Previously, on The Barovian Boom Boys...

Lured into the mysterious, fog-shrouded land of Barovia, the party survived the horrors of the cursed Durst Manor. Inside, they unraveled the grim fate of the Durst family, who had turned to cannibalism in service to a "dread lord" named Strahd von Zarovich, and laid the spirits of the murdered Durst children to rest.
Emerging into the desolate Village of Barovia, they encountered a sinister pastry-seller trading her wares for local children and met Ismark Kolyanovich, who pleaded for help protecting his sister, Ireena.
Their investigations led them to the local church, where they discovered the priest, Donavich, had been feeding villagers to his vampire spawn son, Doru. After vanquishing the creature, they blackmailed the priest into their service. They also cleansed the town's poisoned well after it caused a small zombie outbreak, aided by a mule named Hans.
The party agreed to help Ismark with his father's burial. The funeral was dramatically interrupted by the arrival of Strahd himself. When a grief-stricken Ismark charged the vampire lord, the party intervened, preventing his certain death before battling a horde of zombies summoned by Strahd.
Convinced of the party's strength, Ismark persuaded them to escort Ireena to the fortified town of Vallaki. As payment, he gifted them the magical Ring of the Watcher.
The journey was marked by unsettling omens. Their path led them to a Vistani encampment, where they were granted an audience with the enigmatic fortune teller, Madam Eva. Her Tarokka card reading provided them with five cryptic clues hinting at the locations of powerful artifacts and a potential ally.
Setting out toward Vallaki, the party was intercepted by two guards—Vasily, a nervous trapper, and Mana, a broad-shouldered volunteer—searching for a missing herbalist from Vallaki. The guards agreed to join the group on the journey.
The party made a crucial detour to an ancient windmill on a precipice, one of the locations mentioned in Madam Eva's prophecy. There, they discovered the dark truth behind the missing children of Barovia: the windmill's proprietors, Bella and Ofelia, had been kidnapping children and keeping them imprisoned in crates on the upper floors. Among the captives were Freek (the boy from the Village of Barovia) and a young girl named Myrtle. The party recovered a mysterious cipher-bound tome that appeared to belong to Strahd himself, though they were forced to retreat before rescuing the children.
After escaping the windmill, the party opened the mysterious tome, revealing it to be the Tome of Strahd. They were pulled into a vision of Strahd's childhood, witnessing his father, King Barov, and his stern advisor, Rahadin.
The next day, their journey to Vallaki was ambushed by a massive pack of wolves. The guard, Mana, was gravely injured but saved by Gowain's healing magic. They later found the body of the missing herbalist they had been searching for.
Arriving in the unsettlingly cheerful town of Vallaki, they arranged for a proper burial at St. Andral's Church and met the priest, Father Lucian.
At the Blue Water Inn, they gathered rumors about the town's tyrannical Burgomaster, Baron Vargas Vallakovich, and his rival, Lady Fiona Wachter. Further study of the Tome plunged them into a second vision, casting them as soldiers in General Strahd's army during an ancient assault on Castle Argynvost.
The vision placed them on the battlefield as lieutenants in Strahd's forces, storming the castle of the Order of the Silver Dragon. They faced Sir Godfrey Gwilym, a formidable paladin general wielding a magnificent dragon-themed sword. Despite their best efforts—Lorian's attempt at diplomacy in Draconic, Getafix's spike growth, and Gowain's holy fire—the party was overwhelmed by the general's divine smites and fell one by one.
Lorian awoke alone on the battlefield at one hit point to discover Getafix and Gowain dead among the fallen. Sir Godfrey had also perished, and in the distance, Lorian witnessed the magnificent Argynvost—a true silver dragon—taking flight above the castle. Strahd's voice echoed through the vision: "The war years and the killing years wore down my soul as the wind wears stone into sand."
Beyond death, Getafix and Gowain encountered a mysterious entity offering them a dark bargain through a set of amber doors. Getafix, true to his nature, refused the offer and passed on to whatever lies beyond. Gowain, unwilling to accept his fate, stepped through the doors and made a deal. He returned to life in the Blue Water Inn, forever changed by the price he agreed to pay.
Before the mists claimed them, two unlikely companions found each other in Waterdeep. Tavin Underleaf, a halfling rogue of flexible principles, and Horatio "Boom Boom" Ignis, a gnome wizard of enormous enthusiasm, were hired to recover stolen spell scrolls from a rogue student named Horace—an errand that ended with Horace transforming into something monstrous and the party putting him down. A subsequent magical accident, mostly Boom Boom's fault, flung them both into Barovia.
Kellen returned to the Blue Water Inn to find Getafix dead on the floor—his body mysteriously seemingly weeks-gone, threaded with blackened fungal growth. Urwin Martikov helped burn the druid on a quiet pyre behind the stable, glimpsed the Tome, and said nothing about it. He mentioned two small figures in the town stocks. What followed was the Great Stock Caper: staged brawls, a planted gold ring, and one deliberately tripped hunter—three falsely imprisoned peasants in exchange for Tavin and Boom Boom's freedom. That evening, a nervous spy named Ernst delivered a dinner invitation from Lady Fiona Wachter, who had been watching the party and found them "interesting". Ireena announced she was staying with the group rather than seeking shelter alone. Gowain slept upstairs, pale and changed, while the party dressed for dinner.
Where we left off: Getafix is gone—his body ash behind an inn. The party has grown by two and gained a dinner invitation from a woman who calls Strahd the lesser evil. Gowain sleeps. Whatever Lady Wachter wants, they're about to find out.

Previously, on The Barovian Boom Boys...

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