Standing in the pouring rain outside of Blinsky’s Toys is a crowd of curious townsfolk talking about the tiger inside. The group isn’t sure what do as they don’t want to escalate the situation and fear to provoke the tiger. Riley goes ahead to investigate by looking in one of the shop windows. Inside she sees a massive, sabre-tooth tiger. The tiger has knocked over several shelves. Piccolo the monkey is perched casually on the tiger’s back. Blinsky is up on the counter in the corner of the shop crying out for help.
Riley returns to the group and tells them what she saw. Several of them want to enter the shop with her, but she thinks a small group would be best. Bramo is impatient to enter while the group discusses what action to take and starts moving towards the door. The group eventually decides to send just Riley and Bramo inside with the rest of the group waiting outside to support them. Bramo casts a spell of sanctuary on the two of them before entering to hopefully slow down any of the tiger’s attacks.
The tiger growls and stirs at their approach. Bramo attempts make himself look non-threatening and speak calmly to the tiger. Riley steps forward to attempt to soothe the massive beast. She approaches gently and calmly, and the tiger settles down peacefully. The tiger sits in the center of the toyshop seemingly waiting for something. Piccolo does not appear agitated and greets Riley.
Blinsky is anything but calm, crying out to the heroes to help him. Bramo tells him to keep quiet because his voice is irritating and likely to set off the tiger. He starts circling the room, making his way towards Blinsky. He notices the tiger watching him carefully and tracking his movements. Bramo decides to back up carefully and circle around the other way with the toy shelves hiding him from the tiger.
Outside, Bronwyn steps forward to peer in the window. She is overcome as soon as she sees the tiger, receding into herself. Her eyes glaze over and become yellow, tiger’s eyes. Johan notices her posture stiffen and she seems to be in a daze. He approaches her to see if she is all right. She is clearly not conscious and stares past him with her tiger’s eyes.
While the group is waiting outside, they hear a commotion among the gathered townsfolk. They start muttering about “the Beast” and quickly get out of the way of an approaching guard contingent. The Vallaki guards are led by a tall, broad-shouldered man with a shaved head. A large axe is strapped to his back. His left arm is normal and rippling with muscle, but his right arm is a huge, red, demonic arm. The Hand on that arm is backwards with the palm facing outwards instead of inwards. This is the Captain of the Guard they have heard so much about, Izek Strazni.
Ireena steps forward to speak to the man and keep him from causing any trouble for her friends. She explains that they have the situation under control. They have calmed down the tiger and it is contained inside. There is no danger, and they should leave them to it. Ireena is diplomatic, but Izek is not convinced and pushes past her towards the shop. Elora intervenes and convinces him to stand down, but she lets slip that they do not have the tiger restrained and Izek insists on seeing what is going.
Izek moves towards the window and spins Bronwyn around to move her away from the window. When he turns her around, he sees her and is dumbstruck. He stands there unsure of what to do. Bronwyn snaps out of her daze and sees this strange man holding her. She recognizes him from his description and realizes this is the man she has been waiting to confront. She is surprised to realize he looks familiar to her. The man bears a strange resemblance to her father, but he is much too young to be her father perhaps only 30 years old.
Bronwyn asks him to unhand her immediately, but Izek is much too strong for her. He is stammering, “It’s you! You’re her! You’re real!” He picks her up easily and drags her away from the shop, telling her he needs to protect her. He hastily orders his guards to secure the area around the shop and makes an excuse to take Bronwyn away with him.
Johan shouts out to Verushka that the man is hurting “friend” Bronwyn. Verushka, confused, looks to Elora for confirmation who tells her to help Bronwyn. Verushka rushes forward and seizes Izek stopping him. The man snarls at her and looks prepared for violence. McCoy runs over to stop him. Ireena warns Elora that Verushka might get out of control in this situation. Elora goes to her side to calm her down.
In the middle of all this action, Bronwyn convinces Izek to just wait and let her friends handle the tiger before he goes rushing off with her as she does not want to leave her friends. Izek agrees to wait but brings her around the side of the shop surrounding her with his guards to keep her safe. Verushka goes over with her watching from in front of the group and asking if “friend is okay?” Bronwyn assures her that she is and asks her to stay calm.
