We join our heroes at the top of the large bridge that crosses the waterfall.
As we look over the edge of the bridge, the large Vistani funeral procession is going by down by the bottom of the waterfall.
Irena is pretty messed up, her clothes are getting fairly torn and she’s in bad shape but in high spirits.
Our search for the old wizard goes on. Esmerelda is also looking for him, not for companionship in our quest, but for a way out of this dark land.
Endrid asks Esmerelda why the Vistani are walking towards the waterfall.
“It seems like a very large funeral procession, it must be someone of great importance, they’re talking them to the base of the waterfall for a memorial”
Bingdor said it looks just like the time a gang member had a funeral in his old home town.
Could it be madame Eva?
Esmerelda says that Madame Eva is over 200 years old, so maybe?
There was some discussion on whether we should go down there or not, we all tried to remember what happened to Argald when he tried to attack us/capture us. As a member of the Vistani, Brace was a bit apprehensive about attending.
After some debate, we decide to all go down.
Esmerelda tells us she’s not going to join us at the camp as she has been excommunicated.
We press but she doesn’t say what happened, a story for another time…
Bindor asks Esmerelda how many ex-lovers are in this procession down there, she doesn’t seem to amused by the question. She declines to answer
Bingdor then suggests she wears a disguise and presents her with her own clothes that he took out of her carriage before we blew it up. She also declines this idea, but snatches her clothes back from Bingdor.
So let’s go!
Esmerelda leads the way, and asks Endrid to give her some space as she is smoking her pipe. Endrid doesn’t change her position and continues marching on.
Esmerelda and Irena are upfront, with Irena trying to get a nip of booze off Esmerelda. She ain’t having it.
The rest of the party, marching behind them, overhears some parts of their conversation, they’re talking about Esmerelda and Wizard working together and she is vehemently denying any romantic relationship.
Irena: So is he a wizard????
Esmerelda: Not really? He has a spell book and uses magic, but I wouldn’t call him a wizard…
The party asks Esmerelda what she plans on doing when she gets out of Barovia.
Rhada suggests she becomes a brewers apprentice. <<Rhada is made to roll a perception check, 6 on the dice.>>
Bingdor says she should pick up an instrument!
We hike down the mountain for a few hours.
<<our dm is concerned with the amount of miles we put on without event at times>>
We get to the bottom of the valley and can see that the procession has stopped at the foot of the waterfall.
The casket is draped in black while everything else is colorful in traditional Vistani fashion.
The casket is put up on a stage by the waterfall, we’re about 100 feet away from the happenings.
Brace asks Esmerelda about Vistani funerals and she doesn’t know how they go down.
As the party prepares to go over to the funeral, Esmerelda says she’s going to hang back. We all get into a discussion about the 1-2-3 method we need to use moving forward after the ‘slip-up’ on the bridge while throwing that old corpse over. Irena is adamant that it’s 1-2-3 (on three) and Brace is advocating for the 1-2-3-GO method.
Esmerelda butts in: “We’re talking about body tossing, how many more times is this going to happen?”
Bingdor: “I think it has more uses than just throwing bodies.”
The party votes for ‘the Brace Method’ Irena says she’ll go along but that if anyone wants to do it the other way just tell her beforehand.
We all practice throwing stones into the woods after 3 to make sure we know what the count is.
1…
2…
3…
Throw!
“Oooof!”
Oooof? I think we hit someone!
Brace: Who’s in there?
No answer.
Endrid: Let’s be quick with this and then crash the funeral
Brace: We gotta be respectful!
Endrid: You may care but I don’t about some dead body- they’re gone, good riddance.
Endrid leads us into the woods rather stealthily.
<<sick roll>>
We come upon a brightly colored carnival wagon that has been kind of hidden with some branches. It’s a bit larger than Esmerelda’s wagon.
Brace says we should check it out, but after thinking about what happened last time we tried to break into Esmerelda’s Endrid steps back and tells Brace to do it.
Brace asks Esmerelda to come inspect it with him but she tells him to go ahead by himself.
