The group made their way through the woods and reached the base of Yester Hill. It was a massive, tiered hill, hundreds of feet tall. A long trail wound up around it through dead trees and black cairn rocks. At its plateau a ring of tall stones and a massive tree could be seen silhouetted against the night sky as lightning struck the peak. Beyond the hill was an endless wall of fog.
The group found a small shrine at the base of the hill with a semicircle of three standing stones covered in moss. In the center was a small slab carved with strange symbols and runes. A single raven rested on the slab and cawed at the group beckoning them forward. They approached cautiously and McCoy heard a deep whisper carried on the wind, “Long have I waited for one who is worthy. Approach my monument so I may look upon you!”
McCoy asked if anyone else heard the voice, but no one had. He approached and the spectral figure of a wild-looking, muscular, human man rose up from the earth and materialized before them. The spirit looked something like the Wild Folk they’d fought on the road and at the Wizard of Wines. The spirit identified itself as Kavan the Bloody, former chieftain of Wild Folk one of the Forest People who honored the Rozana, the Ladies Three.
Kavan explained that in his day this land was known as Cerrunos and his people honored the Ladies Three: the Weaver, the Seeker, and the Huntress, nature goddesses who were the Land. Later his land was invaded by men known as Delmoreans who called this land Delmor. His people fought with them, but they settled in their towns on the plains and left the Wild Folk to the mountains, forest, and swamps and entered an uneasy truce. Later the Devil Strahd and his armies invaded conquering both the Delmoreans and the Wild Folk. He renamed this land Barovia, but to Kavan the land will always be Cerrunos!
After Strahd conquered the valley, he came to the holy sites of the Ladies Three and defiled them and stole their power for himself. Now Kavan’s descendants betray their traditions and worship Strahd instead! Kavan is disgusted by their weakness and dishonor and refers to them as the Faithless. Kavan recognizes that the group are allies of one of the clans who still honor the Ladies Three and that they have aided them against the Faithless.
The group isn’t sure who he is talking about at first, but then realize Kavan is referring to the Martikovs. They agree and identify themselves as friends of the Martikovs. Kavan acknowledges McCoy as the strongest among them who burns with an inner, seething rage! He calls upon McCoy to act as his successor and take up his blood spear against the Faithless, purge them from Yester Hill, and disrupt their dark rituals freeing the land from corruption. The other members of the group try to speak to Kavan, but he is focused solely on McCoy as his chosen champion. He asks McCoy to dig up his grave and retrieve his blood spear from beneath the shrine.
McCoy retrieves the ancient spear and feels the life-draining power within it. He agrees to use it to bring honor to Kavan’s people and purge the hill of their evil. With that, the spirit fades away, and the group make their way up the hill carrying torches.
They try to keep out of sight traveling through the darkness, but their group is spotted by a patrol of Wild Folk. Five male warriors led by a female druid attack them! The warriors move in quickly and Riley rushes to meet them while Johan and McCoy hold the line. Trying to stay by Riley’s side, Lancelot is injured badly rushing between two of the warriors. The druid closes on Johan and McCoy and causes the ground beneath their feet to tremble and be upturned! Johan is knocked to his feet. Riley and Lancelot work together to defeat one group of warriors while the others deal with the remainder and Bronwyn killed the druid with her magic.
The group rests up and tends to their wounds. They manage to get Lancelot patched up and Riley again advises him to be careful and not take risks for her. They try to keep a lower profile heading up the mountain by dousing their torches and having Riley use her hooded lantern instead and relying on the night vision of Bramo and Bronwyn. Their tactics are unsuccessful as the group makes too much noise with all of their gear, and they find themselves facing another patrol.
The group is quickly surrounded by berserker warriors who rush to attack them with reckless abandon! Lancelot is able to hold them back with his furious barking which startles the warriors. Riley, Johan, and McCoy form a defensive line to protect the spellcasters allowing them to fall back and use their magic. The berserkers try to swing around their flanks, but the group holds formation with Riley and Lancelot swinging left to advance on the enemy.
The enemy druid manages to penetrate their line with her unnatural speed and casts a thunderous explosion within their ranks! The group is knocked back including Bramo’s arcane cannon, but the tactic leaves the druid surrounded by the group and they quickly dispatch her. McCoy finds that his new blood spear fills him with the life force of those he slays with it drawing their last breaths into him as renewed vigor.
The group decides that following the road up the hill is too dangerous; they cannot face all of the patrols surrounding the hill. They decide instead to scale the hill using ropes. Tying some of their ropes together, McCoy uses his unnatural strength to scale the face of the hill and lower the rope, secured by a piton, to his companions below. They climb the rope and make their way up to the third tier avoiding any Wild Folk patrols.
They repeat the process to the fourth tier, but Elora struggles to make it up the rope, exhausted from the climb so far. She instead ties the rope around her, and the group is able to haul her up the remaining 100 feet to the hill’s plateau.
They find there a wide ring of towering black stones in a field of dead grass. Lightning strikes the black stones sporadically, illuminating a tall, wicker statue of a man in a long cape with fangs. The statue is packed with black earth. Cautiously approaching the ring, they notice more of the berserker guards at the entrance. They decide to attack at a distance and lure out the warriors into the open with the spellcasters protected behind a line of melee fighters.
