talking about?  When I started my blog a DECADE ago, one of the goals I had was 

posting my campaign notes from the Year of the Goat Campaign that I began running 

in early 2015.  What prevented me from getting these game notes typed up and 

posted at the time?  Inertia, and an insecurity regarding running a one on one game, 

which felt weird to write about at the time.

This was primarily a one on one campaign I ran for my fiance (Vlasic and 

Brother Barton’s player), but I picked up 2 other players (Flavius and Bloodfart’s 

players) for a couple of sessions later in the campaign.  The campaign went on 

hiatus in 2020 as we both had a busy year, work on top of loss really slowed me 

down creatively.  Luckily we started a new campaign with a good friend over 

Thanksgiving weekend of 2021 (Flavius’ player) and that is the Ox—>Tiger—>Etc 

Campaign that I’ve posted the notes of the last several years.  It’s in the same 

campaign world, so I could reuse locations, NPCs, and lore.  And this current 

campaign has spawned two separate one-on-one games with a few of the players’ 

hirelings (Danika in the Ctyri Ctvrt Chronicles and Boy in Star Notch Stories).  It 

was satisfying to go back over the Year of the Goat Campaign notes to see how 

both my campaign world and my DM skills and style have evolved.  Starting the 

YotG Campaign in 2015, we were moving away from New World of Darkness 

(Chronicles of Darkness, after a rebrand) gameline Changeling: the Lost.  I was 

still adapting from our more story game style of gameplay, to Lamentations of the 

Flame Princess system.  This will be reflected in the more narrative presentation 

of YotG Campaign’s session notes.  I started worldbuilding quite slowly for sessions 

1-17, but after that I kicked into high gear for a few years.

The initial post is up and it is over on my Substack.  This series chronicling the 

original campaign will be exclusive to my Substack and free for everyone.  Look for 

an actual play session post of the Year of the Goat Campaign (original campaign) 

every Sunday morning (my time zone, USA Pacific).  For those of you who have 

been enjoying the Ox—>Tiger Campaign, Ctyri Ctvrt Chronicles, and Star Notch 

Stories, those will be posted to both here and the Substack.  Thank you to all of my 

readers over here!  I would love to see you over on Substack where there is some 

enhanced functionality for me as the “creator”.  And maybe more interactivity for 

you as well;-)  Either site you read on, I appreciate your time and energy in reading 

my blog, whether you be bot or human!  Catch you on the flipside.

*Every Andrei Tarkovsky movie is an influence on me.  I’m due for a rewatch 

of Nostalghia.

 

Ox ---> Tiger --->Rabbit --->Dragon --->Snake Campaign Session #179

 

Ritual Summoning Rabe Voron

 

 

Session 179- A Return to Barovia Part 29

5/17/2025

• Anna Krezkova takes Rams to her home to meet her husband 

  Dmitri and son Ilya.

• Dmitri and Ilya are seated in front of the fireplace.  The father 

  smokes a pipe and the son is deathly pale and wrapped up in 

  many blankets.

• Anna explains that Ilya died a few days before she met Rams 

  in Vallaki.  The Abbot promised her and Dmitri that he would 

  resurrect Ilya if they acquired a wedding dress for Vasilka.  

  Anna bought the wedding dress in Vallaki and returned home to 

  give it to the Abbot who was as good as his word and resurrected 

  Ilya.  Ilya came back from the grave not quite the happy-go-lucky 

  young man he was before his illness.  He’s unable to get warm no 

  matter how big Dmitri builds the fire in the fireplace or the piles of 

  furs and blankets his mother piles on him.

• Ilya tells Shelby (cleric of Tiamat) that she can’t hear her deity’s 

  voice here and he tells Tira (cleric of the Morning Lord) that the 

  Morning Lord won’t help them with the Abbot.

• Fecus gives his skeletal cat to Ilya to see if that improves the 

  melancholy mood of the mayor’s cottage.  Victor pipes up that he 

  indeed makes the best skeletal cats.  The cat cheers up Ilya, but 

  his father Dmitri is horrified, begins sobbing, and leaves the room.  

  Rams ask Anna if there is a good spot to create their effigy for the 

  ritual to summon/create another creature powered by the red and 

  purple gems.  She says they may use the area behind her cottage 

  and any wood or construction materials.

• Fecus chooses to create a raven shaped single effigy after some 

  debate with the Magic Users whether a single or double effigy should 

  be created.

• The Magic Users (Tim, Victor, and Ezmerelda) complete the ritual and 

  a giant metallic red and crystal purple raven emerges from the effigy.  

