Monster Hunt

Arvien was up bright and early,  "We should make up a will granting us the Cliff House" she proposed.  Varrid looked at her with a sneer, "We have to get out of Invidia, that blackhearted character will be looking for us."  Arvien ignored her and tried to get the rest of the party to buy into her scheme, with no takers.

Raul indicated that he would remain with the Vistani, hoping to find new buyers for his excellent wares.  Ralom wanted to sell Matton's horse, but this was met with disinterest since it might lead to questions.  "Where are we headed to?" wondered Grunyar.  The Vistani gave the group maps of the homeland, so they could find their present position.  Verbrek, Barovia, Sithicus, Kartakass, Borca?  They really had no idea of where to head, although the Vistani warned that Verbrek was full of werewolves.
Finally the party decided to head for Barovia, after returning their horses to Karina.  At Karina they acquired passage across the Musarde to the eastern road headed toward the town of Tancos and the Barovian border.  The weather was autumnal fair as they proceeded along the road.  They met no traffic, although there were boats plying the river along with log flows headed for Karina.  The roadway was bordered by woodlands in full fall colors.  The land was rolling hills north of the river.  The day passed quite quietly and they party spent a night along the roadway.  On the second day the road turned somewhat to the northeast away from the river and into foothills of a larger mountainous area. 
It was nearly dusk on a blustery day.  A cool wind whipped at the edges of the cloaks of the group as though trying to tug them to get the groups attention.  The group had been traveling for hours and were now on a smaller winding country lane bordered by trees decorated with bright-colored leaves.  The leaves gave this dreary country lane a almost cheerful look.  As the group rounded a bend, they saw that not all of the trees were so beautiful.  Evidently, a terrible fire had ravaged the forest here recently, for the air is still warm and the smell is fresher.  Farther around the curve the woods opened into a large field that had also been destroyed by fire.  Beside the field is the remains of a village, apparently also touched by the recent fire.
Scores of people, all dressed in gray cloaks, stood around an old dwarf in plate mail armor.  The dwarf tried to mount an armored pony, but he seemed to be having some trouble climbing onto the animal.  Some of the villagers watched dispassionately, but most are pleading with him, though exactly what the party could not hear.  Ralom, Grunyar, Seglun and Varrid moved closer toward the crowd.  They could then hear the villagers urging the old dwarf, Irronauchs, not to go, though where exactly he is going is unclear.  One member of the crowd noticed the group members approaching and turned toward the party.  The villager threw off her hood, revealing a beautiful young woman with rich, brown hair.  The party recognized here from their gray colored dream.  She pushed her way through the crowd and headed toward the party, with her hands in the air. 
"Good travelers!  Please stop for a moment!"  she asks.  "If those weapons you wear are for hire, we have need of you!"  This perked up Grunyar's ears and he asked what help they required.
"We have been robbed!  Only yesterday, a group of foul monsters ambushed our supply wagon,  They killed the driver and then dragged him and the wagon into the hills," the young woman explained.  "That wagon contained the tools and seed that might repair this horrible damage you see around you.  If you cannot retrieve these supplies for us, it is doubtful we will survive the winter."  The woman swept a hand toward the scorched fields and forest.  Obviously a fresh crop was destroyed in the fire, leaving the villagers without food or barter.
Baru and Arvien immediately expressed concern and their willingness to help.  Grunyar asked about what remuneration they could expect.  The young woman, who introduced herself as Renee Deprechkin, offered free room and board at her boarding house (one of the few buildings still standing in the village.)  Arvien moved forward to accept Renee's kind offer and the party headed toward the boarding house with Renee and Irronauchs.  At the boarding house Renee introduced her elderly parents and asked how many rooms the group would need.  Arvien requested a bath, which Renee immediately set to preparing in a large cooking pot.  As Arvien enjoyed her hot bath, she and Renee struck up a conversation about where the party was from, the history of Introsia, Irronauchs, who acts as the proxy mayor and what Arvien would like to eat.  Unfortunately the village had none of the viands that Arvien was used to. 
Irronauchs regaled the rest of the party with his centuries of campaigning, he originated in Krynn but one day wandered into a misty area and found himself in this strange land.  He has defended his friends from many ravaging horrors, but his aging body is starting to fail him.  The village of Introsia was filled with honest, peaceful people -- qualities he appreciates so he stayed on.  A string of bad luck has afflicted Introsia recently.  It started when a mysterious fire almost burned the village to the ground.  The homes, storehouses and even their newly planted crops were destroyed by the blaze. 
