Criminal Quandaries - S5
The party decided to take to the rest of the house they haven’t explored. Yeet stopped Malaki from touching the coffin since it might’ve charmed him. Bastle and Gus come across Alyssa’s study and bedroom. Gus finds a broken music box in Alyssa’s room. Bastle nat 20’d the investigation and found a dagger (Bane of the Undead) and Alyssa’s journal. Alyssa’s Journal detailed her time in the manor. She reminisced of Strahd’s beautiful music, and her son, Alucard. Things turned sour when Alyssa chose to pass instead of taking up Strahd’s offer to become a vampire. Alucard was angry at his father for not forcing Alyssa to become a vampire, and mad at his mother for not staying with her family. Alucard fled to the marrowlands vowing never to return.
After missing the final silver ball in Strahd’s bathroom, they run into a ghost. Malaki leapfrogs over Yeet. Yeet looks cool as hell, and Malaki biffs it hard, but still manages to kill it. Gus missed the fight and thinks Bastle is mad at him. Malakis advances were ignored by Bastle.
Still needing to solve the 3 thins (coffin, door, and ball), they went downstairs to try to open the coffin with dispel magic to no avail. Yeet realized the music box’s short melody matched a theme in the Aria and that it was written for the Organ. (Eventually the DM had to lead them to other goals first because Kaige wasn’t there to be a voice of reason, and none of them rolled above a 9 on an insight check). They reinspected the tub to find the final ball serving as a drain plug.
(Side note, i did call out the stopper in the tub, but i did not actually call it silver, i minced my words and called the faucet silver, but the fact i called out a damn drain plug, should’ve been a clue lol)
They found the final ball and put it in the last slot of the rams head. Lightening shot out of the side of the heads from the eyes and slowly converged, melting the chandelier chain and creating an Arcane Eye. Which looks like a Fushigi ball that Yeet caught. Bastle crushed Malaki jumping down from the Balcony. They used the eye to see into the room finding the magic organ they were looking for. Gus pulled out the Music box, and it whirred to life as the magic of the door filled in for the missing gears. The lock opened and the doors faded to open in the room.
Yeet and Gus, still convinced the Bastle is a robot with gears, are attacked by Bastle and Malaki (not really)
They took a short rest before the big fight, laying out the logistics. Gus and Yeet stayed upstairs. Bastle hid behind a column downstairs and. Malaki used disguise self to looks like Strahd, who is much larger than himself.
Yeet played the Aria perfectly, the organ slipped through the floor at the end of the piece and the house rumbled to life, which knocked Malaki prone. Volenta rose from her coffin finally free and immediately knew that it wasn’t Strahd that released her, but played along for a moment. Everyone else made it downstairs as Volenta Pulled in Malaki with her Scythe, then Bit his neck, downing him. NO ONE had healing word stocked. Volenta split into 3 smaller version of herself, which the party quickly took out. Volenta reappeared and their world went black. They sank into the floor as Volenta said “Let me show you where i’ve been living for the past 100 years”