The plan works, and the berserkers fight their way across the field where they are cut down. As the group advances, they see more druids and berserkers inside the ring. A deep path is cut through the earth creating a series of forking paths beneath slopes of higher ground. The druids attack from the slopes while the berserkers face the group on the path. The group slowly advances, killing the guards at the entrance and making their way into the circle.
McCoy heads south up one of the slopes to finish off the remaining druid while Riley heads up the north slope. The rest of the group moves down the path between. Lancelot protests the separation from Riley, but she tells him to stay with the others and protect them. As they enter the circle, they male druids surrounding the wicker man statue and realize some sort of ritual is being performed which they must disrupt. Elora acts immediately and launches a bolt of fire at the wicker man. The statue is scorched by her attack, but she is disappointed that it does not catch fire due to the cold earth packed within it.
Elora’s attack draws the attention of all of the Wild Folk including their high druid, Svarog, a man with face painted like a skull wearing a helm with large antlers on it. It also alerts the Wild Folk’s guest, the vampire bride Volenta! She rushes down the path heading straight towards the group. Svarog casts a massive wall of fire which roars up behind her and blocks access to the ritual from the path. Riley tells the group she will work her way around from the plateau to circumvent the wall of fire.
Johan and Ireena stand around the bend as Volenta closes in on them. Lancelot rushes in front of Ireena to protect her. Volenta enters into melee with them silently, unfazed by Lancelot. Bramo quickly moved into position and unleashed magical fire attacks on her. She seized Bramo and sank her fangs into his neck, drinking his blood and draining out his life essence. As Johan and McCoy flanked her raining down attacks, Volenta cracked open one of her bone dolls which unleashed the tormented spirit held within. It’s traumatic screams tore through the minds of those nearby.
Elora made her way up the slope following Riley and Bronwyn, she targeted Volenta below her with rays of radiant light, searing the vampire! Bramo cast a spell of sanctuary on himself to protect himself from Volenta.
Svarog turned his attention to the approaching women on his flank, casting a spell which tore up the earth beneath Bronwyn and Elora. The broken earth shunted up at steep angles make it difficult for them to stand or walk over it and slowing their progress towards the ritual.
Volenta disappeared in the shadows during the chaotic melee and the group lost sight of her. Suddenly, she was on the slope behind Elora! She slashed with her claws and dropped her unconscious and bleeding on the ground. Then she sank her fangs into the unconscious Elora drinking her blood and nearly killing her!
Ireena was incensed and rushed up the slope to Elora’s side screaming at Volenta to, “get away from my sister, you bitch!” Volenta dodged her attack with unnatural reflexes, but the move left her open to a counterattack from Bronwyn! Ireena commanded her to “shoot this bitch!” and Bronwyn was happy to oblige, blasting Volenta with eldritch energy!
Riley, seeing Elora in danger, abandoned her advance on the ritual and rushed back to save her. She couldn’t get close enough to use her sword and drew her crossbow instead. She leveled it at Volenta as she ran and fired a crossbow bolt into her heart! Volenta dropped to the ground dead. Ireena helped Elora sit up as Bronwyn gave her a healing potion. Elora woke up confused and weak, and Ireena hugged her fiercely.
With Volenta dispatched, McCoy scrambled up the north slope to join Riley. As he approached the ritual, Svarog cast a spell to delay him. The entire circle was suddenly overgrown with plants and vines everywhere rising up from the dead grass to form a thick foliage. Everyone was stuck in thick growth forced to hack or burn their way through it to advance.
McCoy reached the druids the performing the ritual and managed to kill two of them, but Piddlewick was knocked from his shoulder in the battle. Killing the two druids failed to stop the ritual and the wicker man burst open revealing a twisted, black tree creature. At its heart was the green glow of the Martikov’s gem!
With the ritual completed, Svarog dropped the wall of fire and turned his attention on the group. He called down a sparkling beam of moonlight from the waning moon above them. McCoy and Piddlewick were both caught in the blast with Piddlewick breaking apart and falling to the ground unmoving!
The giant tree blight, Wintersplinter, turned its attention to McCoy and Riley. Long roots reached out and wrapped around them crushing and piercing them both. Bramo, Bronwyn, and Elora all too far away from the enemy launched their spells at the looming Wintersplinter, the only target they could easily see. The barrage of spells battered the creature inflicting heavy damage on it.
Johan, Riley, McCoy, and Ireena all fought their way through the plant growth trying to get closer to the druids and Wintersplinter. Johan used the power of his goddess to step through the mists and appear beside Wintersplinter. He hacked away at the tree with his greatsword felling the creature and revealing the Martikov’s gem in the splintered remains.
The other druids joined in with Svarog and unleashed moonbeams and gouts of fire at the approaching group. The moonbeams drop Riley and Johan leaving only McCoy to stand against the druids. Ireena and Lancelot rush to Riley’s side and stabilize her and then do the same for Johan.
The spellcasters moved to forward to have an angle on the battle and caught the remaining druids in a crossfire of spells. Bronwyn’s eldritch magic slew the high druid Svarog! With only a pair of druids remaining, McCoy got close enough to launch his javelins at them. Pausing to remove them from a druid’s corpse he launched the final volley into the last druid and killed him.
The group collapsed after the difficulty battle, tending to their wounded and unconscious. Some of Granny’s pies were force fed to Riley and Johan in order to return them to consciousness. McCoy went to help his friend Piddlewick but found the puppet limp and lifeless. He clutched the body against him; the first casualty of Strahd’s evil.
Curse of Ravenloft 