Inside the shop, Bramo works his way behind the counter and over to Blinsky he helps the man down and ushers him into the back room. Bramo asks him where the doll is. Blinsky thinks he means the custom doll for Arrabelle and tells him it is ready. He asks if that’s why they are here, to pick up the doll, not to save him from the tiger. Bramo tells him no, but he’ll take the doll while he is here. He explains that he meant that month’s doll for Izek. Blinsky explains he already gave the doll to Izek a few days ago as the group has been away from the town for several days.
Bramo lets the man depart and in passing asks about Piccolo’s behavior and why the monkey is hanging out with the tiger. Blinsky says he doesn’t know and that the monkey was a gift. Riley calls out across the shop for Blinsky to stop, “A gift from who?” Blinsky explains that Piccolo was a gift from Marvolio and suddenly everything snaps into place for her.
Piccolo seems to want something from Riley, so she feeds him a peanut. Since the tiger is so docile, she risks reaching a hand out to scratch the big cat. The tiger allows her to scratch him. Outside in the rain, Lancelot presses his nose up against the window and watches with jealousy. Ireena heads into the shop to explain what is happening outside with Bronwyn and Izek. Elora follows in after her.
Outside, Izek explains to Bronwyn that he must keep her safe. He tells her he has been dreaming of her every night for the past 11 years. He has watched her grow over time, but she is exactly as he pictured her. Bronwyn asks him why he had the dolls made of her. He tells it was his way of making her real and trying to understand who she is.
Bronwyn is disturbed by the conversation and trying to find a way out of there. She motions to Verushka standing anxiously outside the circle of guards. She implores Izek to let her friend stand with her, so she doesn’t get upset. Izek agrees to let her into the circle and Verushka calms down.
While they are standing there waiting, Marvolio and Wyssilka arrive. Marvolio sees Bronwyn is in danger and rushes over to comically introduce himself to Izek. Izek is annoyed by him and tells him to get out of there while they deal with the tiger situation. Marvolio offers to take care of the tiger problem for him. Izek tells him to go ahead then.
Marvolio heads into the shop with a flourish and greets Ireena and Elora on either side of the doors. The tiger rises up and knocks Riley aside as it pounces on Marvolio standing on its hind legs and hugging the man. Marvolio pets and soothes the cat calling it Ramses. Marvolio tells the group inside that they have quite the situation outside with Izek. He offers to cause a distraction for the guards and allow the group to escape and then meet him back at the Tower of Khazan. The group agrees and Marvolio bounds outside releasing Ramses and Piccolo into the city streets.
Seeing the tiger running free, Izek orders his guards to seize it, and they chase after it. At that moment, Bronwyn jumps on Verushka’s back and tells her to go! Verushka takes off sprinting through the rain, her powerful legs quickly taking her far from the shop. Izek runs after her in pursuit, but Wyssilka casually sticks her foot out tripping the man. He goes crashing down to the street. Wyssilka apologizes and offers to help him up, fumbling and delaying him.
McCoy and Johan run off after Bronwyn and Verushka straining to catch up with them. Bronwyn halts Verushka in the center of the street and steers her instead towards the Church of St. Andral’s. They meet up with McCoy and Johan and all travel there together.
The rest of the group sneaks away from the carnage out the back window of Blinsky’s shop, taking Arrabelle’s doll with them. Eventually, they all meet back at the church. They take Pietro with them after Johan warns him, he needs to be prepared to either run or fight if they end up in danger. Pietro tells his father he will run and hide if necessary. Johan disapproves, but he is able to work with it.
The group march through the pouring rain back to the Tower of Khazan without incident. Unwilling to risk the door trap again, they choose to wait another 45 minutes for Valentine and Wyssilka to arrive. They are both riding in Valentine’s wagon with Ramses secured in the back. As he gets down from the wagon, Valentine tosses meat to the tiger through a hatch in the wagon.