On the side of the wagon brace sees “Rictavio’s Carnival of Wonders” (who was that dude who did the puppet show and also tried to kill Bingdor when he was a warewolf.)
Brace walks over to the back side of the wagon and sees the doors are covered with chains. He calls into the wagon to no response.
Brace, walking up closer to peek in <<rolls a 6 in stealth while doing do>> lifts himself up to see inside, moving some of the chains and making a bit of noise. Inside, Brace sees a giant sabertooth tiger staring out at him. !!!
Brace gingerly walks backwards to the group and tells the party about it. He compares it to Valentine which makes Endrid run over and look and say “that’s not Valentine! It’s a tiger!”
Esmerelda goes and looks, and just as she gets up to the door, the tiger really starts to get angry and wild, she jumps back.
Rhada declines looking, Irena wants to see so she goes up but can’t see anything. She starts calling to the big cat to come over.
Endrid hollers for Rictavio, Irena joins in.
On the count of three (Bingdor suggests) to all yell out, no answer.
Brace investigates the wagon, there’s some oldish blood on the side of it. Also ‘I bring you from the shadow into light.’ is inscribed on the side.
We think about going to the funeral, but who called out when we hit them with a rock?
Brace decided to speak with the tiger
Esmerelda gives brace a spell of protection.
He walks up to the wagon and begins to speak to the Tiger.
After some conversation, Brace goes back over to the party and explains what he said. The tiger is Rictavio’s and he’s here at the funeral to sing a song. There are two other people with Rictavio who didn’t go to the funeral, so that must be who we hit. Also, his name is Leaf. Brace advises Esmerelda to not stay around here because Leaf would probably eat her (tried to lie at first but she wasn’t having it). He’s a trained Vistanikilling tiger, wild man.
We go back towards the road, Esmerelda hangs back and says she’s gonna climb up a tree and wait.
Bingdor asks her if she learned to hang out in trees from the wizard, she isn’t having it and walks off.
We gotta figure out who died. Bingdor suggests we ask Ricktavio.
After some deliberation about how to approach, we all walk over, trying to dust off our clothes as best we could. Endrid leads the party, walking as nice as she can <<funeral walk>>
We get close and everyone starts to look at us. Ricktavio is on stage with the casket and sees us. After what felt like a record scratch on our entrance, everyone goes back to their business. Ricktavio is a little weirded out by seeing us, but after seeing how the Vistani react he just waves and continues setting up on-stage.
A Vistani offers us shots as part of the custom of the funeral. Everyone takes one. He says he remembers you and that ‘she would be happy you were here’.
He walks off and we discuss how to drink the shots, some say shoot them, others just want to sip.
We hang back and observe the funeral- Bingdor wants to try and be the opener so he goes to talk to Ricktavio, Irena joins. Endrid goes off to find more booze.
Rhada is hanging back, as is Brace.
Bingdor and Ireena go up to Ricktavio and say hey. Ricktavio forgets Bingdor’s name. He tells them that the Vistani asked him to write a song and that’s why he’s here. He confirms that it is Madame Eva that died.
Endrid overhears it’s Madame Eva’s funeral and has a spit take on her third shot
Bingdor offers to play dulcimer to warm the crowd up and Ricktavio tells him it’s a real tight set bro, no time for anyone else.
Ireena comforts him as they head back towards Rhada and Brace. Bingdor tells everyone that it is Madame Eva’s funeral.
Brace suggests we just observe the funeral and then ask them about it afterwards at the party we assume is going to happen.
Endrid and Ireena go for more booze, Endrid warns Ireena not to drink too much.
Someone starts speaking and it looks as though the funeral ceremony is about to begin. They say she was incredible and lived to 201. Ricktavio is announced and comes on stage. He tunes his guitar for way too long then gets into an jaunty elvish tune with pretty cookie-cutter lyrics. <<whack bro!>> Ricktavio is visibly nervous and sweating, as if he knows it’s a pretty bad song. Ricktavio finishes and the crowd lightly claps as he walks off stage.
