So, who is this Bray Martikova that we are looking for? I ran a quick search through the previous updates and look what I've found:
Giorgio, outsiders are not welcome in camp... Well, not often. You don't know how the villagers treat us. Why Bray Martikova is the only one who smiles when I enter the Blood O' the Vine.
To the tavern!
Yep, that's the guy.
Glad to see you again, Bray. This tavern has character, welcoming and warm in a cold town. Even that feather of yours seems to welcome us to your 'nest', eh?
Aye, you're as welcome as your coin. And I hope you've come with more than a wereraven's 'feather' to pay your way. Even that beast, I'm told pays honorably for services rendered. Of honest commerce they say 'eluce tilka re gabrion.' I believe I've heard it said differently. Isn't that saying more like: 'tiganess, ilke eluce-a-keen?'
Now that we understand each other, can you help us?
Hmm... I know of the brother raven set free from Strahd's tower. So you are the one? Now why doesn't that surprise me? Still, there is one thing I might do. There is an abandoned warehouse once known as the Merchant's Pride. Go there and wait for another contact. They will know who you are and they will escort you to yet another party, someone more able to offer our thanks. It is all I can do.
And here we are.
A mean looking gang.
No, no potions. The risk you ask us to take in our unconscious delivery to your leader is too great.
Ravenloft is another name for risk, my friend. We risk much saying no to evil. Ahh! I don't believe it. Because we know you have accomplished at least one valiant act --denying Strahd a wereraven's blood-- we will remain here for a time. Should you come to your senses, make it known. But to try my patience too greatly is to try the fit of my blade between your ribs!
Blade between the ribs you say? Well in that case we should totally stop worrying and entrust our lives to you.
You don't leave us a great many choices, do you? Agreed, then. We'll drink the anodyne, this potion you offer.
Good. We know of the wereraven you freed from Strahd's tower. All we ask is that you cooperate with us, and for that honorable act, we will guarantee your safety when you are among us.
The one we freed from the tower, how does he fare?
He fares well, and grows stronger with each day that Strahd's dominion nears its end.
We swallow the swill and go to sleep.
That's where we found ourselves once the potion wears off. Those guys must've had a great time carrying all our chests and platemails.
I don't even...
What a magnificent creature.
Great one, our quest in this land seems tied to the one man who claims it as his own. What can you tell me of Strahd?
Strahd is the evil that stalks Barovia with malignant certainty. Once he ruled as Count Strahd of the Von Zarovich line, a noble warrior who came to free us from the tyrant Dorian, but that was so long ago. . . . I have grown old in my own vocation, in my relentless fever to destroy him and free the land. For now it is Strahd who imprisons us, who has become a vampire lord!
If, as it seems to me, Strahd is the key to our success and our eventual escape, how might we trick him, or gain authority over him?
You are ambitious beyond all telling! Only one instrument, one icon of faith and of true fidelity to the ways of light may hold Strahd at bay. It is the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind. This fearsome object, crafted by the Most High Priest of the Realm in the days when Strahd was a mortal, now lies hidden from the light. Its whereabouts are unknown. In all my life, it has eluded me.
What can you tell me of this Symbol of Ravenkind?
We know of its use by a cleric, a young priest of such ambition that he dared confront Strahd. Indeed, the power of the Symbol did grievous injury to our lord, banishing him from the land for many a season. Sasha was the name of the priest. He is supposed to have prepared three manuscripts, parchments detailing the whereabouts of the Symbol in magically encrypted text.
Why has the Symbol of Ravenkind been so difficult to locate, and how might we attempt to find it?
Some may have found it; I do not know. I know only that none have returned alive with it in their grasp. Because you have braved many dangers, including this conference, I have no objection if you wish to try your own strong hands in the matter. If so, I will provide you with a key and a special reading device, so that you may make your own attempt.
What do we have to do? How may we begin?
There is a church which has been cursed by Strahd himself. There, if you are able, you will find this key unlocks a door beneath the structure of the place. We believe the three manuscripts revealing the location of the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind are there. Once found, then with a scroll in one hand and the scrying glass in the other, you may read the hidden secrets of the text.
It sounds too easy, great one. Haven't others done this before?
