Curse of Strahd dnd campaign

[SubPhil91]

Both Ireena and Lucan hug Quinn tightly as everyone gets ready to leave. You all head out of the cottage and through the door. You grab the handle and head back into the crypts, checking every corner again for anything. The crypts are empty besides some skeletons and some dead vampire spawn. You all start heading up stairs and search more. The first few rooms are empty, an old living quarters for servants that hasn't been used in years is the first thing you come across. You also head into a library with lots of books of every kind, a large dining room set up as if expecting guests, and finally you come across a room with someone inside.

Dusty scrolls and tomes line the walls of this room. More scrolls and books lie scattered on the floor, around four heavy wooden chests fitted with study iron locks. The only unobstructed floor space is directly in front of the doors on the east and west walls. In the center of this clutter stands a great black desk. A figure crouches atop a tall stool, scratching on a seem*ingly endless scroll of paper with a dry quill pen. Nearby a tasseled rope hangs from a hole in the ceiling.

The figure looks up with a questioning look, he's an old human man. He waves half heartedly as you all enter. "Greetings, you're all new here. Can I help you?"

 

[siobhancan99]

Quinn tilts her head slightly "we're looking for prisoners or allies of strahd. to liberate them both after a fashion i suppose. he's dead you know" she shifts and looks the man over "who might you be? and what is your relationship to the former lord of this keep?"

 

[SubPhil91]

He cocks his head to the side, "Master Strahd is dead? Seems unlikely, though.. I suppose I have seen the sun peeking out today, maybe it is true.. Anyway, my name is Lief Lipsiege. I'm Strahd's accountant, or, was his accountant I suppose. A whole life of work, gone in a night.. Herr to liberate everyone huh? Quite the task you have ahead of you. Most won't be too happy you got rid of him."

 

[siobhancan99]

Quinn shrugs "those that object can certainly register their concerns" she looks over at the man "accountant? so he's got money on the books somewhere? lands on ledger that sort of thing? how much uh..... you know. would you say there is, exactly, of it?"

 

[SubPhil91]

He looks over at four chests by the wall behind him. "Well.. Quite a bit. I believe there's about 25,000 gold here alone. More is hidden throughout the castle but I wasn't made aware of every bit of his finances. Only what he'd share, I wouldn't dare ask for what he wasn't willing to tell. That sort of questioning gets you killed you know. Oh I'm sure you'll hear plenty of objections. Whether or not you listen, is up to you. People simply feel the need to voice their opinions."

 

[siobhancan99]

QUinn nods "as long as they're unburdening their souls and not stabbing anyone... i think we will be liberatiing that gold. you know, to the victor the spoils and all that. I'm the mighty quinn by the way. This is Marius. He's going to be using that gold to assist the good people of Barovia with rebuilding their lives and their country" she turns to marius "i think its fitting we turn the lion's share of the treasure over to you to assist in your endeavors."

 

[SubPhil91]

Lief shakes his head, "By all means, take it. It's not like I could stop you if you were able to kill Master Strahd. Do with it what you will, makes no difference to me at this point in my life. Rebuilding this country huh? Good luck young man. You're going to need it." Marius looks over at Quinn with a surprised look on his face. "You want to leave that money here to help rebuild this place? You killed Strahd, you realize you could take it all with you and have the greatest vacation ever right?"

 

[siobhancan99]

Quinn nods, though its clear there's some internal wrestling going on. She sighs and crosses her arms "properly invested, the money we have from the crypts, plus those chests would allow us all to live a comfortable middle class lifestyle forever. I don't make light of how hard this is for me to surrender it." she swallows, "but i've been desperately poor. Most of my life i was desperately poor. THat money can be the kernal of some proper reinvestment in the country. It can be used to build roads and rebuild bridges to attract merchants. all of those prohjects will give the people of Barovia work. It will help lift them from all of the other problems that people don't think about in such a cursed land. It will help keep them fed. It will give their children a future. I know its not enough money to cure all the problems of the land, but if you use it wisely. if you use it justly.. it will do a lot more good than just putting a perpetual stream of coin in my pocket so that i can stop adventuring. And lets be honest. if we kept that money and the money we found in the crypt...which we are keeping by the way..... you'd all wake up one morning to find it replaced with shares in a land company and I'd be Mighty Quinn, landlady."