  It is telepathically connected to Tim, Victor, Fecus, and Shelby.  It 

  inquires where the enemy resides and follows the party when they 

  begin the climb up to the abbey.

• Up at the rusty screeching gate, they encounter Otto and Zygfrek, the 

  mongrelfolk that guard the gate.  Tim and Fecus are polite and inform 

  the guards that they are wedding guests that would like to meet with 

  the Abbot.  The 2 mongrelfolk lead the party into the courtyard.  The 

  Abbot comes out to greet them and invites Rams into the main hall.  

  The Raven sends a telepathic message that there is a creature hiding 

  in the well and goes over to it to keep an eye on things while Rams 

  proceed into the main hall.

• The Abbot introduces Rams to Vasilka, a beautiful, but clumsy 

  Flesh Golem.

• Rams ask when the wedding is scheduled and the Abbot replies that 

  whenever the groom, Strahd, arrives.

• After some more questions from the party, the Abbot reveals that 

  Strahd cannot be killed permanently within Barovia.  He’s hoping 

  that marrying Vasilka will be the miracle that will heal the devil Strahd 

  and his cursed land.

• The Raven’s next telepathic message is that the Abbot is completely 

  mad, in case no one figured that out on their own.  It also says that a 

  fight with the Abbot, who is really a fallen angel, might go very badly 

  for the team.

• The Abbot gives Rams a short tour of a few parts of the abbey that 

  aren’t used to house the most out of control mongrelfolk.  They meet 

  Clovin, another mongrelfolk, who is the source of the beautiful violin 

  music filtering down to the main hall from the loft above.

• After the tour, the Abbot tells Rams he will contact them when Strahd 

  arrives (without giving any timeframe for when that could be) and 

  thanks them for visiting, clearly indicating that the visit is over, and 

  asks Otto and Zygfrek to escort Rams to the gate.

• Session ends with the players debating on what to do… attack the 

  Abbot or come back later.

   

   

  6/1/25 Perchance Prompt is the pink text bullet point from above. 

Ox ---> Tiger --->Rabbit --->Dragon --->Snake Campaign Session #178

 

Dire Wolf Near Raven River Bridge

 

Session 178- A Return to Barovia Part 28

5/10/2025

• Tim and Fecus make their way to the Vallaki Temp Service and talk to 

  the administrator about who is available to hire for adventuring.  They 

  decide to hire the following folks:

• Ezmerelda D’Avenir, Vistani Magic-User

• Semyon Highdoor, Dwarf

• Fritigern Neustadt, Human Fighter

• Tira Jarvie, Human Cleric of the Morning Lord

• The Vallaki Temp Service administrator informs Tim and Fecus their 

  new adventurers can be ready and meet them at the Sunset Gate.

• Tim and Fecus spend the wait interval at the Blue Water Inn where 

  Danika busts out the Spruce Tip Spirits to fortify the leaders of Rams 

  for their next mission.

• Everybody in the party, except Drasha who will be near the 

  Vistani Camp, assembles at the Sunset Gate and formal introductions 

  are made.  They learn Fritigern came from outside of Barovia and is 

  looking for his way home.  Tim and Fecus assert that the likelihood of 

  that is great if he continues adventuring with Rams.  Semyon is very 

  gruff and possibly half in the crock, already.  Tira appears to be quite 

  competent, despite an OCD display of counting and checking over her 

  saddle bag’s contents.  Ezmerelda hangs back, watching Tim and 

  Fecus carefully, but she is forthcoming about her spell abilities when 

  Tim and Victor ask her if she can handle working a ritual with them to 

  create a Mirielle or equivalent.

• Rams pick Drasha up as they pass the Vistani camp.

• The ride west is uneventful until just before the Raven River Bridge, 

  where 4 Dire Wolves attack the party.  The vicious beasts do some 

  damage to some party members and their mounts, but in the end are 

  killed.  The last one is pinned to the ground by a bolt from Fecus’ 

  crossbow.

• They make the final approach to the gates of Krezk and are welcomed 

  by the young guards who are stationed at the guard towers above the 

  gate.  

  Anna Krezkova comes to greet Rams in person.

• 4 Dire Wolves killed = 800 XP

• Tim and Fecus each receive = 267 XP

• Gugula and Shelby each receive = 133 XP 

   

   

  5/16/25 Perchance Prompt dire wolves running out of the forest to 

  attack, horror concept art

   

   *Even with the horror concept art tag for the Perchance Prompt,

  the AI didn't turn out very scary Dire Wolves. Jolly canine bias

  built in, who knows, lol;-)