Of course others have walked the path I set before you. Many were brave, some whose magic was so powerful they could read Sasha's manuscripts without a scrying glass! Sasha did not leave a map with an 'X' upon it, oh no! He left but clues, clues that when clearly read, but half who see them gain the slightest understanding. I shall watch your progress with great interest.
Pyoor, this place is too dangerous. We must go!
Yes, I sense them. They are coming. Here is your challenge then: prove your mettle. What I have told you can be entrusted only to those strong enough to battle their way beyond the creatures outside the door. Fight! But do not overlook what, by chance, might fall your way, or be revealed in the corners of this forbidding place. Heed my words, and good luck to you!
Yup, we got both the scrying device and the key.
Another key was just lying on the floor.
'k, let's see what this place is all about.
Revenants, eh?
I'm not impressed.
Oooh, a shiny.
Oh yeah, I remember that. Come again, how many coins do we need? Was it three or five?..
Fifteen.
It's going to be a long day...
Wraith detected, Negative Plane Protection shields activated.
We don't have this key yet, looks like we have to go back to the starting location and open another door.
As always, hidden buttons are abound.
And here is the key we've been looking for.
In addition to revenants and wraiths, this dungeon has its share of hellhounds and fireball traps.
It is also fricking huge.
Looking good.
More locks.
Chances of us surviving this encounter are fairly slim.
Good ol' illusionary wall.
Vladimir got himself a new armour.
So pwetty.
Srsly, this place is huge.
Finally we found the exit.
But surprise, surprise, we are one coin short.
It's p. obvious where we should go, but how do we get inside? I spent a lot of time bumping into walls, trying to find an illusionary one.
Turns out I've missed a hidden button.
Nothing else to do down here, so let's get going.
I remember this place, we couldn't open the trapdoor earlier.
Thanks for the tip, but we're going to get rid of those coins first.
I'm interested. Perhaps we can come to some agreement, if the price is right. What are you asking for the potion?
An agreement can be reached easily enough. Fifteen coins is the price. We'll start there, argue there, and finish there, giorgio. Fifteen coins and the potion is yours.
Vistani, we have at last the price of the potion. Allow me to buy it from you,-- at fifteen coins.
Noble traveler, I knew at once you were a person of quality. You carry yourself the way rich men do, haughty and self-assured. Yes, the potion is yours for fifteen coins! And remember, all who would pass through the fogs of Barovia must partake of this counteractant. Otherwise you will find yourself choking, your guts rotting from the inside out.
The brew is ours!
Next up: the church.
Another set of stairs behind the secret door.
We found some paper near the entrance.
While we were reading the note, I felt as the blackness of infinite nothing pressed on my soul...
...and I was beset by shadows that sought to snuff out my very soul!
Yikes!
Many locks in this place.
Lockpick works though.
This one is no ordinary shadow. 'Tis a shadow fiend!
It was guarding another piece of paper.
Let's use our reading glass, shall we?
(<-- what happened to that smiley?! this is an outrage)
Once twined around in stone, then twice, then thrice, then twice more in circumflexion, each circle of four waits within the greater ring,-- waits for the planting of the seeds. Aye, for only the seeds of divine light, of Lathander Morninglord, when placed to rest within the inner circles may free the prize. Planted within that shady circumference, one to each circle of stones, these four symbols will bring down the light, rending beauty to release the prize. Then behold! There the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind awaits.
Sasha
The usual stuff.
We actually got ourselves a key, so all the doors are now open to us.
We found another Bracers of Dexterity.
It pumped Vladimir's AC to -1... But what the fuck happened to Fhalken's AC?!
It supposed to be -3
The last piece of paper.
Where azure dome yields to constant gray, where sky and cloud are one and light is but a flash among the clouds, where death lashes brightly to the ground, go you there! Search below the thundering heavens for the prize. Amid the twisted wildwood, its guardian stands. One good, straight heart of oak waits proud and true, a beauty beneath the dread sky.
Go then to the gypsies, for from the Vistani alone may you acquire a certain potion, an elixir known to be the only passport through what mists shield the place. For only those guarded thus and true of heart may challenge the fog, that wall of poison which waits between you, the forest of the undead, and the prize.
Sasha
This one is less cryptic. I think we should go into the fog next.
But I still couldn't restore Fhalken's AC, so I did what any sane person would do - found an earlier save juuust before this area, and went through it again
And once again all is right with the world
So, the fog.
Yup, here it is.
Here goes...