 

[SubPhil91]

Marius laughs quietly and smiles. "Yes, you should definitely keep the money from the crypts. I wouldn't dream of keeping that money. This money, I suppose I wouldn't feel bad about taking. I could definitely use the money to rebuild some things and turn this land around. Twenty thousand gold.. That could go a long way. However, I did tell you I'd give you a reward for helping free this land of Strahd." He heads over and checks the three chests before picking one up. He hands Quinn a small chest with five hundred platinum pieces. "Here, attract take this. The rest can be used to help this land repair and rebuild."

Lief nods his head, "That money could indeed go a long way. If used properly this land could turn around pretty quickly. Strahd just kept it here, he never gave any back to the land. Said giving back to the land would give too much hope, too much hope would lead to rebellion. Which would just end badly again. Last time there was a revolt hundreds of Barovian's died. Never stood a chance.. Lead by that dumb wizard who was never seen again. Do what you will with the money. I'm sure you'll use it to better the land. Lots of roads need to be built, lots of bridges need rebuilding."

 

[siobhancan99]

Quinn nods "thank you Marius." she feels a little better with the platinum, as she got to be moral but also got money. All in all she got a girlfriend and a ton of cash for the party out of this, and got to do something really good. Maybe she wasn't really cursed after all. "You care about this land Marius. I think youll do a good job with it." she looks over to Leif "i don't suppose you'd know where strahd keeps his captives? I assume he has some and they probably havent recently eaten"

 

[SubPhil91]

Lief shakes his head, "I haven't left this room in.. Hell I don't even know how long it's been anymore. They could be anywhere in the castle, though I would check some of the rooms. His prisoners tend to have better places to stay than the rest of Barovia. He was definitely an odd person when it came to captives.. I'd say start on the upper floors, that's your best bet." He shrugs as he starts to write again in his book after seeing Marius hand Quinn the chest.

Marius looks up at Lief before turning to Quinn. "Well I will certainly do my best with this land. Maybe next time you all stop by it will be a much nicer place than it is now. I certainly hope so at least. We have a lot of work to do, and it will take a long time. I think it will be easier than I'm expecting, only because so many people want change for this land. Though I'm sure a lot of people are going to want to leave and go elsewhere, and who could blame them for that?"

 

[siobhancan99]

Quinn nods to Marius "at the same time, whatever government forms can sell land here as well to fund projects. the low population can be a boon as well" she nods to Leif "we shallt ake your advice." Quinn sets about finding a staircase, then ascends to the higher levels, figuring to work her way down she goes as high as she can, then calls out "hello? is anyone here?" also sending asshat flying about to see what he can see.

 

[SubPhil91]

As you all walk around the ancient dusty halls, Quinn hears some noise coming from a room just to the south. As everyone heads for the door you can hear what sounds like a female singing quietly to herself, but as you approach the singing stops. Quinn opens the door and looks around but sees no one standing in this room.

A blazing hearth fire fills this room with rolling waves of red and amber light. The walls are lined with ancient books and tomes, their leather covers well oiled and preserved through careful use. All is in order here. The stone floor is concealed beneath a thick, luxurious rug. In the center of the room is a large, low table, waxed and polished to a mirrored finish. Even the poker in its stand next to the blazing fireplace is polished. Large, overstuffed divans and couches are arranged about the room. Two chairs of burgundy-colored wood with padded leather seats and back cushions face the hearth. A huge painting hangs over the mantelpiece in a heavy, gilded frame. The rolling firelight illuminates the carefully ren*dered portrait. It is an exact likeness of lreena.

Ireena shudders looking at the portrait. "Of course he'd have something like this.. Well.. At least these books could be worth some money, right?" Everyone looks over the collection for a moment, seeing over one thousand unique tomes. No one particularly knows much about them but in the condition they are in you all agree together they'd have to be worth over 50,000 gold.

 

[siobhancan99]

Quin looks over the books, impressed "well i guess you have to do something with a lifetime." she runs her fingers over the books "still i wonder who was singing" she looks around a bit, calling out "hello? we're here to help. if you're hiding..." she momentarily considers the possibility that the singing was a ghost of some sort and shifts uncomfortably but calls out again "if anyone here is, please show yourselves. we don't mean you any harm." she wonders if she should let people know strahd is dead, but she assumes any allies of the man fled when he died.

