The heroes survived a legendary encounter, and now with a growing sense of purpose they find themselves delving deeper, or higher, into the cathedral in pursuit of the answers they need to defeat Strahd…

The heroes, growing very weary both mentally and physically, searched the bodies on the scene in this cathedral and find nothing on the fallen creatures. The group looks around the decrepit castle and doesn’t see anything distinct. They step past the undead knights on the floor and approach the alter. Look up through the broken top of the building they see a beacon tower; they believe this where they need to go. On each side of the altar there is a spiral staircase, ascending up toward the second level of the church toward the tower. They approach the door and Lythander inspects seeing no traps and discerning the door is open, the heroes enter. There is a balcony and two doors, Lythander checks both doors again and one appears to be compromised so they use the other, which is covered by a curtain. They walk through the curtain and see a marble pedestal with a black cloth covering the top of it. Shamesh walks up to the cloth with no fear and pulls it off… it’s… it’s… it’s Bent’s head!!! … or at least identical to it. Andromeda, seemingly unphased, walks up to it and does what appears to be a medical inspection on the head, and it is in fact a real head, no longer alive or producing blood. She then walks up to Bent and touches his head indicating she is looking for similarities; indeed it does not appear to be an illusion. While this is going on, Hugo walks up to the other curtain in the room and there is nothing behind it; after he walks away from the curtain it closed behind him on it’s own with nobody noticing.

They walk further into the tower and up another set of stairs; Lythander slips ahead and, in an attempt to try to be sneaky, accidentally hits a loose board which makes a loud creak followed by a swarm of giant spiders emerging from all around the room the rogue just entered. Bent, having been unshaken by the recent experience of seeing his own head on a pedestal, steps forward throws a fireball over his companions into the room dense with spiders and turns them into a smoldering fury, leaving only a couple still moving. Shamash rushes past Lythander to take the first attack and dismisses it with little affect. Lythander drops an arrow into one of the overgrown arachnid, a deadly shot indeed, killing it where it stood leaving only a single over sized insect remaining. As the last spider leapt in desperation at her friends, Andromeda slung a fiery cantrip at the giant creature and it exploded into a ball of flame hitting the floor dead and smoldering. Seeing the room was clear the heroes headed across the floor to see what else they can find. They make their way to the other side of the same floor and find another tattered room and look out the windows to see the familiar fog overhanging the surrounding property, they know Strahd, or at least his influence, is here. 

As they cross to the far side of the room they head toward the next area of the tower to try and find what other secrets this cathedral has to offer, the party moves to turn a corner and as they do, a magical wall appears amidst the room and separates the party at least momentarily. Hugo, quick to react, separates the stone wall with his own incantation, and the wall is pulled apart to make room for himself, Andromeda, and Shamesh to move through uniting the team again. They turn the corner to the last room, and after they enter three phantoms appear, and they clearly are moving in a quick aggressive manner towards our heroes. Imbued with a magical bow, thanks to Shamesh, Lythander lights up the first shadowy figure, followed by Shamesh himself who lays a magical weapon into the nearest phantom. Bent then conjures a fire bolt and fells another, while Andromeda conjures a friendly companion, a large white polar bear, sending it off to aid her allies while she grunts some healing noises toward her dragonkin friend. Meanwhile Hugo, Lythander, Melrick, and Bent focus fire down the final phantom, and in a wisp of smoke it disappears. With no more foes in the room, they move farther into the tower and encounter another four shadowy phantoms. Melrick tears into the nearest set of shadowy figures, and does damage, though not magical enough to banish it. Shamesh whispers a prayer to his weapon, now imbued with holy magical energy his sword prepares to smite while Andromeda gives Guidance to her conjured bear. Nearby Hugo lights the nearest foe with a Sacred Flame; unable to avoid the incoming burn from the cleric, the phantom is consumed and dismissed. Another fire bolt from Bent, and magical blows from Shamesh to the nearest enemy and the room is cleared for the fey polar bear to charge into action, landing bite and claw attacks at all the nearby enemies. Andromeda heals her dragonkin friend, again, and this time the dwarf too, while the conjured polar bear continues to tear at the abominations. Melrick follows with another blow, dropping another phantom, the magical bow rings true from Lythander and drops a third shadowy figure, and finally Shamesh charges and lands a final aggressive swing on the final evil shadow. The party looks at each other after having cleared yet another room in this haunted tower when Lythander proclaims, “let’s go find that dragon”.

Confidence is growing among our heroes and they have all but called out the shadow dragon looming over the fallen castle; do they know what they have done? Find out next week…