The Introsians are a hardy people, however, and they quickly collected all of their savings to purchase more seeds and tools to plant a new crop.  One man, Haran Jamis, was sent to Tancos to purchase the supplies.  Only yesterday, tragedy struck again.
One of the villagers, Grald, was out hunting when he witnessed Haran driving a cart toward Introsia.  He started to wave when two or three creatures suddenly burst from the woodline and overtook the cart.  Haran fought valiantly, but eventually the foul things struck him down.  They then dragged to cart and Haran up into the hills.  Grald knew better than to chase the creatures alone, and ran back to the village.  The villagers were, who are not warriors, determined to band together to recover the seeds.  Irronauchs discouraged this course, he knew the simple villagers, no matter how brave, would be slaughtered by the monsters.  Irronauchs detailed the monsters as purple bipeds with savage sickle like claws. 
Renee and her parents produced a simple, sparse meal for the heroes and after the meal she showed the heroes to their rooms.  She assured them that the night was safe but Varrid stayed up as a watch during the night, which passed uneventfully.
In the morning Grald arrived after a skimpy breakfast to lead the party to the site of the ambush.  They headed out of Introsia to the east where the lane moved up farther into the hills.  The location of the attack was a perfect site for an ambush.  The thick forest along either side of the road could hide an army, and seeing what is up ahead is limited to the next bend in the road.  Grald pointed to a spot and said, "There's where Jamis fell.  Then those things threw him into the cart and dragged him and it into the hills.  They were horrible beasts -- huge things with sharp fangs and long arms ending in spindly claws.
Seglun and Grunyar took up searching for tracks, since no rain had fallen it was relatively easy to follow the path of a cart up into the hills.  Seglun determined that three creatures were present, two pushing the cart from behind.  The tracks led up a series of steep hills.  It was easy to follow them -- the thick forest meant the monsters could only take the cart up an old trail.  After twenty minutes of cautious travel, the crest of a hill was reached.  Before the party stood and old abbey partially in ruins.  Dark green vines had overgrown the facade.  Some had even wormed into the stone here and there causing it to crumble even more.  Thick spider webs hung from the open doorway and windows.  A cart sat intact near the doorway.  Seglun crept forward, followed by Ralom, and stuck her head into the doorway.  Inside was covered with webs and dust.  Eight stone pews were laid out in two rows, many broken into pieces.  Against the far wall was an altar and a stairway led up at the right side of the chamber.  Seglun lit a torch and stuck it against the webs at the doorway.  She had to leap backwards as a great gout of fire engulfed the chamber.  Allowing the fire to burn out she then entered followed closely by Baru, Varrid and Ralom.  Seglun headed to a door on the west while Baru trod up the staircase which collapsed halfway up.  Baru fell with debris from the stairs and was harassed by some giant spiders as big as his hands.  Seglun threw her rope grappling hook over the balcony and started to climb up.  Varrid opened the side door and discovered a smaller chamber covered with webs and in the corners a mess of webs, leaves and rotting moss.  Suddenly from the balcony two Ettercaps, spider headed purple bodied creatures, came forward throwing webs at Varrid and Grunyar.  Both managed to dodge the webs but an Ettercap flew out of the side chamber and attacked Seglun on the rope.  The battle was now fully engaged as Drovic aided Baru with the giant spider, which Baru attempted to stomp on.  Grunyar fired arrows at the Ettercaps, Ralom blessed the party.   The balcony Ettercaps used webs to leap down from the balcony and attack Varrid and Drovic.  Arvien threw acid at one of the Ettercaps, Drovic and Baru dealt with the spiders and it didn't take long for the party to overcome the enemy.  Varrid torched the side chamber, Seglun, Baru and Grunyar climbed to the balcony and found 4 doors.  Behind two of them were more webs and nests while the last disclosed eight large bags of seeds, hoes, rake and other tools.  Strewn nearby was a knife, a leather belt, a pouch and the corpse of Haran Jamis, which was gnawed upon.   The final door exposed a round tower, where desks and benches laid about in pieces, along with rotted and crumbling texts.  A ladder led to a lower level the floor of which was covered by water.  Seglun clambered down the ladder and found herself surrounded by a  swarm of giant rats.  She immediately clambered back up the ladder.  At this the party left the abbey to walk around the building, Baru wished to assure himself that they had seen the entire structure.  No other entry of building was seen and the party loaded the stolen goods back on the cart.

DMs Notes:  The party earned 514 XP for the nights work and now have 14728 XP needing 8272 additional XP for 5th level.