 

[SubPhil91]

Quinn looks around the room for a few moments trying to figure out where the singing may have been coming from. After a minute or so she looks at the fireplace and can see a secret door in the fireplace behind the fire. Lucan looks around and starts pulling a few books trying to get it to open but doesn't find anything. He examines some of the interesting books. "Some of these would sell for a fortune in Absalom. Even the basic books here are nice.." Ireena walks over to the fireplace and pulls on the poker which opens the secret door. "Hmm.. Should we put out the fire and head in?" She looks over at Quinn before looking back at the fire.

 

[siobhancan99]

QUinn extinguishes the lfame using prestidigitation "see! i know utility spells too!" she grins and nudges her girl, then looks over to the others "i intend to see what's back there. if someone is trapped we should help them. be ready for it to be something awful, but... im feeling really good about this. i feel like it's going to be ok"

 

[SubPhil91]

Ireena bumps Quinn lightly before heading through the secret door. "Mighty Quinn can put out fires, impressive!" She laughs quietly before stepping into the next room.

Sweet smells waft from this delicately lit room. A great arched window along the west wall is covered by heavy red draperies, their golden tassels glinting in the light of three candelabras sitting atop small tables about the room. Tall white candles burn with bright, steady light. A large bed, canopied by silk curtains, sits with its headboard against the north wall. Carved into the head*board with great skill is a large "Z." Lying amid the velvet and satin sheets and bedclothes is a young woman in a nightgown. One of her dainty slippers has fallen to the floor at the bed's foot.

 

[siobhancan99]

Quinn laughs "im super impressive. im the mighty quinn" she runs her hand over Ireena'sass and gives it a nice hard slap. she kisses her temple, then looks over at the girl in the bed "is she alive?" she walks over, hesitant in case she's a spawn what with their being no light in the room "us she asleep or dead?"

 

[SubPhil91]

Ireena yelps and bites her lip as Quinn smacks her ass. She looks over at Quinn before focusing on the girl in the bed. "Tease.. I hear breathing so I assume she is alive. You never know though.. So be careful." The girl starts to turn heading voices and rubs her eye before looking around between Quinn and Ireena. "Who are you two? I've never seen you here before, has Strahd brought you here to keep you safe too? He did, didn't he? Such a noble man, always thinking of others."

 

[siobhancan99]

Quinn hmmms and thinks on how to approach this "Strahd has moved along to better things" she shifts a bit "he did everything he could for this land and then finally surrendered his immortality. who was he protecting you from? perhaps if you let us know about your predicament we can do something about it for you."


*Quinn, your eyes are turning brown*

*what?*

*you're so full of shit*

 

[SubPhil91]

The girl sits up straight and looks at Quinn. "Surrendered his immortality? That's odd he's never talked about doing that before.. Why would he? How is he supposed to keep me safe from my mother now.. That woman is mad, I can't go back to her! She kept me locked in our tiny house since I've been born. I had to run away just to get out! Strahd found me and kept me safe. He fed me and took care of me. He was the noblest of men, a knight in shinning armor.. And nows he's gone, just like that." Ireena looks at the girl and shakes her head, surprised at how she viewed Strahd.

 

[siobhancan99]

Quinn arches an eyebrow "he kept you safe from beung locked away by locking you away. Im gonna let you process that on your own time. In the meantime who is your mother and why did shd lock you up?"

 

[SubPhil91]

She shrugs, "She said to keep me safe, but it's not like our village was dangerous. And he didn't keep me locked up here, he let me leave if I wanted to. But who would want to leave this place? She kept me locked away in a crappy small one bedroom house. Mad Mary is my mother, crazy old bat. Don't compare what Strahd was doing for me to what she did. It's not the same at all."

 

[siobhancan99]

Quinn nods and shrugs. what the girl does with her life is really none of her business. She imagined strahd probably had some sort of ulterior motive, maybe one they should chase down. "what town does mad mary live in? is she from vallaki?"

 

[SubPhil91]

The girl shakes her head, "I'm from Barovia. Like your friend there. I'm surprised you didn't hear about her before getting here. Everyone knows about her in the village." She shrugs as ireena looks at her. "She's not wrong.. Everyone knows about her in our village. I thought I brought her up before we left, maybe I didn't.."