Next a woman steps up on stage- she is announced as Madame Eva’s sister, Madame Dava She looks to be as old as Madame Eva was, walking with a cane, but very muted outfit in contrast to Madame Eva’s bright attire.
After a moment, Madame Dava begins an intense incantation, starting down from a whisper. She seems to be in some sort of trance! It gets louder, and louder still. The party has no idea what she’s saying, but as Madame Dave gets louder the rest of the world’s sound fades away. The chant continues, it’s getting pretty wild. In an instant, she raises her cane in the air, then slams it down on the stage. At the second it hit the stage, a crack of thunder is heard throughout the valley. At that same time, the waterfall seems to disappear and a light illuminates the valley from behind where the waterfall was. With the water gone, the party can see a cave and a bunch of glyphs.
This last moment has taken all of her energy. Madame Dava nearly collapses as she bows her head and walks off stage to applause.
The MC closes the ceremony, saying we’re gonna drink/party for awhile and then put her in the cemetery.
<<wild sight to see!>>
Endrid suggests talking to Madame Dava, everyone agrees. She is over to the side of the party sitting on a stool, exhausted and sad.
Brace sets off to talk to Ricktavio about his Vistani-eating tiger Leaf. Ricktavio says it’s for protection against the Vistani (“They have a reputation, you know!) and that the two fellows with him are Blinksy and his monkey. Ricktavio doesn’t think those two are the type to take to a Vistani funeral, so he had the wait with the wagon.
Endrid goes up to Madame Dava, she’s weeping and exhausted.
Endrid: Quite a lovely display, Madame Eva was very important to us.
Dava doesn’t respond.
Endrid looks for a non-alcoholic beverage to hand Dava, no dice. Endrid shrugs and offers Dava her shot glass and the Vistani attending to Madame Dava get mad at Endrid. They tell Endrid to not give her the drink and to leave Madame Dava alone.
While this is going on, Brace and Ricktavio chat a bit more, Ricktavio tells Brace that Madame Eva died in her sleep peacefully. Brace goes back to the group.
Endrid starts talking to a random Vistanti. Vistaniman tells Endrid that Dava is just as old as Eva, not much else.
Bingdor goes over to Dava at Endrid’s suggestion to show her some of our artifacts.
One of Dava’s caretakers says, thanks for being here.
Bingdor shows the amulet to Dava- “your sister was very helpful on our journey, we’re gonna miss her.”
The caretaker tries to shuffle Bingdor away, and he uses his mind-message to ask Dava what’s in that cave?
She responds in mind message saying that the cave is real and forbidden.
Bingdor says out loud, thanks Madame Dava, i’ll be contacting you the same way if we need any help.
Bingdor comes back to the group and the party agrees we need to go in the cave, but after the whole funeral is over.
<<time passes>>
Rhada turns down a shot from a Vistani, everyone else takes one. Endrid takes three.
We decide to wait out the party before going in the cave. One Vistani sees Bingdor’s dulcimer and gets him to play. Bingdor plays a great tune and Brace notices Ricktavio is very upset that he’s jamming so well.
<<time passes>>
The party keeps going on and on. two hours. Ireena and Endrid have been keeping up with the Vistani, they’re both pretty drunk.
<time passes>>
Three hours. Same happenings.
Some Vistani take the casket off the stage and put it on a wagon. Rhada goes up and kisses it 4 times.
A Vistani tells Brace that the burial happens tomorrow, she’s going to be prepared/held until the burial.
<<time passes>>
Another hour goes by, some of the Vistani are beginning to pass out.
Ireena tries to go off to the woods with a Vistani for some… conversation? Endrid stops it. As Endrid pulls Ireena away from him, the Vistani falls down- passed out drunk.
Finally, there are only a few Vistani left standing so Bingdor plays a tune to distract them as the rest of the party runs behind the waterfall. He plays the current smash-hit “The Cat That Ate The Feather” and all the Vistani left standing crowd around to sing it with him. <<inspiration point sick roll>>
The rest of the party gets to the edge of the waterfall, <<inspiration point sick roll>> Brace majestically floats/flies behind the waterfall.
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