Still acting in his Marvolio persona, he flamboyantly reintroduces himself to the group. He asks why they are standing out here in the rain. The explain their nervousness in attempting to disarm the door trap. Marvolio asks Wyssilka to let them in, but she reveals she never actually figured out the trick herself. Elora speaks up and tells them she actually figured out it is form of dance that must be performed to open the door. Marvolio is intrigued and impressed and asks her to perform the dance. Elora is shy about doing so, but Marvolio encourages her and she does so.
After completing the dance, the name KHAZAN lights up over the door and it swings open. The group praises Elora and they all enter and make their way to the top of the tower.
Upstairs Marvolio asks everyone to get comfortable and take a seat. Bronwyn chooses to pace around the room. Johan instructs Pietro he is to take notes of the meeting and that he can request paper and pen from Elora to take studious notes. Pietro does as he asks. Bronwyn asks Marvolio to take of his mask now. Marvolio refuses to remove his costume but drops the Marvolio person and introduces himself to the group as Hugo Valentine, expert monster hunter.
Valentine explains he was a former doctor, animal tamer in the circus, and all-around showman, but he also leads a secret life as one of the premier monster hunters of the multiverse. He has come to Barovia to carry out his work as a monster hunter and destroy the infamous devil Strahd. He meant to carry out this dangerous mission alone, but both of “his girls” have followed him here. Strahd has heard that Valentine is here, so he has been traveling incognito under the guise of Marvolio the Marvelous, thus his earlier deceptions.
He was hoping to use Ireena or possibly Elora as bait for a trap to kill Strahd, but never had a chance to bring that plan to fruition. He has been gathering intel on Strahd and investigating his resources and allies. He was looking into the Martikovs while he was in Vallaki to see if they are aligned with Strahd. He is not sure if they are, but he knows they are hiding something. The group tells him the Martikovs are their friends and allies against Strahd.
Valentine explains that he has trained Ramses to hunt and destroy vampires and other monsters. The vicious tiger was meant to act as his partner here since he was meant to be here alone. The group asks if a tiger is an effective vampire killer, and Valentine explains the sabre-tooth tusks of the tiger are quite effective at staking them.
Bronwyn is mad at Valentine for deceiving her. Valentin apologizes saying he meant to tell her the truth and explain everything, but never had the chance. And he couldn’t risk teasing her a bit to find out if she missed her “circus daddy.” Wyssilka starts cracking up at that term again and smacks Pietro making sure he records that in his notes.
Valentine asks the group what their plans are now. The group isn’t sure. They mention needing to recover the three treasures mentioned by Madam Eva. They also need to retrieve the other Martikov gems to use with the Fanes. Riley also wants to deal with the hags in the Old Windmill. Wyssilka confirms they are indeed hags and need to be destroyed. Johan is concerned that the term “hag” has a lot of connotations and is used pejoratively against older women. Valentine clarifies that these “older women” are not women or witches at all, but actual demons.
Valentine tells the group that he and Wyssilka have been discussing how to breach Castle Ravenloft to attack Strahd. Since the group has been inside the castle, they ask them to provide any information they can about the castle and ask them to draw out a map. The group struggles to remember specific details of the layout. They start sketching a very crude map and Piddlewick becomes irritated and starts fussing on McCoy’s shoulder.
They ask Piddlewick what’s wrong and he starts pointing out errors on the map and making them redraw it. The group realizes that Piddlewick was the replacement jester in Castle Ravenloft and must be familiar with its layout. They set him down with Pietro to create a usable map. Piddlewick smacks Pietro with his peppermint stick every time he makes a mistake and Johan approves.
The group also mention the incident with Escher and the Abbot. Valentine wonders if Escher could be an ally who could be convinced to betray Strahd. The group thinks it’s possible, but they’re not sure how to do it. They know if Escher could be granted his freedom, he would take it.
Wyssilka retrieves her “better map” and gives it to the group. As they look over the map, they confirm a few details based on her notes. Valentine tells the group that there are no actual dragons in Barovia as far as he knows, but he has heard of an old knightly order known as the Order of the Silver Dragon. Wyssilka points out a ruin nearby she was planning to explore. Johan realizes the name of the ruin is Argynvostholt and this name is very similar to the scientific name of silver, which he knows from his years of trade in Dwarven goods. The group agrees there may be a connection there, and it’s worth exploring.
Elora mentions needing to find the hidden library to get the information they need to defeat Strahd. Valentine warns her that the library she seeks is not actually a library at all, but a temple, and the knowledge it is filled with is evil. She should be wary of traveling there as the journey and the knowledge could both be extremely dangerous.
The group rest for the night in the tower with Bronwyn taking Valentine’s bed and everyone else using their bedrolls.
Only McCoy choose to eat a dream pastry and have pleasant dreams. He dreams of more of his former crewmembers, Gordon “Too Vain” Vaybe, a man who thought he was better than everyone else at every task and who was always saying he should be the captain and Seward “Likes” Lincoln who always said he “liked” anything anyone else was interested in. He was disliked for being insincere and having no interests of his own. After waking from the dreams, McCoy lamented that he only dreamed about his crew and not more significant people from his life.
Riley dreamt about being on the ground with an androgynous shadow hovering over her. The shadow splits into two beings that stand on either side of her. They hold out their hands offering to help her up, but she refuses.
Elora dreamt about being in an amazing library surround by books, scrolls, and tablets of all kinds containing a great array of knowledge. She senses a figure behind her seated on a stone chair raised on a dais. The figure is covered from head-to-toe in a rippling, red sheet and it holds in its hands, the particular tome she is searching for. She steps closer to the figure and sees it is not draped in cloth at all, but rather a constant stream of blood flowing over it to give that appearance. As she approaches, the figure slams shut the tome and she wakes up in a sweat.
Bramo dreams of being in a plague town. He is surrounded on all sides by ruin, bodies are piled high everywhere, and the charnel stench of burning bodies fills his nostrils. Laying before him are two small bodies covered by a shroud. He inches forward hesitant to learn what lies beneath the shroud. He sees a tall woman with long, white hair covered in downy feathers or fur walking through the carnage. She has red markings around her eyes, mouth, and chest that may be blood. She locks eyes with Bramo across the devastation and her gaze burns him.
Johan dreams of being seated at a table covered by a long scroll filled with names. He holds a quill in one hand and nearby is a pot of ink. He hears a clattering noise above him and looks up to see a four-armed creature crawling on the ceiling. On its shoulders instead of a head it has a cluster of long, mask-like faces. The creature reaches down from the ceiling and seizes his arm forcing the quill over the scroll. Johan tries to write but sees that the quill is dry. He moves to dip it in the ink, but the creature forces him to stab the quill into his wrist instead. Then it makes him write his name on the scroll in his own blood.
Bronwyn dreams of running down a long white hallway. The hallway is pitch black lit by islands of light. Over her shoulder she hears a hissing, familiar voice whisper in her ear. The voice is excited to be free again and is anxious to resume their games again. Bronwyn runs down the hallway seeking to escape the voices. Lining the hallway are doors on either side of her. She realizes the doors on not solid doors, but rather cell doors lined with bars. The hands that grip the bars are tiger hands with backward palms.
She reaches the end of the hallway and comes to another barred door. She bangs on the door trying to open it. Something is lurking in the shadows of the cell on the other side. She sees a demonic, ghostly tiger stalking in a circle in the room. The tiger becomes a humanoid tiger on two legs as it passes through the shadows, then older human man resembling Valentine, then a rotting zombie, then a skeleton, then a tiger skeleton wearing a crown, then flesh regrows on the tiger until it becomes the ghostly tiger again. Behind her, all the islands of light disappear in sequence like the darkness is crashing in on her like a wave. The voice hisses in her ear, “Soon.”
In the morning, the group isn’t sure which of their goals to pursue. They decide they must return to the Vistani camp outside of Vallaki and consult with Arrabelle. Valentin and Wyssilka will pursue their own agenda and scout out Castle Ravenloft using Pietro’s map. Johan tries to convince them to wait or join their group, but they refuse. Valentine tells Johan if he needs to get in touch with them, he will leave word with the Martikovs at the Blue Water Inn.
Bronwyn has an emotional goodbye with Valentine with both telling the other to be careful. McCoy tells Valentine not to go rushing into the castle without them. Valentine tells him he didn’t get to be as old as he is by being so impulsive as that.
Curse of Ravenloft 